I've spent 25 years in the automotive business — repairing and selling cars, trained in European makes, and building a career on that expertise.
Most recently, I've been selling high-end classic cars. Along the way, I started hearing the same story over and over from buyers: they found a car online, wired money to a seller they never met, and never saw the car — or their money — again.
What struck me wasn't just how often it happened. It's how little recourse people have once the money is gone. Wire transfers don't reverse. There's no chargeback. No shipping company to call, because the shipping company was fake too. By the time someone realizes what happened, there's usually nothing left to do but report it and move on.
I built Sight Unseen because I kept thinking the same thing after hearing another one of these stories: someone should have checked this before the money went out. Not after. Before.
That's the whole idea. A fast, affordable way to look at a listing — the photos, the price, the seller's story — before you commit to anything, using the same kinds of red flags I've learned to spot after two and a half decades around cars and the people who sell them.