Does eBay Ship Cars?

1. Ship Cars Using eBay
2. What exactly is eBay?
3. Yes, eBay does ship cars, but…
4. Ordinary mail
5. Express mail
6. Courier service
7. The “but”

Ship Cars Using eBay

Businesses and trading processes have gone online on a major scale in the 21^st century. Customers can now purchase literally anything through online shopping sites like Amazon and eBay. These online shopping sites provide products like household items, clothing, electronics, hardware tools, office appliances and even cars, motorcycles, and yachts. With the vast options of goods available, you can’t help but wonder, are there any delivery services that come with the purchase of considerably large products? For example, does eBay ship cars?

Read on to find out.

What exactly is eBay?

It would be a surprise if anyone in 2017 doesn’t know of eBay. But for the sake of answering the big question, “does eBay ship cars”, let’s start with an overview of eBay. eBay is an e-commerce corporation that facilitates sales of products from a consumer to another consumer, as well as on a business to business level. The corporation started back in 1995, and has grown steadily since then to what it is today; a multinational, multibillion, online commerce corporation operational in over 30 countries. Sellers post their products and services on the website for potential consumers to view and purchase. Electronic money transfer is the norm of payment for any product or service purchased.

The corporation doesn’t just provide an ordinary commerce platform. It also provides a platform for online auctioning. Sellers, mostly consumers seeking other consumers, offer products for a negotiable price. The particular item is posted under an auction platform. Bidders then do what they do best, try to offer the best price for the product in order to purchase it.

Yes, eBay does ship cars, but…

eBay's trading portal is designed to offer shipping services for products sold. There are three shipping options available:

Ordinary mail

The product is shipped to you just like ordinary parcels. This is the most standard delivery method, which can take days to complete. However, for car shipping, ordinary mail isn’t really applicable.

Express mail

This shipping option is faster than ordinary parcel delivery. The item is shipped within the shortest time possible. Again, however, express mail isn’t applicable for car shipping.

Courier service

Now this is what answers our big Q, “does eBay ship cars”. A great percentage of the cars being sold on eBay are from businesses rather than fellow consumers. Shipping options for cars and such large items fall under a courier service. The seller provides car shipping to the buyer’s location through a courier. Courier firms specific to car shipping are literally vehicle shipping companies like A-1 Auto Transport Inc. The seller seeks services from couriers to ship the particular car to the buyer.

The “but”

While eBay provides the option of car shipping to sellers, the burden entirely falls on the e-commerce end-users. The shipping option is not an obligation set by the terms of eBay Corporation. The seller can provide courier shipping services for purchased cars or fail to do so. While shipping of small-sized items through ordinary or express mail is no big deal, shipping cars, on the other hand, is a bit trickier. This is especially so for customers in states outside where the vehicle is.

Businesses have greater capacity and resources to offer car shipping services to their eBay customers. Sellers can comfortably approach a courier service and pay for the car shipping service and then sell the car “shipping inclusive”.

The other option is for the customer to take up the burden of paying for the car shipping service. This would require the buyer to contact an auto transport company, plan the logistics, and pay for the service.

Cars sold by fellow consumers, on the other hand, might not come with the same privileges as those sold by businesses do. This is for obvious reasons; most consumer sellers are looking to make cash from selling vehicles they no longer use or need. For this reason, the cars come with a clause stating “Buyer responsible for vehicle pick-up or shipping” or something close to that. In such situations, buyers HAVE to make private arrangements on how the car will reach them.

Shipping a car is no simple task, especially if the car courier is acting as the ‘middle-man’ that delivers the car to the buyer from the seller. It is paramount that eBay courier services and individual arrangements for car shipping come from a company that is well experienced in offering car shipping services at both local and international levels. The courier should provide state to state, coast to coast, port to port, terminal to terminal as well as door to door car shipping services as they are explained here.