During the run-up to the sale of the 2009 Corvette ZR1, we saw many buyers turning to eBay to secure their chance to buy the 638-horsepower sports car. Both dealers and individual sellers jumped into the fray and we saw some outrageous auctions designed to play off the hype and ?want factor? of those who wanted to be among the first to own.

That’s all well and good when the car is actually in production and for sale, but here is a case of an individual attempting to auction a 2014 C7 Corvette ? the next generation Corvette that’s not expected to arrive at dealers for another year or so.

According to the eBay auction which has since been taken down, the seller appears to be a private party who is offering the opportunity to order the 2014 Corvette when it becomes available. The assumption is that he has secured a place in line with an unnamed Chevy dealer and is offering that position for a 10% ?Non-refundable? deposit:

?You are bidding on a new 2014 Chevrolet corvette. You add the options you want. This is your chance to be one of the very first owners of a 2014 corvette. This is the deposit only. remaining balance is due when car arrives. There is a 10% nonrefundable deposit. deposit payment is due at end of auction.?

After CorvetteOnline and several other websites pointed out the auction, we awoke this morning to find the eBay listing has been removed or is no longer available. Despite the sellers 100% reputation, this auction had red flags all over it ? lack of accurate information about the car, use of renderings from Car & Driver instead of actual photos and of course the major red flag is that the car isn’t even in production yet!

Here are the screenshots of the now-removed eBay auction:

It’s great that there is a ton of interest and excitement building about the next generation Corvette and as this auction showed, there were at least 13 bidders who hopped on that bandwagon in the quest to be among the first to own. But buyer beware if you are dealing with private sellers at this point in the game.