Toyota Celica Supra Forum banner

How to handle liars and cheats?

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  SupraFiend 
#1 ·
So I've been in the market for another mk2, so far I've run into a lot of kids that are asking WAY too much money for a sketchy mk2.

Had one swear to me his car was all original and original paint (it was an 83 with 84+ taillights, and the "banner" supra badge)


Others are asking near 10k for cars that have rust in typical spots, cracked dashboards, damaged leather extensive wear etc.


I guess I'm really just looking for advice on finding a period correct clean body.
 
#2 ·
Patience is it. The older I get, the crankier i get towards people full of shit though, that's for sure.

I also think that these things are on the upswing in price, so you may end up spending more than expected, unless you are super patient and/or get lucky.

Facbook marketplace seems to be the best bet for buying/selling things locally right now, and it's a shit show. Craigslist is about dead, but when it was the leader a few years back you could at least search for things and set email alerts that worked well. On FB marketplace you just have to search a few times a week for terms you are interested in and hope something pops up while you scroll through lots of shit that isn't even close to what you searched for. God help you if you have to sell something on there. You'll get IM's all day with the default autofilled response "Is this available?".... which tells me when shopping as a buyer to get a leg up on the competition you simply need to be polite and to the point and you'll get their attention. It's refreshing when someone pings me with an actual conversation and treats me like a human, even though I have a fake account on their under my dog's name :p
 
#3 ·
Unfortunately, you are just running into human nature and its not necessarily dishonesty, rather the seller is even lying to himself in most cases. The seller subconsciously knows he's got a piece of crap, but he's suppressed that information and doesn't even realize it. Economist Richard Thaler recently wrote about how people will always value an object that they already own, much more greatly than they would themselves be willing to pay to acquire it and why that is. If you've already got a car that has a bunch of problems, the last thing you want to do is admit to yourself that you've got a piece of crap, that either you made a mistake when you bought it, you've damaged it or you've not taken good care of it or whatever. But if you're about to turn over your hard earned money to buy a car, no matter how much you think you know, maybe you're an expert on the car and have inspected it as thoroughly as you can without taking it apart, there is always some uncertainty. Thus as a buyer you are highly motivated to pay as little as possible so that you don't have to suffer that mental anguish later when you discover it had more problems than you realized or even that maybe you won't even enjoy it as much as you thought you would.

That's why the online auction is fast becoming the go-to way to sell a car. It forces the buyers to make snap decisions while competing with other buyers, most of the time without even inspecting the car. And the sellers don't have to face up to the anguish of buyers coming to inspect their car and criticizing their asking price. All a seller needs is a few people drinking and bidding and then they've created the next "liar or cheat" as you called them, when that buyer realizes what he's done and tries to dump it.

Luckily, those teenagers finished off most of the marginal mk2s by about ten years ago but still, but there's still a handful of good ones out there. To get a nice original Supra, you just have to be patient, willing to travel and flexible enough to be able to drop whatever you are doing to go across country and inspect a car within six days when one with reasonable potential pops up on one of those online auction sites.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ddd228
#4 ·
Caged, I echo Phils' and Gambles' sentiments...Patience is the key, look at all FB, Craiglist, local papers...and NETWORK go by a fire station, library, local mechanics, drive your streets in your community and get the word out that you looking to buy a MK2...
 
#5 ·
Recently, I saw a blue MK II in a used car lot, driving by @ 40 MPH.. I need to go LOOK at it. It's 8 blocks from my house! North Seattle on highway 99.
I been busy. All that I saw was custom wheels.
Looks like a beater, but you really never know.

I found mine in the classified section of the Seattle Times. It costs money to place an ad there.
 
#6 ·
When you actually go to see a car, bring a disinterested buddy with you. They can point out flaws in a car that you may be to blind to see, in your enthusiasm.
NEVER see a potential car in the dark.
Liars cannot be reported if no one tells! Report and complain! NOT AS ADVERTISED! There is a black eye for you.
Let the buyer beware.
Bring a fellow MK II owner along, if you can. $100 is a worthwhile payment if there are too many problems with a car.
Don't be afraid to walk away. There will always be room to bargain with the owner on price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AJ
#7 ·
One of the best signs of a fraud is there reluctance and avoidance in answering questions. Ask good questions and if ignorance is their reply than the best you can do is verify in person. As Dave recommended bringing a friend along tends to be very effective for many reasons. The most important factor IMO is being honest with your own observations and do not let the dream skew your judgement.

Good luck
 
#8 ·
It's much easier to understand when you realize most people are morons... Most of the best cars are going to places like BAT since that is where the money is at these days. Your only chance is to be patient and wait for one to pop up where they don't know about BAT. You've got to wait for an adult selling one as well. I'm kind of sad everything is moving over to FB these days since I want nothing to do with it.
 
#9 ·
I'm kind of sad everything is moving over to FB these days since I want nothing to do with it.
Me too. And I don't like the online auctions either. I miss the days that you stood in front of the car and negotiated a price. I'm not a gambler. I can't bid $15K to $30K on a classic car halfway across the country sight-unseen and hope that I didn't just lose big. And I can never drop what I'm doing and travel across country to inspect a car before the seven days are up either. And with potentially a cabin full of Coronavirus germs, I'm not sure I'd want to hop a plane right now.

Somehow tho I think patience will reward you in more than the traditional way. I kind of think the shit hasn't hit the fan yet as far as the recession. Auction prices are still pretending the economy is just fine. Right now the stock market is riding on stimulus money and tech stocks plus the unemployed are making more than when they were working due to the extra unemployment benefits. Govt has got to shut off the tap sooner or later and then the for sale signs will go up. I'm no economist and I could be wrong, but I saw it starting about a year after the last recession began, this thing is likely to shake loose a few nice cars in the next year or two as collections are liquidated to keep businesses afloat and pay credit card bills. Don't be in too much of a hurry. You can't take it to a car show right now anyway.
 
#10 ·
FB is a shit show all right. In my attempts to buy used car parts on FB, I am at best able to get the seller to accept my money and ship me the part maybe 40% of the time. On forums, if the part was available at the time of posting/pming and obviously not a scam, it was a done deal almost every time. I was theorizing the other day about why that is. It shouldn't be this way, signing up for a Facebook account is way harder then a forum account, and there is way more accountability with a FB account, real name, city you live in, tons of personal info etc. But nope, the idiot quotient is thru the roof and our unwritten common curtsies we have here are completely foreign to them. My current theory is, the minimal technical ability it takes for a person to know how to open a web browser, run a google search to find a community they are interested in joining, and then signing up for that forum, is enough to weed out about 50% of the idiots. I think this applies to craigslist equally. Its an ongoing thesis, feel free to post counter evidence and alternative theories lol.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top