Beware of '38 Top Gun on Ebay
 

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.....

I bid on and won a 1987 Top Gun on Ebay, location listed as Fort Lauderdale. Has the neon cover. Quickly send an email to the seller asking for a copy of the title so that I can send info to bank of which I was pre-approved. A day later I get a call from a Canadian number. Seller says he is in Canada with the boat. Just wire money. 3 days later I get the info and name on title for boat and trailer are completely different than the seller. He says it is his girlfriend and that isn't a problem. Hurry up and wire money.

I said I would come up to Canada with certified check and look at the boat and finalize everything. "I don't want a certified check...wire a deposit or I will sell to someone else".

I offered to come with $3000 cash deposit and the remaining on certified check. He said "ok". Calls me an hour later sounding very paranoid... "Was that you that drove into the lot? I saw NY plates!!" WTF!!??

He dragged his feet on any info I needed. Just wanted a wire transfer. Was real quick on sending bank info though. I caught him in several lies. Turns out the person on the title is a fairly well known athlete. I found her number but haven't called her.

Further investigation (thanks Google) revealed that he had an exotic car business which is now defunct. Probably because he is rude and irrational.

Anyway, I have no idea if a complete scam or someone trying to scramble for cash. He wound up telling me to go screw and re-listed it. I have to fight a Unpaid item mark on my Ebay account but better than dealing with this crap.
I just didn't want anyone here getting scammed and your more than welcome to PM me for more info.

Good heads up! Very strange that he has it relisted now but still shows FL as the location even if he has it in a lot up in Canada. I'd dispute with Ebay just on the fact that the location of the boat is over a thousand miles away from where it's listed as being located.

the white one with orange covers?

Yes! It's too bad. Lots of work done on that. Did you see the engines? Anyway... the search continues.

i know all about that boat. i took a long hard look at it before i bought mine. talked to the owner a few times.

I'm supposed to call him tonight to know more and if I can go see it in person. I'm in the same area code phone he gave me, i might be close, but area code can be large...

so what area is the boat in?

I found! thanks internet! grenville quebec canada... 45 minutes from where I am right now...

When I talked to him the boat was in Leamington Ontario. The owner name is Duffy.

where are you from?

You think this is a scam, or a frustrated seller? Trying to obtain financing on a 30 year old performance boat at summer dwindles away would upset most of us. An auction is an auction, if you need to see it, you see it before the auction ends. If you need financing you get that in order befor the auction ends. What if he left off eBay for 2 weeks and you couldn't get the loan? Now he is into mid August, which can mean thousands of dollars from July.

where in canada, im in toronto and can check it out

Sorry just saw this now, Leamington is close to X2CY the guy with the recently purchased active thunder with triples

see post 8 guys!

Been watching this boat for 2 years. Was for sale out of Leamington (Duffy). Looks like new seller

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-powerboat-mot...ationFlag=true

duffy must have finally sold it. the new guy must be trying to flip it. i could have bought that boat for about 10k less a year ago

The guy said he was pre-approved on the boat. No bank is going to give you a check until they see a copy of the title (they need to verify its a legit sale and also want to verify there are no other liens).... If a seller who listed a boat in FL, then after the sale says the boats in Canada, then demands a wire transfer as the only form of payment, I am running as fast as I can, the other direction......

DITTO! Deals that are legit are not presented with crazy out of the normal requests from the seller, maybe the buyer but not the seller.
Run Forest Run!

I am from New Jersey. Right by Staten Island.

Sure, if that's the complete and true story. We only know one side correct?

Seller had clean feedback, and his location shows as canada. However, maybe he had a winter home on Florida? (Very common) and left Florida from the last location he sold? And I am sure he is frustrated as a seller, when you list a sub 50k performance boat on eBay you can develop a predjuduce after just a few short days.

I am just playing devils advocate, because we do not know other side. I sent the seller a link to the thread to come on here and explain.

Ad says freshwater only boat. Ebay listing says its in Ft Lauderdale???

I understand there are two sides to every story however there is no arguing the facts. I am not going to wire money to anyone I don't know for a product I have never seen. Regardless if it is an auction, the product has to be represented accurately. Location was different and in another country. Title was not in his name. I didn't bid on the boat to go see if I liked it. I was going to buy it regardless based on a paragraph and some pictures. So naturally I want to be sure there is actually a boat. And financing was set. Done! I wasn't waiting for financing. I was pre-approved. Certified check the next day. What I was waiting for was information from him which didn't come easy. I caught him in several lies.

Are you suggesting that I should wire money to some account in Canada and hope for the best? And lets say everything does go well. I am still left with the problem of title and registration. Maybe you can drop $50,000 at the drop of a hat but I'm a Medic and work hard for my money and I see no problem with doing things correctly. How hard would it have been to title it correctly and even if he has a winter home in Florida.... listing the correct location would take like... 2 minutes? He re-listed it and still has Fort Lauderdale listed as location. Which by the way violates Ebay policy.

Is that how you would do business? If so I have a bridge in Brooklyn I am looking to sell. I need a wire transfer and just ignore those pesky city officials that claim ownership cause I am legit....

That argument doesn't hold an ounce of water here. If you want to play devils advocate, lets pretend you live in or near Fort Lauderdale and win this auction, are you still going to stand by your words when you are paying through the nose to have the boat brought back into
America? IMO the seller is a piece of chit and is trying to pull a fast one on unsuspecting buyers. I would say be glad this didn't go any further than it did to the original poster, sounds like the seller isn't worth dealing with.

eBay should cancel that auction you "won" because item was not represented as stated. It clearly is located in another country, the listing says "item location....", not "where seller decides" is convenient. There is no explanation of pickup out of the country, easy slam dunk for eBay to delete.

does anyone know the current sellers name?

