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Old 01-05-2018, 08:00 AM   #1
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Buying bus from the north?

So, got a couple grand put aside now, and came across a bus I got my eye on right now....its a 9 window 96 blue bird diesel with 260k miles, up in Oregon. Pictures of body look fine, can't see underside though.

My question is, what should I expect as far as condition of the bus and rust from an Oregon bus? Is it gonna be so bad it's not worth the headache or something more manageable to fix up?

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Old 01-05-2018, 08:12 AM   #2
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Most of the OR buses seem real solid, but I've never been out there in person.
I know most of their buses seem well equipped and well maintained.
There may even be a forum member or two out there who could go check it out for you.
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Old 01-05-2018, 08:17 AM   #3
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Also, can you tell motor / tranny off the vin or will I need to call them and ask?
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Old 01-05-2018, 08:19 AM   #4
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Also, can you tell motor / tranny off the vin or will I need to call them and ask?
There are online vid decoders that can help. Or you can call the builder with the vin or serial number.
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Old 01-05-2018, 08:21 AM   #5
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Awesome, thanks. About to check that right now.

If anyone is around bend Oregon and feels like taking a peek at a bus, let me know


Edit: is there a certain site to use for bus vin? Each site says something different, and all say my vin has wrong characters...blue bird diesel shows on all, seen year range from 2000 to 2015 (it's a 96) and one site that said it was 2015 had 6.7L listed...iunno, maybe they put vin on there wrong 1BAHBCSA1FU071663
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Old 01-05-2018, 09:03 AM   #6
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Also, can you tell motor / tranny off the vin or will I need to call them and ask?
The VIN is your best friend

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Old 01-05-2018, 09:40 AM   #7
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The VIN is your best friend

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It didn't do me much good, says invalid characters in the vin given on auction site
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Old 01-05-2018, 10:09 AM   #8
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It didn't do me much good, says invalid characters in the vin given on auction site
Yeah...I saw that...did they post a pic of the VIN? If not they probably transcribed it wrong...worst case they made it up...

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Old 01-05-2018, 10:46 AM   #9
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Yeah...I saw that...did they post a pic of the VIN? If not they probably transcribed it wrong...worst case they made it up...

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Good call. The u is a v, and it's in wrong spot. Still saying 2 characters are wrong (position 4 and 7), but after correcting that issue I found it's a 1997 blue bird tc1000 with 5.9l diesel, came from a plant in Georgia originally
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Old 01-05-2018, 10:48 AM   #10
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Good call. The u is a v, and it's in wrong spot. Still saying 2 characters are wrong (position 4 and 7), but after correcting that issue I found it's a 1997 blue bird tc1000 with 5.9l diesel, came from a plant in Georgia originally
Awesome!

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Old 01-05-2018, 12:05 PM   #11
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So what you're saying is it's the exact same year and model as my bus? Who hoo.

I couldn't see any serious rust. The mileage is a little higher than most of us like, but still within a serviceable range.

I tend to think the ones with higher mileage ran very well which is why they were used so much. Not always though.

I'd have to cross the Cascades to get to Bend, so that's kind of out during this weather. There's deep snow at the top of the pass and I don't have chains yet.

It looks like a good bus.
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Old 01-06-2018, 01:12 PM   #12
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Did you see the auction?

Probably won't be bidding on it. I wasn't actually ready to get a bus, just saw it listed at very low price to start and it got my interest, but I don't have the logistics worked out on getting time off both jobs for retrieval, or a place to store it yet that's in my own state, so I'll be waiting until the timings better and I'm ready for the bus...plus, I'll get more time to search and maybe find one closer and with less miles
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Old 01-06-2018, 01:35 PM   #13
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I did look that up after you mentioned where it was. There's 4 days and 5 hours left at this time, and it's still only at $ 590 so far. I have a feeling the mileage is going to scare a lot of people away.

It's just a guess, but this 20 year old bus is probably a good runner if they've kept it this long. It looks about as good as a bus can get. Even the base of the lift didn't show any signs of water damage.
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Old 01-06-2018, 01:44 PM   #14
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Did you see the auction?

