IS THIS BUS WORTH 10k? IF NOT, WHY?

[PatrickBaptist]

I bought a bus for $9.5 and have no regrets whatsoever. It was everything I was looking for. Auctions did not appeal to me, I wanted to know what I was buying, wanted to know everything worked and I could make the drive from where I bought it all the way home, which was over 1,000 mile drive. You can't put a price on piece of mind, IMO. It can cost ya.

Yeah but what kind of bus?

 

[peteg59]

I bought a bus for $9.5 and have no regrets whatsoever. It was everything I was looking for. Auctions did not appeal to me, I wanted to know what I was buying, wanted to know everything worked and I could make the drive from where I bought it all the way home, which was over 1,000 mile drive. You can't put a price on piece of mind, IMO. It can cost ya.

While its good that you feel you got a good deal at that price, buying at auction can definitely save $$ for the savvy buyer.

Most auction vehicles can be inspected prior to sale.
If one can't get to the auction site, one could hire an inspector to pre check it before placing a bid.
Even if you spend $3K for an auction bus, $500-$1k for inspector, and $2k for trucking bus to you, you save $$ over a stealer's high priced bus.

That all goes away however if you're able to successfully negotiate the stealers price to a more reasonable one...

 

[PatrickBaptist]

While its good that you feel you got a good deal at that price, buying at auction can definitely save $$ for the savvy buyer.

Most auction vehicles can be inspected prior to sale.
If one can't get to the auction site, one could hire an inspector to pre check it before placing a bid.
Even if you spend $3K for an auction bus, $500-$1k for inspector, and $2k for trucking bus to you, you save $$ over a stealer's high priced bus.

That all goes away however if you're able to successfully negotiate the dealers price to a more reasonable one...

I love a buyer that doesn't want to negotiate myself, I make a living reselling all sorts of junk. I wouldn't trust a sellers claim of reliability, after all they are looking to make a buck or few. I trust my own judgement far more. Life is all about haggling and I work to hard for my money to pay to much for stuff, especially driving 1k to get it. Like you said have someone do a prepurchase inspection, I've done those before back when I was into hot shot trucking vehicles. That's why I asked her what kind of bus, never know it might be a bus just 10 years old or less and worth the price.
There are lots of people that don't grasp the art of negotiating, if you aren't very knowledgeable about what your buying then the ball is never in your court. I didn't negoiate by first 2 vehicle purchases well at all when I was young, just saw what I wanted and made sure to get it and told myself I didn't care about wasting money I had what I wanted. Today I work too hard for my money and have a family to provide for so I have to get the most out of my money and well if i have problems i can fix it myself, kills me how many RVers out there that can't do simple work on their own rigs. But was fine with me, it put money in my pocket when we use to live in parks.

 

[PatrickBaptist]

While its good that you feel you got a good deal at that price, buying at auction can definitely save $$ for the savvy buyer.

Most auction vehicles can be inspected prior to sale.
If one can't get to the auction site, one could hire an inspector to pre check it before placing a bid.
Even if you spend $3K for an auction bus, $500-$1k for inspector, and $2k for trucking bus to you, you save $$ over a stealer's high priced bus.

That all goes away however if you're able to successfully negotiate the dealers price to a more reasonable one...

I love a buyer that doesn't want to negotiate myself, I make a living reselling all sorts of junk. I wouldn't trust a sellers claim of reliability, after all they are looking to make a buck or few. I trust my own judgement far more. Life is all about haggling and I work to hard for my money to pay to much for stuff, especially driving 1k to get it. Like you said have someone do a prepurchase inspection, I've done those before back when I was into hot shot trucking vehicles. That's why I asked her what kind of bus, never know it might be a bus just 10 years old or less and worth the price.
There are lots of people that don't grasp the art of negotiating, if you aren't very knowledgeable about what your buying then the ball is never in your court. I didn't negoiate by first 2 vehicle purchases well at all when I was young, just saw what I wanted and made sure to get it and told myself I didn't care about wasting money I had what I wanted. Today I work too hard for my money and have a family to provide for so I have to get the most out of my money and well if i have problems i can fix it myself, kills me how many RVers out there that can't do simple work on their own rigs. But was fine with me, it put money in my pocket when we use to live in parks.
I got a good deal on mine and had no problems making the 450mile drive home with it. I got to test drive it an hour before buying so I felt good about it after running it around a good while.

