Buying a used car (part 2): Ebay redeemed

Hooray for ebay! I've been tootling around in my new car now for a few days. And so far, so good.

Courtesy of Joel of auto_traders2006, I received it a week after I paid for it. I paid on the Thursday, it was sent to the Sydney depot on Monday and arrived in Brisbane the following Thursday. The service was second to none and Joel kept me informed all the way. The car is all good, looks nice, drives well and with only a couple of little quirks in keeping with a ten year old car. All the bits are in the right places and, although it lacks a few horses going up hills, it's fine for pottering about. Trying very hard not to compare it to my Lupo Gti which often makes a surprising 'grrrr' noise for such a small car and gets me to my destination yesterday.

While I hesitate to recommend that people buy a car on ebay without having looked at it, here's a checklist to ease those worries:

a) Do your research. Spend time looking at how much similar models are selling for and in which state. Prices will vary in different states.

b) Read the seller's feedback. Don't be put off, but be cautious of sellers with little feedback. If they are a business that uses ebay, they will want to maintain their reputation.

c) Check the car's history online using the VIN.

d) Ask lots of questions, eg. about the tyres, paintwork, etc.

e) Use a bid robot to see off the competition!

f) Remember to factor in any transport costs if you're buying interstate.

On a different ebay note, I recently discovered that the cow who wouldn't sell me her table because I won it too cheaply is trading again under a different name. lady*beetle84 is now cunningly disguised as beetle*84. Elementary Watson. Duh.

However, my ebay faith was renewed yesterday when, to help us host Christmas day for eight people, I picked up garden furniture from the lovely maxihull06 ebayer in Caloundra. He couldn't have been more helpful. So there.

Screw beetle lady. Ebay rocks!

Update (7.1.08): Diver Dave has named this car after Jim Morrison - because all the doors are f****d.

Buying a used car: Part 1

Well, without wanting to be disloyal to my little VW Lupo GTi in the UK (which I totally love and goes like stink) , I have had to buy a used car in oz. I've spent weeks on all the different websites trying to choose and it seems to me that there is a big price variation between the different states. On the whole I found the prices to be more than in the UK, esp when you compare them to the UK price guides, dollar for pound. Queensland (where I live ) prices seemed to be the most expensive but then, because the roads don't get salted, the cars don't really suffer from rust.

I was looking to buy a Ford KA (which they stopped producing here in 2003..?) but prices for these were a bit inflated. So in the end I've bought this ten yr old VW Polo for $4000 from the Sydney area through ebay!!! It's about to be transported up to Brisbane this very moment. Is probably NOT a recommended way of buying a car, and I begrudge paying this amount for such an old vehicle, but believe me it was the best value I could find after all my research. I'll be back here to describe what it's like when I finally see it!!!

I'm sorry Lupo.....mummy'll be back for you very soon... :-(

Setting up home: Ebay Australia!

If you arrive in oz empty handed and homeless like me you'll want to set up home asap with minimum amount of expense, especially if you aren't sure whether or not you'll be staying. Enter ebay - ta da!

I am a self confessed ebay addict. Like the UK one it's possible to find some really good deals on second hand and new stuff. Plus if you were a member in the UK you can transfer it and all your feedback over to oz, although you may still find that your 'my ebay' section still sends you messages from the UK site which can get confusing. Whilst you can still use your Paypal account anywhere in the world, it may be better to set up an Australia one linked to an Australian bank account so that you don't have to pay commission on the currency exchange. In this case Paypal advises that you shut down your original Paypal account before you open a new one.

The good thing about ebay Australia is that you can get some billy bargains (especially if you use a bid robot to bid at the last minute!) which is useful in a land where furniture and appliances can be ridiculously expensive, unless you're lucky enough to live near Ikea and/or like Chinese branded washing machines. People are usually pretty friendly and polite, and are often fairly new to the game since ebay is a more recent phenomenon in Australia than in the UK and bid robots are not widely used - yet.

The drawback can be that ebay newbies often want to sell their goods for as close as possible to their original purchase price, even if it's a 30 year old wood effect melamine set of 'draws'. If it's in star quality condition some sellers may want their money's worth. I recently had a bad experience with an ebay newbie who tried to tell me that the $1000 dining table I'd won for $50 had been 'sawn through' whilst being used a workbench, even though it was advertised as being dismantled. It seems she hadn't heard of reserve prices and was highly disappointed with the price it sold for. So steer clear of an ebayer called lady*beetle84 -she's a big fat liar who I reported to ebay for seller non performance!

Also, the geography of Australia means that unless you want to travel for a week across country and back again to pick up that essential crystal chandelier, you will either have to restrict your search to a more manageable geographical radius or arrange for your goods to be couriered at great expense. Obviously, the closer you live to a highly populated area, the more choice you'll have.

One of the first things I bought on ebay Australia was a desk chair that I eventually had no need for. When I sold it on ebay I got back almost exactly what I paid for it. So if I ever need to get rid of my entire household contents in a hurry, I reckon I can get my money back by flogging it all on ebay where I bought it in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYokLWfqbaU

Banking in Australia

Oh god, banking in Australia.

Right, so in the UK we pretty much all have VISA debit thingies on our bank cards and when we go shopping these days all you do is give the card to the cashier and type in your PIN number, yes? Now, if you try to use your debit card in Australia you will have to treat it as a credit card and put your autograph on a slip of paper the old fashioned way.

There is a sort of chip and pin style of system available in Australia known as EFTPOS which is common to all Australian bank cards. This is OK although it doesn't have your account number and sort code details on it for security reasons which means you will have to hunt around for it should the need arise. But the biggest drawback is if you are trying to buy something or guarantee a booking over the phone or internet, say for a hotel room, plane ticket or something you bought on Ebay!! In this case your EFTPOS is useless -a bit like those Electron things you used to get on Barclays Bank cards. So you need a VISA or Mastercard to be able to buy/book these things.

When Diver Dave and I opened a joint account for household stuff, we discovered that you can get a VISA debit card if you ask nicely but they don't like combining it with your ordinary EFTPOS card like you would get in the UK. You pretty much have to go down on your knees for one of those but it is possible, so the nice Westpac lady said.

Another unwelcome surprise is the fact that not only do the banks profit from the interest on 'looking after' your money, but they do not give you any interest on a cheque (current) account AND they charge you a monthly amount for the privilege. Presumably, they spend all their profit on ATMs (cash machines) since on any given stretch of street in a highly populated area there can be a line of them representing all the high street banks. This is because none of the banks have reciprocal arrangements with their competitors and as such you will be charged a fee if you use the wrong ATM.

The best thing I did before I left Blighty was to open a bank account with a well known UK high street bank, ending in '..wide' (!) which does not charge commission on overseas transactions such as VISA and ATM withdrawals. This has served me very well in Australia when my EFTPOS is no good, although I have yet to find out what their rate of exchange is!