Decided to buy van

Before committing to buying the van we emailed back and forth with the owner Ron a number of times and Anja talked to him a few times. He was 6’6” and used the van to drive to and from New Mexico. He seemed like a really good guy, very meticulous about taking care of the van, and very helpful with any questions we had. I had seen the van posted at one time for $10,500 and saw when Ron dropped it to $9,500. Since we were going to have to travel so far to buy it and then drive it home Anja talked him down to $9,000. Well for $9,000 with everything it had I was in and Anja loved the fuzzy aquamarine color everywhere so she was sold. He also said he would have the brakes serviced before selling it because they were surging a little.

We decided to go for it and asked Ron if he would take a $500 deposit to hold it until we could fly up there and he agreed and agreed to take Paypal as long as I paid the $20 (3%) fee which would be incurred to Paypal for the charge. I felt this offered the most protection from a fraud situation. I knew Ron was on the same page when he reminded me several times not to bring a cashier’s check as we would need to get one from a Bellingham location. After we sent the deposit he sent us the VIN number, and we got the carfax report.

Interestingly, in September 2005 it was reported stolen. We weren’t too worried since it was also listed as being recovered the next day, and the vehicle seemed to be in great shape (based on the other information in the report, the photos, and Ron’s descriptions). Between that and the security system installation listed in October 2005, we figured there would be a good story. 

Before the trip to Bellingham we continued pestering Ron with questions and he patiently answered them and sent us more pictures. We were both so excited we would view them almost daily, and I would carefully zoom in and analyze each one. I asked about the A/C a few times, so Ron had it checked out. The repair shop found a leak and Ron paid about $500 to have it fixed and recharged!