Got mine on publicsurplus.com from Tucson in August 2017 for $2200. It was 105°F, so nobody outside Tucson wanted it! I saw one basically just like it in Oregon weeks earlier; but the guy wanted $5500, and he wouldn't let me drive it first (no insurance, no tag, buried in the back of his lot). I figured the one in Tucson could need a new tranny and I would still come out ahead, cause I bid on it sight unseen. I got one with no rust on the body or frame: why I bought one from S. Arizona (unlike the one in Oregon, which even had moss growing on the seats in it!). I also lucked out and got an excellent motor and tranny - by far better than any others I drove. It really did cost me more to drive around the country looking for the right bus than the bus itself cost. (I looked online at Craigslist, auctions, private bus dealers, etc. etc. for 6 months before I knew about what I even wanted) But the very first bus I looked at had a frame so rusty, I could crumble it between two fingers; the guy had 200 old buses on his lot, and he said I was the first one to ever even look underneath, and that a 21 year old girl and her mom just bought one the previous month. ALL his buses were rust buckets! Buyer Beware!
What would I do differently? I don't know. I hated wasting time and fuel and $$$ for hotels driving from Hotlanta to Oregon then down to Tucson trying to find the right bus.....but I don't know how I could have mitigated that. I didn't want to call the guy in Oregon from GA first, because that weakens my negotiating stance, but he wasn't coming down in price anyway, and his pics were not good enough to see the defects in the bus. He was just a drunken dude who inherited an estate and cash, and had an addiction to auctions. Keep him outta Vegas, for his own sake!
Botttom line: keep looking everywhere, get the right one for you where ever you find it.
