Only a few Seller's most have been decent, but its the bad ones that make a
bad inpression and give the industory a bad name and they make me put my
shields up a bit more. I have learned a lot about buying over the last few
weeks.



"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
Dude, from your posts your are having continuous troubles with
sellers. That means, it's time to think about your attitude! Please
take this in a friendly way--yes, there are plenty of goofy sellers.
So what?

I wish I had written stories about all the goofy sellers I ran into.
One guy, supposedly an A&P, had refurbished his airplane and repainted
it--with a spray can under the awning of his double-wide. I am not
making this up, the wings looked like a spray can job and he even had
photos to prove it! He was quite proud of his ingenuity.

Another guy had a fairly runout looking plane, but the interior had
just been redone with--I am not making this up--electrically heated
seats! This was an Ercoupe. They were extremely well padded and since
I am 6 feet, the whole test flight (he flew) was with me bent over
like a pretzel. Afterwards, seeing I wasn't showing a lot of
enthusiasm, he pointed out the many interior pockets as a selling
point and said he would throw in his nice metal insulated coffee cup
free gratis.

Another guy had a plane that hadn't been used for so long there were
cobwebs hanging off it. I declined the opportunity of a test
flight. Another plane, nicely equipped and apparently well-maintained,
had a nearly runout engine and vibrated like crazy.

Why go on? You get the idea. The funny thing is, I had the time of
my life talking to these people, looking at their planes, and
sometimes flying with them. I didn't insult them. Each one thought
their plane was the best--and to them, it was. I had other opinions
and kept them to myself. I found something nice to say about each
one, politely made some excuses, and left.

I almost didn't look at the last plane on my list. But on a whim I
drove over to see it (2 hour drive). It looked good, and now I had
the experience to tell. His asking price was fair (I had learned what
a fair price was too), but I couldn't fly it as it was in annual. A
couple of weeks later he flew up to my airport to give me a test
flight. I accepted his price, conditional on my mechanic inspecting
it, which we did the next day. The deal was struck and I was a new
plane owner! Gad, the last time I was that nervous was on my wedding
day.