atleast contact the seller to let him know you are interested but will not be able to make the commute til you can?
10 hours at 50 mph average is 500 miles. Even an old gas truck could get 15 mpg so 33 gallons of gas. 3$ gas is still under 100$ round trip. You were going to be driving (or drinking) anyway that day. These types of drives are fun. There is a secondary risk that the CL ad is a scam or that he will sell it out from under you.
It would have to wait until after Christmas. Work is busy and holiday stuff going on so I would not even ask him to wait like that. Who knows, maybe it will still be there after next week. We also may get some bad weather next week and that is not a fun drive going up that way in bad weather. I have had to do it a few times in the past. I do quite a bit of work up in the Grand Rapids area and that is about half way there. Unfortunately right now I do not have anything going up that way, unless my phone rings.