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Why do people use pics like this in an ad?

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Old May 20, 2011 | 11:45 AM
  #1  
droptopron's Avatar
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Why do people use pics like this in an ad?

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst...382512792.html

This is one of my pet peeves. I had a letter in HMM about this a month or two ago.
Old May 20, 2011 | 11:51 AM
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They may not have experience or know any better...........still doesn't change the fact you stated which I agree with. It aggravates me as well.
Old May 20, 2011 | 12:08 PM
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If you are too lazy to take decent pics or aren't able to at the time don't put any in the ad. This is worse than not having them. That is for a $24K car too.
Old May 20, 2011 | 12:59 PM
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Maybe they're intentionally just showing enough to try to encourage the real hobbyists to contact them while not attracting the photo collectors.

Just like some sellers put a crazy price on something hoping only those who know this is a ruse to weed out tire kickers and is not the real price will show interest.
Old May 20, 2011 | 02:16 PM
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Sorry Viking, but both of those reasons are just weird. Have you actually heard people express them? If so, those people are, well, weird. I mean, really weird.
Why would someone post an artificially inflated price and think people would see it, decide it was a coded communication that the price was, in fact, reasonable, and call. If I see a high price, I assume the seller is nuts (seen a few of them...) and go the other way.

My own feeling is that in this day and age, pretty much everybody who can switch on a computer can post a photo, and can identify a photo that conveys no useful information.
That means to me that people who post photos like this are trying to intentionally obscure some aspect of the car, in the mistaken belief that after people have driven an hour or more to get to them and see the car, the fact that it was misrepresented somehow won't matter to them, much like the people who don't mention gaping rust holes, or inoperable engines, in cars described as "mint" in classified ads.

- Eric
Old May 20, 2011 | 03:50 PM
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Because the wife wants them to sell it and they don't really want to but "here's proof baby, but nobody's buying."
Old May 20, 2011 | 04:24 PM
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My guess:
WB's restoration may have that much labor and material into the car and want to get their money back from a deadbeat owner. Only 1 pic? Probably they feel that anyone who sees the preliminary side detail will desperately want to keep this a big secret so it can be 'snapped up' at a ridiculously low 24 large.

For that kind of money, that car better be finished and pedigreed. 1 owner??? Maybe. Probably died waiting for the work to get done.

Noticed there is no hint of mileage, options or documentation to go with it either.

.....and finally, PT Barnum and Bailey said it best: 'There's a sucker born every minute".
Old May 20, 2011 | 05:07 PM
  #8  
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I take it as a before and after picture. Pretty much the small photo represents what it looked like then and the larger photo represents how wrong it was redone or say, more to their taste as to what it "should of looked like" then. I see a resemblance of a W-30 stripe on the old photo and with what looks to be a white vinyl top and sherwood green , but the ad doesn't mention W-30 and the "new" look is sans the white top and a lighter looking green maybe aspen green . The old photo is hard to see but it looks to have aftermarket rims on way back whenever this "old" photo was taken. The "new" photo is apparently after a repaint and a new windshield if you will, due to the shortage of emblems, door hardware and amazingly clear windshield. Does seem to have side view mirror though, the kicker is that it doesn't tell us what engine it has, transmission, interior pics and so on. I wonder what are the chances it has a W-30 stripe on an inline 6 cyl with a three speed on the tree? Who knows and for that money who cares, unless it is a big block W-30 car. If that is the case then it would have been "born" in Lansing, Michigan. Maybe worth checking in to and maybe a complete waste of time. Just my two zincolns.
Old May 20, 2011 | 08:49 PM
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71 Cutlass's Avatar
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What's ironic is that they actually put these words in the ad "must see to appreciate." Well, if that's true then let us see it
Old May 22, 2011 | 05:31 PM
  #10  
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that looks like a cell phone picture
i bet they dont even own the car
Old May 22, 2011 | 05:45 PM
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MD...was just guessing a motive for posting a pic like that....yet have been told by two sellers who 'marked up' the price of the cars they just bought 4X their purchase price...One had it listed on craigslist the same day he brought it home...

and their reasons were...to try to keep the tire kickers from contacting them, but yet would accept qutie a lot less from a savvy collector.
Old May 22, 2011 | 06:34 PM
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Okay. I guess it's time for me to admit it: The internet has changed the world so much that I can no longer recognize it .

- Eric
Old May 22, 2011 | 06:39 PM
  #13  
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From: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Originally Posted by MDchanic
Okay. I guess it's time for me to admit it: The internet has changed the world so much that I can no longer recognize it .

- Eric
Yup, it's no longer flat. Come to think of it, it might not even be round any more...I went for a drive the other day to the other side of the city that I don't visit often. Got lost-it was a whole new city. Think I need GPS to avoid getting more lost. Is the world getting smaller, or is it just getting more confusing???
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