Has anyone found a good dry van on E Bay? My son is looking for his first caravan. We have looked at several all described as dry and all had signs of damp from soft patches to a hole in the roof with water dripping through the roof board.
yep, got mine on eBay. Done loads of research first so know exactly what make and model I wanted. Took a damp meter and gave it a really good check to ensure everything was working BEFORE I bid.
I must have been lucky because it was the first one on eBay I was interested in.
I know that there have been some horror stories about buying on eBay, but I don't think it's any different from buying privately using any of the caravan sales website
The one we bought on Ebay had damp everywhere.Go and look at the caravan if you can and check behind seats, under windows etc. Take a damp detector with you,it will help but it's not foolproof unless you use one of the professional ones.
We bought one from a large dealer a few years ago and that had lots of damp.We have a brand new one now and we even asked for a damp test on that before we took it home.
Got mine on eBay 18 months ago, did detailed inspection and checked all paperwork before bidding but got an A1 van with no faults at all and none reported at the two services I have had done. Just needed new tyres.
I have to say its not just E bay. I have followed several locally also . All described as dry and all wet. I have now put a wanted add on this site and other freebie places. I suspect that the ones that have been sold when I have phoned were the good ones.I missed 2 in a few days by literally minutes - demand at the starter end appears to be very high.
I have just picked my van up......bought from ebay, b-i-l looked at it for me as it was a long trek for me but only 4 miles from where he lives........really nice van considering it's age, well looked after,and we are very pleased with our purchase.
Beware tho', take your time when viewing as we had seen lots of bad, bad vans that had been described as wonderful!
We got our M/home off Ebay at a bargain,had to travel from Nottingham to poole,he accepted my offer,but I said I would not hand over the cash if it was not as he said it was,he agread and it was a snip for us,and as he had said.and I did take a D/metre with me and it showed there was none.
Post last edited on 24/08/2009 23:15:08
------------- Think this year is to follow old meet friends for 2014.
If you cant do someone a good turn,don`t do them a bad one,its nice to be nice you know,and little things mean much more later in life.
Pete.
I were ripped off with my first caravan looked good in the ad looked good when I saw it but then it'd had been thoroughly dried out under a car port so to fool me which it did!!!! as soon as it were home for a few months I noticed water was pouring in. I tried sealing it but it just seemed never ending!!!!! I did use it for a few getaways before selling it as spares or repair on ebay which I didn't to bad in selling so that were a plus & I vowed never to make that mistake again!!! I have since brought another outfit which is older & somewhat more basic but I love it & after doing a few mods to it it's fine. The best thing about it is I paid £300 for it so it were a bargain. We've just come back from our first holiday in it & it's been great. The site I brought my first unit from was adtrader so it's not just ebay that can rip you off so my advice is beware & do your homework. I learnt the hard way unfortunately the only good thing was that I had some great cheap holidays in it.
we`ve bought 4 off ebay now , one a spares or repair job that we did up and sold at a decent profit.not found anything nasty lurking below the surface on any of the good ones.like buying from anywhere you have a good poke about and go through the paperwork,if you smell a rat, you walk as theres thousands of vans out there.
Cant get my head round people who commit to spend thousands on something they have only seen a photo of then complain when they get it home thats theres problems with it.
if you want a van off ebay go look first , even if its 200 miles trip,if its good price and a good van its worth it.
we just sold our elddis on the bay last week, the guy came and collected on saturday,he took my word it was ok as he didnt offer to look first but i gave him the option of walking away if he felt it was not as described in the advert.
going back to the damp thing, if you describe your van as "having no damp" in an advert and a buyer takes it to a dealer for service the next day and they find its riddled with damp you could find yourself in bother for mis-representation.maybe best not to mention anything about damp unless you are 100% sure or have a very recent damp report in front of you
I sold my caravan on ebay last year and it was very damp!
I advertised it as damp and even said where the damp was.
I had 4 people come and view it and the bidding was furious, and I got over 4 times the reserve price!
IMHO it was only worth slightly over the reserve price, but hey what do I know, someone bought a wet van and they were very happy!
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"If I let go of what I am, I can become what I might be".
we've just bought our first ever van unseen off ebay, a 1981 elddis.
we didn't want to pay a lot for our first van, thinking we'd give it a whirl to see if caravanning's for us. we watched a fair few for a couple of weeks and this one came up pretty local. couldn't believe it when we won the auction at £186. before we collected her we were thinking of running her for a year then upgrading but on inspection she's sound as a pound, had hot water supply retro fitted, clean and tidy inside and out. she had one little leak at the front end which we've sealed but is otherwise as dry as a bone.
we took the risk of buying unseen due to the low price but i know if we [i]were[/i] going to upgrade to a newer more expensive van, we'd definately view it before bidding
i bought one off ebay 4 months ago, it was a buy it now option, but before i bought it, i phoned the bloke up and stated to him that even though he described the caravan was in perfect working order, i still insisted that i wanted to see it working ie water pump, lights, fridge,everything you could think of. so as long as you actually say this to eachother and have proof of it through the ebay emailing system, i think your pretty safe, even though mine only cost 800 pound its a lot to me .use your common sense and dont trust it until you see it yourself, good luck
We're about to put ours on eBay. Nothing wrong with it that we know, had a service in July and he would have noticed any faults (he was here 4 hours!).
It's just that eBay gives you the opportunity to advertise to thousands of people - with photos. I think you should still carry out the same checks as if you were buying through any other advertising method, especially if spending thousands.
We will welcome any inspections - that will be in the ad - as we have previously sold cars and a caravan on Ebay with no problem.
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Topic: Caravans on E Bay
