1. Thanks Warden for fixing and posting my pics. Much appreciated.

2. Regarding my experiences on ebay I have a couple of thoughts:

a. I involve a couple of people (shared wisdom) in the search.
b. I have an in depth conversation by phone with the current owner. This gives you a pretty good feel of who you are dealing with. Do they seem honest? Do they understate or overstate problems? How flexible are they with a small downpayment and is it refundable after you see the car?
c. I ask questions like; how much oil does it use between 3k intervals? How does the tranny function? How has it been maintained (brakes, valves, fluids, etc)
d. What is the history of the vehicle? How many owners, highway miles, etc?
e. Because I live in saltville and rustville, I try to get my cars from the land where rust doesn't live. So far I've purchased one from GA, CA, TX and MD
f. I try to get to the car within 5 days of the close of auction

Having said all this, I still think we need to be careful. A good friend had a pretty rotten experience in CA a year ago. We have learned some things from that deal as well. Within our club here, we have one person (Kirk on the forum) who is really insightful in the hunt. We rely on his a bunch. And after all, the hunt is half the fun!

Don

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DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed