I approach this topic with some trepidation, but wanted to hear of the experiences of others using Ebay.
Some conclusions I have reached. It is a jungle out there and people will misrepresent vehicles, such as with fuzzy pictures that obscure problems, fail to disclose the true ownership of a vehicle, and by simply lying about the condition of a vehicle. It is interesting how many ways some folks can talk about rust, without mentioning the R-word, like "quarter panels need work". I have seen several cars that were described as rust free or "only minimal bubbling behind the wheel wells" and similar phrases, and a look at the picture of the engine compartment showed a fine haze of rust on everything.
Mileage seems to be represented suspiciously as a figure most likely a hundred thousand miles or two lower than actual, or sometimes they will use the term "exempt" when the actual mileage is probably known.
Salvage titles are another problem since different states may require an extensive inspection of the vehicle before it can be licensed in the new state.
Personally I have had reasonably good deals and one extremely bad deal. It is hard to inspect a vehicle far away, but purchasing a "pig in a poke" is risky, and I am not sure if I will buy another car from Ebay.
In any event, caution is advised.
Eric

You can of course arrange for an independent appraiser to inspect the vehicle and give you a report. This service can be arranged thru Ebay. I would however arrange for a personal inspection if the vehicle is rare and expensive. My cousin recently sold a Chevy 409 on Ebay for $40,000+ and the buyer flew to Hawaii especially to inspect the car which I thought was very wise. And this brings up the usefulness of Ebay. My cousin tried to sell the vehicle locally but there wasn't enough people in the area who could or would pay him what he wanted. Ebay gives buyers and sellers an opportunity to be exposed to hundreds of buying and selling opportunities not availible locally. I am a big fan of Ebay and though I have had a few less than perfect experiences Ebay has enabled me to buy and sell items that I couldn't have locally.

My experiences have included both buying and selling vehicles on Ebay. I agree that Ebay is an effective marketing tool in selling a car, particularly a specialty car, like El Camino.
I have tried to be honest in advertising cars, especially as to obvious problems that might cause consternation with a buyer. Even when a vehicle is sold"as is", failure to disclose obvious problems is fraud in my book, and I don't want to get caught up in that. I sold an El Camino to a guy in Canada, and all I had to do was wait for the check, mail him the title and a truck came by a week later and took the car away. The buyer was happy and got a nice rust free car. Another one went away just about as easy, except the buyer came to the door, handed me the cash, and drove off in the car as soon as I handed him a bill of sale and the title.
Bidding on cars is a more subtle art than is apparent at first. You have to look at the days, hours and minutes remaining on a sale. Since this is an auction, strange things can happen. On a seven day ad, bids placed in the first few days are a poor indication of the final selling price. When I sold, I was depressed at the low bids that trickled in, and at the very end, they shot up markedly. Placing too high of a reserve seems to discourage buyers, because they seem to want to feel that they are in the process of "winning" the car. You take a chance with a low reserve, but if the car is well displayed and has value, I believe it is a risk worth taking.
When buying, don't get your hopes up, You may think twenty minutes before the end of the auction that you have a car. In the last thirty seconds, too late to submit another bid, I have seen a really nice deal go away in a flash. Ebay allows you to place an actual bid and a maximum bid, but I would be disciplined in not offering too much, as there will always be another car coming up for auction, and sometimes you may see a little "irrational exuberance". If somebody wants to throw good money away by overbidding, I don't want to get in the way. People will lurk in the background, and avoid bidding earlier to avoid bidding the price up too high. Then in the final seconds, they strike, like a hawk out of the sky, and steal away your prize.
Anyway, it has been fun, it has cost me a few bucks, but I have learned a lot, including the fact that I still have an interest in El Camino's.
Eric

Caveat Emptor!

Mrapii raises a good point. Prior to the birth of E-Bay, the most popular way to sell a car, truck, motorcycle or boat was in the Want Ads of the local newspaper. E-bay has given sellers of an item a worldwide audience - that's great for the them because the sheer number of prospective buyers is raised considerably. It may or may not be so good for the buyers, since as you've discovered there are a lot of unscrupluous people out there who rely on the fact that you're not going to travel a considerable distance to check out the veracity of their claims. It HAS given you a much bigger pool of item's to wade through, however, and if nothing else gives you a pretty good idea of the value of an item, based upon the selling prices of other comparable items. Use this to your advantage as well as this article, Car Buyers Art by Matthew N. Harwood which I found to be helpful in purchasing any vehicle;
http://www.autorestorer.com/articles/art116.html

Ebay is like going to a swap meet every day.

Out of over 300 deals I've made on ebay, both buying and selling, I've only met one royal, PITA, dishonest, rotton, lying, SOB. He had negative feedback that I ignored, and as a result I was almost screwed out of several hundred dollars. However, in defense of ebay I've got to say that the ebay Fair Trade system works. It helped me get my merchandise and then ebay banned the seller so he couldn't screw anyone again. The rest of the transactions were smooth.

I would never buy a vehicle without speaking to the seller first to get a feel of whether they sound shady. Asking as many questions as possible is the best way to make an informed decision. If I'm going to fork over $10K for a vehicle I want to drive it and inspect it before I bid on it.

My main pet peeve about ebay are the sellers who get big bucks for NOS parts that are still available at any GM dealership at half the ebay selling price. As Scully said, caveat emptor.

You're right Estefix, strange things do happen. I've seen people caught up in the frenzy of bidding pay more for a used item than they would have for a new item, but that's good for us Sellers. You have to keep your wits about you when bidding, it's best to set a maximum you're willing to pay. For those last minute bidding you have to have a high speed internet connection (I use DSL) or you won't have a chnce to get in a last second high bid. It's a lot of fun and I always enjoy looking at My Ebay to see what's happening with my buying and selling. I wish I had thought of creating an Ebay about 10 years ago, I would be a billionaire today!

I purchased both my Elky's off e-bay both sight unseen (just pictures).
I was very pleased with both purchases. Sellers were VERY upfront and i had no problems.

One was shipped from California and the other i went to central Texas (Fort Hood) and picked it up both were California cars NO RUST!. (well very little).

I have found from talking to sellers if they only tell you the good points and nothing else BEWARE! I had one seller like this i drove to Dallas to see the car.. MANY MANY MANY bad points he did not mention. I did not buy that one.

Both the sellers i bought from told me about the bad things before i asked..