The 10 Best Places To Find An Affordable Classic Car Pt 2: eBay Motors – As a Learning and Market Research Tool

10. eBay Motors – As a Learning and Market Research Tool

eBay’s national and even international reach has had a significant impact on the collector, classic, and sports car market since its founding in the mid nineties. A huge percentage of classic and vintage car sales can be attributed to eBay Motors. Virtually every vintage and classic car dealer lists on eBay. They may sell some cars there, but it’s also an excellent venue for cheap advertising.

eBay Motors home page

I cannot count how many times I’ve looked at a single ebay listing from a collector car dealer and gone to check out their company website where they have their entire inventory listed. I might stay on their site for an hour browsing their entire inventory while they might have just had a car or two listed on ebay. It’s great exposure if you’re a seller.

In my opinion eBay Motors is a great resource to learn about current market conditions surrounding a specific classic or collector car model you might be interested in, however it might not be the best place to actually buy your next affordable classic.

First let me explain what I like about eBay and why I think it’s one of the best places to learn about cars in general, and to learn about what is really happening in the collector and classic car markets. You’ll be better equipped to make a good buying decision if you know what’s happening on ebay with the particular model you’re interested in.

There are tens of thousands of cars listed on eBay at any one time. Given these numbers, it’s a great place to search through listings of a specific model to see what sort of interesting model variants might be out there. There are models you might not come across looking through local classifieds. If you’re looking for a Volkswagen Thing for example, you’ll see plenty of orange and white ones everywhere, but chances are the best place to find an “Acapulco” Thing is on ebay. They usually show up a few times a month with the surrey cloth top with fringe and turquoise blue paint. You can do more research on that model variant if you think you’re interested in it. Is it worth paying a little extra for that Acapulco Thing from south Florida? Or is the 70s orange one 45 minutes from home a better car for you?

I learn a lot about different models, special editions, special colors, anything out of the ordinary by looking at eBay listings. There are just so many, you get to see what’s common and what’s not. Guards Red was clearly the most common color for a 1980s Porsche 944, that’s why I always keep my eyes out for a good one that’s not red, maybe I’d go with Gold or that cool Bronze color, something different.

eBay Motors MG B listings

eBay Motors can help you figure out what you might like in a particular model. It’s a great place to see what’s out there, what’s available. The many pictures that people post are great learning tools as well to really see how the cars look, inside and out. One must be careful here though, depending upon how the car has been treated or cared for you could be looking at all sorts of non original parts or a non original car so it should never be your sole information and research source.

eBay crosses all borders state and international. There are tens of thousands of cars listed on eBay Motors at any one time. There are millions of people browsing listings everyday. In the end it’s a numbers game. When a classic car is put in a venue with so many people watching, and it’s sold via eBay’s auction setting it’s safe to say that what the car sold for is the full market price, on that day, for that car.

High prices, or at least fully priced cars are my main complaint about eBay Motors as a buyer. It is very hard to get any sort of  “incredible deal” for a classic car on ebay, there are just too many people watching. As someone who wants to get a sense of the market and figure out what might constitute a “great deal” ebay is the place to go.