Probably won't be bidding on it. I wasn't actually ready to get a bus, just saw it listed at very low price to start and it got my interest, but I don't have the logistics worked out on getting time off both jobs for retrieval, or a place to store it yet that's in my own state, so I'll be waiting until the timings better and I'm ready for the bus...plus, I'll get more time to search and maybe find one closer and with less miles
Early bids are completely meaningless. They are placed by chancers, dealers and scrap merchants looking for a cheap score.

My bus was listed for three weeks. It crept up to about $1400 in that time, and stayed there.

I placed one bid of $3750 with 6 minutes of the auction remaining. It immediately jumped to a selling price of $3600, and that, plus fees, is what I paid.

The point is, you have no idea of how high to top proxy bid is until you exceed it.
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Old 01-06-2018, 01:59 PM   #15
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I have my own theory about how fair those proxy bids are.

I've bid on items early using my maximum bid, and without any opposing bidders the price will jump to about 90% of my maximum bid price. If there's no one bidding against me, since I was the only bidder at that time, the price should remain low.

Try it sometime. Bid below the auction value but higher than the reserve before other bidders enter the picture. Even without any other bids submitted the price always jumps to about 90% of the maximum proxy bid.
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Old 01-06-2018, 02:04 PM   #16
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I have my own theory about how fair those proxy bids are.

I've bid on items early using my maximum bid, and without any opposing bidders the price will jump to about 90% of my maximum bid price. If there's no one bidding against me, since I was the only bidder at that time, the price should remain low.

Try it sometime. Bid below the auction value but higher than the reserve before other bidders enter the picture. Even without any other bids submitted the price always jumps to about 90% of the maximum proxy bid.
It will always jump immediately to the reserve if you do that.

I just don't bid early at auctions. I prefer one bid, and as late as possible. I know there are other bidding theories

I'd be surprised if the House was shill-bidding though, because they only need to be caught doing that once and a world of hurt ensues.

It's always possible for a seller to shill-bid. The problem there is that they can end up having to buy their own bus, and are out the fees ... and they still haven't sold it.
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Old 01-06-2018, 02:15 PM   #17
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You've never received an option to buy as the second highest bidder? That's what I call shill-bidding and not getting stuck with the merchandise. The IT guys are the only ones that would know for sure.

I somewhat agree with your snip-bidding. There are actual programs you can set up to submit your bid 30 seconds before the auction closes. The snip programs will actually bid below your max bid limit if the current bid price is significantly lower than your max proxy bid.

I did much better at Public surplus when it was still an oral auction, but even then the auctioneer would occasionally sell a choice item to another bidder by simply not seeing me trying to bid on that item. BS. I don't believe they're any more honest now that they're online.
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Old 01-06-2018, 02:24 PM   #18
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jjhwick119

If you like that model of bus (TC1000), you can broaden your search to include the TC2000. The TC2000 is often a 40' bus powered by a 5.9, but the TC2000 is also produced in a 28' model also with the 5.9. That's just 2' longer than the TC1000, but does have wheel wells on the interior floor. The TC1000 has a completely flat floor if you value that at all.
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Old 01-06-2018, 03:06 PM   #19
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jjhwick119

If you like that model of bus (TC1000), you can broaden your search to include the TC2000. The TC2000 is often a 40' bus powered by a 5.9, but the TC2000 is also produced in a 28' model also with the 5.9. That's just 2' longer than the TC1000, but does have wheel wells on the interior floor. The TC1000 has a completely flat floor if you value that at all.
Does the tc2000 have the same roof? As a tall person, I like the appeal of a flatter roof
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Old 01-06-2018, 03:17 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin97396 View Post
You've never received an option to buy as the second highest bidder? That's what I call shill-bidding and not getting stuck with the merchandise. The IT guys are the only ones that would know for sure.

I somewhat agree with your snip-bidding. There are actual programs you can set up to submit your bid 30 seconds before the auction closes. The snip programs will actually bid below your max bid limit if the current bid price is significantly lower than your max proxy bid.
The problem is that you can't snipe an auto-extending auction. It's why they have them
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