would you buy off someone who doesn't even know the make of the caravan? On ebay there is a swift advertised as a Sprite and he says he has had it for 2 years. Says its a Sprite pirouette. I think not!
When theres so many correctly described caravans from genuine sellers on ebay why are you even considering this one. Is it because you think that the seller knows so little about caravans you might get a bargain?
Its an old caravan, so to many it will be just an old caravan. If its 20yrs old all that really matters is the condition not the make, if its ok & cheap go for it.
Maybe I was just lucky but I bought an older caravan, sight-unseen (!) from Ebay. I just had a good feeling about it. They did know the type, but the description was brief. I had a chat with them on the phone and thought they were straight forward. I had it checked by an engineer and it is indeed fine.
Some questions they couldnt answer, and they just said so, which I like.
As an earlier post says, maybe he just doesnt know, or has been badly advised and hasnt the time or wisdom to check what type it really is. Yes, if you want it view it and have it checked if you feel like it too.
No I am not considering buying it!! I simply asked the question would you buy from someone who didnt know what they were selling. I wouldn't. The caravan is pictured on the drive of a house. They claim to have had it for 2 years. Sounds very dodgy .
Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 25/5/2011
Swift & Sprite are the same company btw.
But they were separate companies when Swift were making the pirouette, swift bought Sprite Leisure in December 1995.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
Having looked at the advert I would say it is a perfectly genuine advert, he has acknowledged that he has made a mistake, it has a whole raft of genuine photographs inside and out, it is on his driveway and presumably the buyer would collect from him and be admitted to the house, it is not going to go for a lot of money and as he says it is a van that someone might buy to try caravanning and that being the case as long as it does not cost any more than what someone might spend on a weeks holiday home rental what is there to lose. If you like it and it is clean and smell free it looks good to go, whatever he says damp may be a problem but as long as you are careful it is unlikely to be immediately fatal damp and you get to try out caravanning for a cheap price.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
If I was looking to buy, I would ignore any advert which has a 3 line description, written in basic english and with only external photos of the van.
If the van has a decent description and interior shots as well, then I would happily consider it. Contact the seller and ask to go round for a viewing - if they say no or make some stupid excuse, then you know to walk away.
------------- 'In later life, you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do than with the things you did.' - Mark Twain
Well I've just sold our caravan on eBay. We put on genuine holiday photographs too. We bought the van two years ago from a local caravan dealer and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. We are only selling it because we want to upgrade (and might I say will be very sad to see it go). So I guess some of us selling our caravans on eBay are honest you know!
There are quite a few sellers on Ebay selling caravans and their advert can be quite misleading sometimes. As an example, someone was recently selling a Coachman Amara 380/2 stating that the caravan was top of the range. The Amara isn't the top of the range at all, it is in fact the bottom of the range with the 'Pastiche' being the next model up, the 'VIP' being top of the range and the 'Laser' being Coachman's twin axle unit. I contacted the seller by e-mail to politely advise the models range and that his listing wasn't accurate. The seller ignored me and managed to sell the caravan for a damn good price actually. This led me to believe that some unknowledgable first time buyer probably got conned to believing that they had actually bought a top of the range caravan. I would advise anyone considering buying a caravan off Ebay to do some research first otherwise you could be paying more than what the caravan is actually worth. Another example is a seller was selling a 1977 Coachman 'Regal' in good condition and selling the item stating it was quality built from a reputable name in the caravan industry. Coachman didn't actually start manufacturing caravans till about two years after and the initial model ranges didn't include a 'Regal' model. The 3 single axle models were the 'Mirage' the 'Genius' and the 'VIP'. The seller obviously either didn't know what they were selling or deliberately just trying to con a sale. Obviously there are some of us out there who know more than what they realise but after all said and done it's buyer beware!
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Topic: caravan on ebay
