I reluctantly ordered some parts from Marty on ebay for my '68 Coronet R/T. I needed the tail lights, the rear finish panel, and the trunk lid trim. He had the entire set listed on ebay for one price. Most of the finish panels listed were beat up and bent and all were missing at least one of the tabs on the back that holds the studs to mount it. The trim on the trunk lid is almost non-existant. Tail lights are everywhere but price depends heavily on condition and decent ones are expensive. His entire set was still on the car in the picture so at least the condition of all of it would "match."
I tried for weeks to add up another set of that stuff for a similar price and every time at least one of the pieces listed would be from him and I could never match the price.
I've been dealing with eBay and PayPal since Elon was giving away $20 to sign up for an account. I've never been stiffed although I have had my money tied up during a dispute once. The dispute was settled in my favor. It was over a part which I did not have listed for sale, the guy contacted me privately, made me an offer, accepted delivery, and then tried to say the part didn't fit his boat all while posting pictures of it on his boat on social media. I have a perfect rating on ebay, buying and selling, I have never had a bad deal.
I did a test purchase of a $20-ish part from him first and it was shipped promptly and received without issue. Based on that and my faith in eBay and PayPal's buyer protection, I clicked "Buy it Now." This was on 1/20/25. Within minutes, I received a phone call from Marty. Now I've been a member of eBay for over 20 years, and NOT ONCE has a seller called me out of the blue after I purchased an item. He said (among other things) that he would need a few days to get the parts pulled off and boxed up, and that he would throw in a t-shirt and some other stuff.
I waited TWO WEEKS with not even a tracking number. I didn't really want to antagonize the guy but there's also a clock on ebay and paypal buyer protection. So, I entered a claim with ebay that my package hadn't been delivered. I got a phone call within minutes. He said that he had told me it would take a few days and that I had asked for a bunch of extra stuff. I told him that I hadn't asked for anything extra and that it has been TWO WEEKS, not a couple days. The very next day, a tracking number had been created. As you probably know, if you have a UPS account, you can create a tracking number without actually shipping anything.
Now ebay "freezes" your case to give the buyer time to respond, so Martin responded with that tracking number and I had to wait another 7 days or something like that. At that point I was able to escalate the case as he still hadn't shipped anything. Again, almost immediately I got a phone call and he said he would "fix the problem with the tracking." He dropped a box off at UPS...
Now shipping from the West coast to Texas being what it is, it took some time for the package to arrive. When it did, it was a small box with two tail lights. At this point I sent Marty a text and asked him if he had forgot to send the second box. He immediately replied that he had indeed sent the second box and that he had sent me the tracking number in ebay messenger. I get an email from ebay when I recieve a message. That email came 30-45 minutes later. A tracking number from USPS.
Yesterday, FIVE WEEKS after placing the order, I finally recieved the second box from Marty. I firmly believe that if I hadn't placed a claim with eBay that he never would have sent anything.
This morning, he sent me a text asking me to please close my claim with ebay. I was working so I ignored it. As I sat down to start typing this, I got a text from him:
"I am not a scammer!"
Then:
"Scammers don't call you or provide their phone number. That's just ridiculous"
Then:
"You asked me about seats!"
So I sent him most of what I just wrote above and he replied:
"I hope you get better treatement when you fall on hard times."
Then:
"Good luck and God bless you"
I would just avoid him altogether, it's guys like him that take all the enjoyment out of this hobby. He may percieve that he's going through hard times, but I've seen his place and his stuff on TV, he's not doing that bad. He's certainly more well-to-do than I am, but then everything I have I got the hard way!
