This sounds familiar to my used car shopping experience a few years back. Went to see at least 20 private party sellers over a period of a few weeks and most were junk, bought by shady dealers at used car auctions. And their prices were well above the blue book for excellent condition, despite the cars being fair at best. I did manage to find some actual private sellers, and ended up with something I like and still drive now, but it required a lot of time and determination. I can understand why some people would just go to a lot and drive off a couple hours later