Buying Advice Buying a tractor site unseen over the internet?

[RaydaKub]

I bought my BX2230 off eBay. I was watching a variety of auctions. This one was the nearest at 250 miles away. Dealer prices on the BX1500 were north of $9k. This one was at $7k. With 3 minutes left in the auction I sent my wife a message "It's still there." She replied "Bid." I put in $7400 with 15 seconds left and snagged it for $7100.
591 hours. There's no hood ornament and a dent there. The right front gauge wheel on the mower hit something dang hard. I tried to use a hydraulic jack to bend it back out a little and maybe got 10%. It still clears the blades fine, but the wheel needs to be 1 hole less than the other 3; no biggie. And the mower height control was broken off the frame so that putting the mower down, it dropped to the ground. I tore it apart and had my neighbor weld it back on. The bucket shows paint worn off, but functions perfectly.

During my watch, I had gone to the dealer's website and seen it listed there also. The eBay contact information matched the website information.

After I won, I couldn't type for several hours my hands were shaking so much.
My cousin lives in that town and told me afterwards that "If you buy from them, you won't have any problems." and he was right. Then he went down with his ATV trailer and loaded it up for me. As such, he became my shipper. Since it was being shipped out of state, I saved the sales tax. And I hooked up his trailer as I was passing through town after delivering my son to college. I brought it home and 3 weeks later a friend was moving that direction and returned the trailer for me with no extra miles involved at all.

I am in the 100% club for satisfaction in buying sight unseen, but there certainly can be bad deals out there and there is risk involved. In general, I think eBay might be safer than Craigslist, but ymmv.

 

[Teachu2]

I have bought a skid steer, two tracked crawlers, and a tractor all site unseen and all used. I did look at a ton of pictures and video but pulled the trigger without seeing them. All three are still going strong and no major issues. Maybe I got lucky.

What about the 4th one?

 

[BigBlue1]

A qualified mechanic won't catch everything either. CONSIDER a member has a tractor with a ground up[ washer in the tranny. Nobody would ever catch that unless you would give a guy a free $300 oil change.

Of course not. Totally agree. Like I said, all you can do is increase your odds, not get perfection. But the more familiar you are with something the better you can judge and the better your odds.

Rob

 

[ID Corgi Ranch]

Just one comment, DONT DO IT..

I may be in the minority but I think a blanket statement like that is just plain bad advice that isn't well thought out.

Many people, myself included, have had very positive experiences buying various things (including a tractor), sight unseen, online. Is there a risk? Of course. Can that risk be mitigated, minimized or even (in some cases) nearly completely removed by using good judgement, common sense and due diligence? Of course.

I've been buying various items online pretty much since the inception of online sales. I've had only a handful of bad experiences compared to hundreds (maybe thousands) of positive experiences. I'd venture to say I've had more bad experiences with various items I've bought after a hands-on inspection than I've had buying online. And that doesn't even account for the money I've saved...far in excess of the money I've lost with bad experiences.

 

[FatTire]

Obviously there is risk in purchase of any used equipment, even if you inspect in person. But we bought our L5740HSTC from a dealer in WI without travelling from CO to see it.

I took the risk because it was a low hour machine (105 hours), the dealer has a good reputation, and I was unable to find what I wanted locally. The clincher was I called them on a morning that was pretty cold at their location (17F) and asked if they wouldn't mind going out immediately and shoot me a video of a cold start. They didn't balk at that request and the guy even remarked "Oh, I see what you want, that's a good idea" and about 10 minutes later I had the video, which looked like a normal Kubota cold start w/o block heater.

When I got the machine there was a small but obvious dent on the hood that the dealer didn't mention and i hadn't picked out in the photos, and later when I went to install the radio I found a short crack in the roof. I believe the dealer probably didn't know about the roof, and didn't care about the dent in the hood, but neither did I. The machine has been perfect mechanically and was just what I wanted at a good price so I'm happy with the deal. (Dealer was Value Implement, Baldwin, WI.)

Risk isn't necessarily unacceptable if you understand the potential downside and can afford it both financially and emotionally.