 

[Mom2three]

Yeah but what kind of bus?

I just updated my bus info on my profile.

 

[Mom2three]

While its good that you feel you got a good deal at that price, buying at auction can definitely save $$ for the savvy buyer.

Most auction vehicles can be inspected prior to sale.
If one can't get to the auction site, one could hire an inspector to pre check it before placing a bid.
Even if you spend $3K for an auction bus, $500-$1k for inspector, and $2k for trucking bus to you, you save $$ over a stealer's high priced bus.

That all goes away however if you're able to successfully negotiate the stealers price to a more reasonable one...

I didn't want to leave it all up to chance in an auction (didn't want to get attached to a bus and then lose it, and so forth), didn't want the hassle of dealing with an inspection across several states without being there, myself. I have trust issues, what can I say.

I have many reasons why I didn't find going the route of buying from an auction viable for myself.



I am not saying that using auctions is a bad deal for someone more savvy or looking for a deal, just that it wasn't for me.



I also wanted to buy from someone who I could call up and ask for advice, buy parts from, or take my bus to when there were issues. I can do that. It was a desert bus, hardly had any rust to deal with (more dust than rust), they removed all of the seats for me, I have a rebuilt engine in it, I have great tires, batteries, etc. There has been nothing wrong that I have found thus far and I couldn't be happier. I was well taken care of and have a good business relationship with the person I bought it from. I practically have a brand new bus for that price. That is a deal, considering how much it costs to rebuild an engine, alone.

I have no regrets. It was money well spent.

 

[Sleddgracer]

While its good that you feel you got a good deal at that price, buying at auction can definitely save $$ for the savvy buyer.

Most auction vehicles can be inspected prior to sale.
If one can't get to the auction site, one could hire an inspector to pre check it before placing a bid.
Even if you spend $3K for an auction bus, $500-$1k for inspector, and $2k for trucking bus to you, you save $$ over a stealer's high priced bus.

That all goes away however if you're able to successfully negotiate the stealers price to a more reasonable one...

I recently missed out at getting one of a group of about 16 buses at auction - they went from a low of $3500 to a high of $6500, likely averaged at $5000 - just the other day, the first 3 of them that I've seen have shown up for sale at a dealer for between $8500 and just shy of $13,000 - those buses, for the most part, didn't need so much as a washing before they were on the resale lot

 

[PatrickBaptist]

I just updated my bus info on my profile.

Atleast you got a good engine and trans. Happy camping.

 

[Mom2three]

Atleast you got a good engine and trans. Happy camping.

Thank you!

 

[Dog Rescuer]

I bought my bus from https://www.tampabusmarket.com. I paid $4500 for it - it did come with new front tires and three newer batteries - and they helped me troubleshoot some things during the build - plus I could get spare parts from them. My bus was from north Georgia - (https://www.tampabusmarket.com bought it at auction in Georgia for $2.4K - it was in good shape). It did not have anything more than surface rust on the inside floor.
I could have gotten the bus cheaper at auction - if I waited - I tried bidding on a few that went over my budget during the last hour of the auction. So I was happy that I could test drive the one from Tampa and get the support while building.

The same bus (style / size) at https://www.wesellschoolbuses.com was $11K. I could have paid more to have it painted (their prices are all listed on https://www.wesellschoolbuses.com) - but I was able to get mine converted and rolling for about the same as I would have paid for the https://www.wesellschoolbuses.com bus.

I find that buses are worth what people will pay for them. Wesellbuses are nice people - and they found a market to keep doing what they do - selling to churches, new skokie folks, or overseas. Tampabusmarket sells a lot to overseas and to farmers for transporting workers - and they sells to Tacobus, skoolies, food trucks... etc.

With buses, it's not always that you get out of it what you pay for it - you can have issues from any place you buy it - whether a used bus place, private seller, or auction.

I would buy from https://www.tampabusmarket.com, again. I likely would not buy from wesellschoolbuses. I might buy from an auction, or a private sale. But that does not mean any one is less good - again, the value is with what the buyer will pay for it. I have a friend who bought a bus from wesellbuses, converted his bus - and has traveled across the US and into Canada and Mexico with very little issue. He feels he got a great deal and that's what counts.