I found another unicorn. e39 wagon with manual transmission. While talking with my wife about snapping it up, someone exercised the buy it now option...literally while I was reviewing the auction!! 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-BMW-525i-WAGON-ONLY-66K-MANUAL-TRAN-/130843302245?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item1e76de5965
Never, ever discuss his kind of thing with the wife first.
Everyone knows I love BMWs and stick shift station wagons, but you're upset you missed your chance to pay $11,500 for that?
If you're serious, reach out to the seller. My impression of eBay sales is they often don't work out. You want to be right there ready to go if it does.
Woody wrote: Never, ever discuss his kind of thing with the wife first.
Because you'll be discussing it plenty with her afterwards.
Josh wrote: Everyone knows I love BMWs and stick shift station wagons, but you're upset you missed your chance to pay $11,500 for that?
Seems like a lot, I gave under $6k for mine and almost replaced it with another at $7k. Those miles seem really low though!
It's for my wife, so I wanted to make sure she liked the color! 
And, I'd be hard pressed to buy a 12 year BMW without a PPI first.
And, yes, I'd give $11.5k for that car. As motomoron pointed out in this recent thread where he bought a manual transmission e39 wagon, they are exceedingly rare: I gots my unicorn I don't know what he paid, but I bet it was at least $11.5k.
Yeah, but you got lucky. You might have had to deal with the pixel problems.
m4ff3w wrote: Yeah, but you got lucky. You might have had to deal with the pixel problems.
LOL
That wasn't so hard to find. Same car, same color, more awesomeness, less money. http://worcester.craigslist.org/ctd/3501609275.html
In reply to tr8todd:
and 100K more miles... so I would expect it to be a lot less money. If $11.5K was high for the OP car, then $8 is WAY to high for this one...
Sometimes they just aren't meant to be. I missed out on one a month back that still haunts me. In this case, I would ease my mind by knowing there is no way I'm clicking buy-it-now on an eBay ad when I haven't seen the car or have some sort of prior knowledge.
tr8todd wrote: That wasn't so hard to find. Same car, same color, more awesomeness, less money. http://worcester.craigslist.org/ctd/3501609275.html
As Ian noted, that car has 100k more miles.
There are, in relative terms, lots of e39 wagons out there with 100k+ miles. And I'd much rather pay $11.5k for 66k than $8k for 165k.
The number of wagons with less than 100k miles (or less than 70k miles for that matter) is relatively small. Add the manual transmission factor and there are most likely virtually none left.
I'll give you the miles thing, but you implied that a manual wagon is the unicorn. I found three in less than a minute here in New England. That one just so happened to closely match what you posted. Don't get me wrong, I think the car you missed out on was sweet, and it sounds like a great deal. Especially if it was in your neck of the woods.
Mileage is the kicker, mine had 111k; and the other had 99k. Hard to find a manual period.
I actually drove a very nice 99k mile 525iT manual before I got my E36. Nice car, but at 3x what I paid for the E36 kinda hard to justify.
Just to play devil's advocate, how hard would it be to just buy any old E39 touring and put a manual in it? If they are that hard to come by, why not just make your own?
I see manual transmission BMW's at the you-pull, mostly E34's and E36's, but something must interchange. It's not like you need the world's strongest tranny behind a 2.5/2.8 motor. Getting pedals and a console wouldn't be too hard since manual E39 sedans are fairly common. Is there some electronic or other incompatibility that would crop up?
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