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I bought a car via Ebay 2 yrs ago that was 1000 miles from my house. Carfax is good so spend the $25 on it and run the VIN. Then check the sellers Ebay referances (if any) to get an idea how his overall reputation is. In my case, the seller wasn't a guy who sold cars but was into buying/selling ALOT of big dollar hi-fi equipment through Ebay and has many referances, all good too.
I then e-mailed the guy alot with many questions plus called him on the phone as well. Some people will tell you that if the car's not what you were expecting, they won't hold to to the purchase BUT one can't count on that happening and it's pretty much "buyer beware" as there's always the potential to get burned. Ideally, if you're buying a costly or rare type car it'd be best to spend the time and money to jump on a plane and check it out yourself in person and/or take it to a shop while there if you're not the type who knows what to look for.
In my case, I got exactly what I was looking for and the seller was honest. He picked me up at the airport, took me to his house, we had lunch and then I drove it home spending one night in a hotel and had no car problems either. I had the plates transferred ahead of time, had insurance on it, AAA with a triptik, my eMap GPS, cell phone and plenty of cds too. It was fun and I'd do it again except that I'd wait a bit longer until weather was better. I bought it in January and the guy kept it in his garage until spring but I became impatient and flew there late march '01 and ran into bad weather most of the drive back. Had I waited another 2-3 weeks, the weather would have been much better.
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