Buying a new trailer on ebay - a good idea?

Same rules as buying ANYTHING on eBay......

Buy the SELLER first, then the product. There's nothing more important than selecting a reputable seller with a 99%+ rating over MANY, MANY transactions.

Read a bunch of the reviews.

Great point, thank you mrkoje. The idea of having to drive 5+ hours to even *see* an item you may be buying is pretty daunting, and I'm sure the dealerships know that when a customer drives that far, they're probably not leaving empty handed. I'll bet there's a lot of railroading. :/

donn0128 wrote:
What was it, WC Fields I think said, "there is a sucker born every minute". The other one I like," let the buyer be ware". Do your due dilligenge, take every legal precaution to protect yourself and move foreword. Also be aware, many local dealers will not handle trailers they did not sell.

PT Barnum got the credit but it was actually said by someone else talking about Barnum.

elderberries wrote:
Hello!

I did a search for ebay to see if this has been answered, but with 176 pages of results coming up, the responses are a little overwhelming.

I'm looking to potentially buy a new toy hauler trailer, and there are several dealerships selling on ebay, and with the ability to see their buyer feedback, that almost seems too easy to be true. Does anyone have any experience with buying a new trailer on ebay? I've never bought anything major like that on ebay before, but if the last 1500 deals have all been rated 5 stars with a dealer, and they're all verified purchases, can you argue with that?

I'd love to hear any advice, thank you!

I wouldn't be to concerned - it's not that much different than working a deal out over the phone.

However, since have not physically SEEN the toy hauler make sure that when you go to pick it up that you arranged/schedule a very solid 2 hour block of time to do a walkthrough/inspection of the unit before you take delivery. I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! You might be able to do it under two hours but the point is to make it very thorough.

When I picked up my trailer - the person in charge of doing the walkthrough with me kept saying he had to goto lunch soon etc... DONT BE RUSHED when taking delivery. I ultimately missed a few things that if they were caught I would have demanded them being fixed before taking delivery.

So - if it's a local dealer or a dealer within a few hundred miles then it isn't so much of an issue to take the trailer back though it is an inconvenience. When I bought mine there were no local dealers that had (or were getting any time soon) the Desert Fox line so I had to go all the way to Spokane which is about 7 hours away for me. This is a major inconvenience to get it back to the dealer. (I knew this before not buying locally - but my local shops didn't carry that line)

So anyways - I don't think you have much to worry about the actual "purchase" or commitment to purchase over ebay. Just take the time on the delivery inspection. Refuse delivery if there are obvious deficiencies/defects.

Also - have fun!

mrkoje

I think you'd be fine so long as you can vet the dealer by another means. Like getting their brick and mortar address and doing Internet searches on them.

What was it, WC Fields I think said, "there is a sucker born every minute". The other one I like," let the buyer be ware". Do your due dilligenge, take every legal precaution to protect yourself and move foreword. Also be aware, many local dealers will not handle trailers they did not sell.