Robert Hall

Not sure..in your terms of service of auction description, I recommend putting statements about no foreign bidders, no bidders with less than 98% positive feedback, no bidders with fewer than 10 ebay purchases and cancel any bids that don't meet those criteria...maybe language like this, specifically the items in bold) (this is what my sister the power seller uses for her auctions, some may not apply): "Due to ease of operation and so many non-paying bidders, the ONLY form of payment we accept is Paypal – please do not ask for exceptions.; we manage everything electronically – I use Click n Ship. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR ADDRESS CORRECTLY LISTED IN PAYPAL – NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DO NOT – THAT GENERATES YOUR MAILING LABEL. Thanks. Payment should be received within 3 days of the auction closing or the item will be re-listed. We only ACCEPT BIDS FROM US BIDDERS AND only ship to US, Puerto Rico – it is because of ease of operation – we have full-time jobs that require 100% travel and do not have time to deal with international shipping and customs– no exceptions. We ship USPS priority mail unless otherwise specified in the body of the listing – please do not bid if you do not agree with our shipping method; due to my job, I can only ship on WEEKENDS. We will not accept bids from users with zero (0) feedback (ANY AND ALL BIDS FROM ZERO FEEDBACK BIDDERS WILL BE CANCELLED – BURNED TOO MANY TIMES), feedback less than an overall positive (+) 5 feedback rating or at least 98% overall positive rating. Please do not bid if you do not intend to pay. We do not accept bids from users with 5 or more negative (-) feedback ratings. We will cancel bid from bidders who do not meet this criteria. We reserve the right to block bidders who are argumentative or unprofessional. Insurance is required for items selling for $50.00 or more.* Items selling for under $50.00 should be insured, but that is optional for the buyer. We will not be responsible for items damaged or lost during shipment that are not insured."

Update: found the article Long, but with pictures and a great read. Maybe DF should carve a wooden minivan and ship to the guy in the UK.. Powerbook scam story

One of the better scammer stories I've read was about a guy in the US selling his laptop on ebay. The winner was in the UK... the winner's story sounded odd to him, something about wanting to pay only on delivery or something.. he had a buddy in the UK that was in same town check out the guy's address, was a postal box or something. So the the seller made a replica of his laptop, same size and weight, out of wood...fed exed it to the winner. I'll have to try and find the article and post a link to it..it was hilarious.

Saw something interesting on the freeway tonite...a pickup was pulling a flatbed with a very worn '70 Chevelle SS454 on it (I could read the 454 badges). Looks like it might have been black or gray, very faded with rusted out rear quarters and doors (not an AZ car I suspect)..the front fenders, nose and cowl hood were all heavily surface rusted. Had Chevy rallys on flat snow tires at the back,rusty Pontiac Rallyes up front...interesting. A future resto project? Something that will be at Barrett-Jackson next year?

I recently discovered Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears...liking them...kind of a vintage soul/blues/James Brownish feel.

Ya, got to have the Mopies...all good choices also. From Ford, well, the GT500 is about the only one w/ that much power.

Agreed, I think it's a good thing to have a unified channel, as long as each brand has it's own identity and products. If GM can trim down to 3 divisions/sales channels (Chevy, BPG, Cadillac) and 5 distinct brands (Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, and GMC (try and focus it to get rid of the redundancy), I think that could be a good model going forward...

Good riddance. IMHO, HUMMER represented American vehicle design at it's absolute worst--oversized, brutally ugly, cheap and nasty inside, big on the outside yet small inside, thirsty and inefficient. It's a bad image for GM that needs to go. No innovation, no breakthrough products--just big, dumb, ugly turds.

True...but I doubt if the general public is capable of distinguishing between a 'brand' and a 'division'.

I still don't see how it matters...they are still 3 distinct brands, even if they are in 1 division/sales channel. GMC, Buick and Pontiac all have distinct models and identities.

To the layperson, does it make any difference? It's still 3 distinct brands... just like Lincoln-Mercury---one division, 2 brands. The combining of multiple brands into one division might have cost savings on many levels, but it's pretty invisible to the consumer. The distinction is one of those 'inside baseball' things...

Yes, 1 entity (division, sales channel, whatever the term du joir is), 3 brands. It's like Lincoln-Mercury--one division, 2 brands. Even though there is one division, there are still 3 brands, which is what people see... it's not a BPG Sierra, BPG G8, BPG Enclave, after all...

The way I understand it, PBG is 1 division, 1 dealer structure, 3 brands.

You should be able to cancel the bid, block that bidder, and relist it....it has to be fake with the 0% feedback, wierd 'my client' language and the UK address (why would anyone in the UK would want a wrecked US-spec minivan?).

Ya...I know a couple of serial (over 20 years) GM owners that have moved on in the last 2 years...both married, around 40, originally Midwesterners... one guy that had had a Grand Prix, a couple Camaros, a Blazer, a Trail Blazer, now has an Eclipse and a Pilot. Another that had a couple Cutlasses and most recently an Intrigue and a Silhouette now has an Accord and an Odessey. Sad.

Maybe they can do a new RWD Impala on the cheap by slapping a 4dr sedan body on the Tahoe platform (replace the rear cargo area with a trunk)..would make the BOF fans and police departments happy. Speaking of Tahoes, I've been seeing a lot of them lately used as police cars here in Phoenix..

I've been seeing them at a rate of 1 every two weeks or so the last ~6 months... never sure if I'm seeing the same car or not multiple times when I see a black SRT8 in a certain area.. I've seen a couple silver ones, a couple orange ones, a red R/T, a black V6 w/ aftermarket 22" rims, a black R/T w/ silver stripes, and at least one black SRT8 several times. Pretty limited color palette. I've seen them more frequently than I've seen G8s--saw a white G8 GT today..looks great in white.

It will be interesting to see where '09 ends up...15-18%?

Was that an annual or monthly loss rate? I would assume 2-3% per year loss of market share would be more realistic.

Couldn't see that happening..all the Senators/Representatives from the states w/ import plants would block any kind of tax change like that.

Very few outside of the Midwest, I would think. So many car buyers in the mainstream today are content w/ the modern 'Big 3' brands--Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans...not to mention all the other Japanese brands, the Koreans, Volkswagen, etc.. if GM goes into Chapter 11, who besides the faithful will seriously consider buying from them?

I've long thought an '86 Caprice coupe (last year of the coupe, and only year w/ that front end/headlight combination) with a late model LS1 crate motor would be a fun project car.. Also, I always liked the early '80s Electra Park Avenues, esp. the coupes. I like the Delta 88s of that era a lot also, crisp clean lines.

This afternoon's freeway sightings--- a yellow Chrysler TC by Maserati---haven't seen one of those on the road in probably 10 years, in clean shape, a maroon Panoz Esperante convertible--don't think I've ever actually seen one in person before, and the strangest being a Wal-Mart semi w/ a Freightliner cab and a Hyundai 53' box trailer. I didn't realise Hyundai made trailers, I'm used to seeing brands like Freuhauf, Trailmobile and Utility International.

Yeah, GMC just seems completely redundant...all it's models have Chevy, Saturn, and Buick equivalents. At this point, I'm not sure how to save GM besides Chapter 11... and even that, what will come out of it?

Odd to see a UPS Caravan. The badge removal seems to be a standard UPS thing--every UPS truck from their usual parcel vans to Econolines to International semis that I've noticed has the badging removed. I guess they have a fear of ornamentation and branding...just like some people won't wear clothes with brand logos.