Rob's Blog

Well, maybe a bit before that. I started to think last year that I missed having a car that was "fun", and I began thumbing through the car ads to see what was attractive. Almost immediately I noticed how cheap Porsche 928s had become. I had always loved the lines on this car, and I knew that there were a lot of them in my area that were well taken care of and had low miles, being used as "toys". I started looking for them in ads, and started an eBay search for them in my area.

On July 3rd, this auction appeared on eBay. It was exactly what I wanted, and was in Santa Clarita, about 70 miles from Santa Barbara. It was low miles - 70,000 - and old enough to be one of the more docile versions which was a good thing for regular driving. It was fundamentally sound with good body, paint and interior, and had recently had the timing belt and water pump replaced, two of the common and expensive repairs needed in these cars. Then the kicker; it wasn't actually in Santa Clarita, but in St Louis. The seller was a student at Master's College in Santa Clarita and had opened his eBay account there, and they wouldn't let him change what was listed in "Location". He lived in St. Louis, and left it there during the year. But it occurred to me that this could work to my advantage; my employer is in St. Louis, and he could check out the car for me. Plus, the car could potentially be delivered to me when the seller came west to Santa Clarita at the end of the summer. I called the seller and chatted, and he indicated that the delivery in California might work out. I considered my options and decided to bid just $50 more than the listed high bid just seconds prior to the end of the auction. I won!

Once the auction closed we started working on logistics. Almost right away, he said that the California delivery wasn't going to work for him. He needed his motorcycle once he got here, and the only way to do that was by towing the bike behind the Porsche, and neither of us wanted to attach a hitch to it. After considering the alternatives, we settled on meeting halfway in Denver the first weekend of August to complete the transaction. This worked for me because I was finishing a business trip that weekend, and could fly to Denver rather than to Santa Barbara to complete the trip. I also had him take the car to his mechanic to have the air conditioner recharged so that driving through the desert wouldn't be a problem. A week before the designated weekend, my dad volunteered to meet me in Denver and make the road trip with me. So we were set.

I now have the car in Santa Barbara, here's a map of our route, and a photolog of the road trip is here, including the trials along the way. If you have a smaller monitor, note that there is thumbnail navigation at the bottom of the page, and a narrative to go along with each photo on the right. Enjoy!

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