From: ke6myk@sbcglobal.net
Date: Fri Dec 19 2003 - 13:26:11 PST
Grant Stockly <grant@stockly.com> wrote:
> I have never purchased anything from government liquidations.com. Right
> now I'm looking over the EUC forum and its kind of confusing. Is it
> possible for an individual to fill this thing out and get the truck? Which
> box(es) did you check in section 2?
If you're planning to keep the vehicle, you can check box A and enter
"private vehicle collection", or something like that. Also check block
C. You need to follow the instructions *exactly*. The EUC will get
kicked out for any minor deviation. Grumble. The first time you submit
one, it may take a few months to get it approved! :-(
> I've noticed that an awful lot of stuff is marked H7. Is this always
> bad? Or an excuse for someone to get rid of something? Can
> "unserviceable" mean a battery and fuel is needed? :)
It has been my experience the there is very little correlation between
the condition code and the actual condition of the vehicle. Sometimes
"fair" means "residue", and sometimes "unservicable" means "ready to
drive". ALWAYS inspect before you bid, or else bid low enough that the
scrap metal value is greater than your bid price + the 10% premium +
sales tax + transport cost. Assume that anything not shown in the
pictures (like engines, tranny, etc...) is missing and/or broken, and
anything that is shown in the pictures looks much worse in real life.
My first 2.5-ton started up with the batteries that came in it after I
bled the fuel filter. Other trucks in the same lot and with the same
condition code looked like they were cannibalized and then left in a
heap in the desert for 10 years, and some of them had left tracks in
the dirt that made it clear that they were dragged into position by a
wrecker with their wheels locked up. There is really no substitute for
an in-person inspection. Been there, done that, got the piles of scrap
steel to prove it! :-/
You can sometimes get surplus trucks in great condition for next to
nothing in those auctions. You can also end up spending a lot of money
for a pile of junk. You generally cannot inspect things in as much
detail as if you're buying from a private party or a dealer. If you
don't want to take the risk of ending up with junk because of some
significant defect that you didn't detect in your inspection, then you
may be better off buying from a reputable individual or dealer, and
paying more. If you want to pay less by eliminating middle-men, then
you will take more risk. It can be fun and rewarding to be the first
civilian owner of a truck, and do whatever is necessary to fix it up.
It can also be fun and rewarding to buy a known-good truck that's
ready for work and play the day it arrives.
You'll need to decide for yourself whether to bid on a GL truck based
on how much risk you're willing to assume, how much money you have to
spend, how much time and money you're willing to spend to get the
vehicle into the condition that you want, and how much you trust your
experience and ability to estimate the condition of items based on a
fairly cursory inspection. I'm not trying to scare you away from
participating in GL auctions, but I'd hate for you to get in over your
head, too. My first military truck came from a DRMO auction (before it
was necessary to go through GL). I think I got a good deal, but I also
did a lot of reasearch (including asking lots of questions on this
list, just like you're doing now) before I decided to take the plunge.
Good luck!
-- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <ke6myk@sbcglobal.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://www.keyserver.net/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:26:58 PDT