Well, a few questions actually.

I've decided that after 22 years it's probably time to part with my Plus. Whilst I've done a few long trips over the years, and it was originally my daily, I'm ashamed to say that it's done a whole 140 miles in the past 11 years, so whilst it will be a huge wrench to let it go, someone else ought to enjoy it now. I'll wait until the New Year, it's tucked up in it's duvet now.

My first question refers to selling on here. I've no problem sharing my personal details with genuinely interested buyers, but I've no wish to have any of my personal info on display on the forum for bots and crawlers and scrapers (and now AI) to harvest. I note that in two recent For Sale adverts, one has all of the seller's details including home address etc displayed, whilst another has no contact details at all despite the selling rules stating that address will be withheld but telephone and email will be displayed. What's the actual process currently? I'm particularly averse to having my address displayed, since I've mentioned other vehicles in the past both here and elsewhere, under the same user name, and I will admit to mild security paranoia regarding thefts etc.

If I can advertise with only telephone and email displayed, can those be displayed as an image so that they can't so readily be harvested?

Failing all that, I'd welcome any views on where else are viable places to advertise? I'm thinking NOT eBay, FB, or maybe even Autotrader. Perhaps Car & Classic? Whilst I don't think my anticipated value on the car will attract anyone who's not a genuine enthusiast, I equally don't relish the idea of it going to some scally to rag to death in the first few weeks of ownership. I'd consider some of the auction places, fees notwithstanding, as that may be a hands-off way of achieving an acceptable price? I sold a "decent" car earlier this year and had it not been for a mate putting his hand up for it, I think I'd have gone down that route. Has anyone got experiences, good or bad, or reviews of these places?

Hi Cappo, you've obviously read the copious stuff on here regarding sales; you'll guess that the Club has tried to safeguard seller and buyer to avoid the activities of ne'er-do-wells.

There was one blatant for sale post recently in other section of the forum which was promptly taken down. Others have followed the guidelines so the Admin that vets them can them post their ad publicly.

The question of making an effort to conceal some personal details, especially in this day and age, is a good one, the Club ought to look into it.

Could you supply an image, as a test-run, with the relevant details so we can have a look? It should be postable as an attachment I would have thought along with the photos of the coupé itself.

As you cannot presently post a photo in a PM you could if you prefer attach it to an email to info@fiatcoupeclub.org where it will be picked up.

Bear in mind some personal details are removed anyway from your submission after approval and before posting publicly.

Hii Edinburgh, thanks for that reply. I do remember many (many!) moons ago the move to protect people which generated the current rules, but we do all have to be cautious with PII these days. I’ve been a victim of a former employer’s payroll being hacked, and it’s caused me significant issues, eg bank accounts being opened in my name, etc, so I’m maybe more sensitive than some to this issue.

I don’t really plan to sell until early next year so I’ll drop you a line then. It should be fairly easy to put a number in as an image, as below (that’s a made up number, not mine!). Whether that’s adequate to prevent harvesting, I’m not 100% sure but I’ll look into that a bit further.

I don't blame your concerns one bit.

Perhaps the info could be contained in an attached document....

We'll discuss it at our next Board meeting in the New Year

Just for information- these days it's extremely easy to just copy and paste any sort of text (including telephone numbers), from images, or in fact to highlight and dial a number within an image.

How good a 'bot' would be at harvesting the information, I'm not sure, or whether it's likely to happen since the forum is probably low on the 'hit list'.

But then one never knows!

Just give your car to me, I’ll look after it, Gliptone the jizzbags, stroke the paint etc! Can’t believe you’re selling, but I guess 140 miles in 11 years tells a story Good luck selling Capmeister