Local99 if you have the funds available to buy a 50k boat wouldnt you have the 500 bucks to go fly and take a look at the boat? you can win a auction with your cell phone these days. OR put a couple hundred dollar deposit on the boat when the auction ended then go look at it worst case your out a couple hundo. alot of guys spend alot of money just going to look at boats and end up walking away. thats part of boat buying you have to deal with. been there done that.

and with a rockin 4 post count you may wanna take it easy with the blasting of other members. we all work hard for our money. im a auto mechanic... 4bus sells snake oil... we arent any different than you my friend. may wanna put your guns back in your holsters

Again, we only know what you tell us, how do we know it's the truth is all I am saying. I was trying to paint a picture for the other side, no need to he your panties in a bunch.

Maybe he is a scammer, he has been sent the link. If he doesn't show up there is a very good chance he is scam. But, this would not be the first time that there are two different stories.

I don't know you, you are new here, so why ships I take your word over his? You have not posted proof, just your side.....that's all I am saying. You may be right, you may be feeding us a line of bs.....wouldn't be the first time.

I never said I would pay anything, just painted a picture of how this could be a misunderstanding. Have you tried to sell a boat in today's market? Not easy and very frustrating. So far the signs do not look like the usual scam. But you sided with with buyer already I see. You must know him, and know all the details of the transaction right?

I see a real seller, with a legit address, good feed back, a phone number, and even a complaint in the ad about the last buyer. I would like to hear both sides is all. Otherwise this one sided argument holds no weight. Sorry

Oh, and FYI I wired double that sell price to Florida for the purchase of my boat. Canada is not Nigeria, they will prosecute for the US

I don't know the buyer from Adam. Selling high dollar items such as this boat is pretty straight forward, especially when it comes to the geographic location of the item for sale. The seller shot his opportunity to defend himself when he listed an item for sale in Florida when the item is actually located in another country, that's just shady business. Regarding myself selling a boat, I sold mine in 11 days for full asking price, money was wired to me from buyer and the boat is sitting where I told the buyer to pick it up, it's not that hard to represent something accurately. I wasn't trying to argue with you, but reading the ad and him throwing a stone at the previous buyer is not justified when he's the one making what should be an easy transaction complicated.

Why did you pass on that one ?? Any major issues ?

there were no issues. i had my heart set on a speedmaster boat and i couldnt find one within my budget so i was just about to pull the trigger on it then i found mine i have now and made a deal. i didnt want a bravo boat. but the boat was priced right. had mild 575hp motors. the only thing i didnt like about the boat was no full cabin. the wife would have killed me if i brought that home with no full cabin lol

And I agree, however now this eBay boat is listed as a "scam" and I am not sure it is. Sounds to me more like lack of communication, and the seller may be an azz hole...which would make him the first cig owner that was an azz hole right?

I explained the location thing in an earlier post, that could have been an oversight. Again I wouldn't be surprised if it was a scam, yet I also wouldn't be surprised if it was just a frustrated seller. Read his notes on the new ad, sounds more like frustration, a scammer wouldn't post that

Agreed, sounds like the seller is a d!ck. lol at the stereotype of cigarette owners.

HEY RON the cig vs fountain thread is in general discussion

I understand the wifey cabin thing lol. my girlfriend has been bugging me to get an express cruiser but there's no way unless its like my 3rd or 4th boat

I agree with the lack of communication. From reading the post and spelling it seems like the owner is a french quebecois. In general their french is no good and their english is reallyreallyreally bad he may have a florida number and figures its easier for americans to call him. on the canadian ads he lists his shop number and cell phone. The location he's in straddles the quebec/ontario border and the numbers are legit for that area. If it wasnt for the cabin issue I'd go pick it up this afternoon just for the sake of saying I own a cig. Unless of course that would make me a cig azz hole lol

I am not blasting anyone. I came on here to give a heads up. I never said the guy was a scammer (4bus used that term). Your boy started the argument. I merely stated what I experienced so that someone else knows what they are getting into. Also, as I reiterated before. I tried to work the deal out. The seller ran when I started asking questions. And even when it looked weird I offered to come up, give him cash deposit and make sure the boat was legit.

So sorry, I didn't know I needed to have a certain number of posts to make a valid argument or protect fellow enthusiasts.

I never said it was a scam. You did... twice...You came out of the gate attacking me when I was just trying to do the right thing. What proof do you want? I said at the end to PM me. I have a copy of the registration he sent. What would I have lied about? I gave the best interpretation of my side. I know you don't know me. Ask me anything. I have nothing to hide. Anyone needing to know more could easily contact me. As I said before, I was just trying to look out for everyone's best interest. Sorry I bothered now.

This is your first post, note the last paragraph and you will see where I got the idea you were calling him a scammer, is it that hard to see?

Again, I am not trying to come down on you, just trying to give an unbiased review of a one sided story. 90 percent of the people considering that boat will end up here, should the guy be assumed to be a scam artist because you couldn't make a deal?

And again, maybe you are right. But If I was selling a boat and couldn't put a deal together I would freak if a disgruntled buyer posted something like this. Everything you state can be taken the other way, or is an assumption.

Thanks for looking out, and I hope the seller responds with some kind of rational explanation, or is discovered to be a true scammer. Either way everyone is happy :)

Wow... it took 30+ posts to get Fountain into a Cig thread??? I'm a little disappointed in you guys...

carry on...