Buying a bike on ebay?

Pat

Today, as I was putting a bicycle box in my car, a man came up to me and
asked if I knew if they had any more bicycle boxes to give away as he had
just sold a bike on Ebay. My car was near the dumpster, so he went over and
looked in and saw a slightly bent box there. He fished it out of the
dumpster and threw it on top of some junk on his pickup truck. I said, "How
are you going to keep the wind from blowing it off?" and he pulled out a
ladder and threw it on top of the box. I reached inside my bicycle box, got
out the plastic fork protector, and handed it to him. "What's this?" he
asked me. I told him and he said, "I've never heard of anything like this
before!"

So-o-o-o-o if one of you has thoughts of buying a bicycle on Ebay, take care
to make sure the seller actually has a clue as to how to pack and ship a
bicycle!

Pat in TX

Dan Richter

That's good advice! I have bought on eBay and have been happy with my
purchases, never a bike though...


Dan
"Pat" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:c7bq1i$273ht$1@ID-194653.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Today, as I was putting a bicycle box in my car, a man came up to me and
> asked if I knew if they had any more bicycle boxes to give away as he had
> just sold a bike on Ebay. My car was near the dumpster, so he went over
and
> looked in and saw a slightly bent box there. He fished it out of the
> dumpster and threw it on top of some junk on his pickup truck. I said,
"How
> are you going to keep the wind from blowing it off?" and he pulled out a
> ladder and threw it on top of the box. I reached inside my bicycle box,
got
> out the plastic fork protector, and handed it to him. "What's this?" he
> asked me. I told him and he said, "I've never heard of anything like this
> before!"
>
> So-o-o-o-o if one of you has thoughts of buying a bicycle on Ebay, take
care
> to make sure the seller actually has a clue as to how to pack and ship a
> bicycle!
>
> Pat in TX
>
>

M. Prindle

In article <c7bq1i$273ht$1@ID-194653.news.uni-berlin.de>,
"Pat" <me@privacy.net> wrote:

> Today, as I was putting a bicycle box in my car, a man came up to me and
> asked if I knew if they had any more bicycle boxes to give away as he had
> just sold a bike on Ebay. My car was near the dumpster, so he went over and
> looked in and saw a slightly bent box there. He fished it out of the
> dumpster and threw it on top of some junk on his pickup truck. I said, "How
> are you going to keep the wind from blowing it off?" and he pulled out a
> ladder and threw it on top of the box. I reached inside my bicycle box, got
> out the plastic fork protector, and handed it to him. "What's this?" he
> asked me. I told him and he said, "I've never heard of anything like this
> before!"
>
> So-o-o-o-o if one of you has thoughts of buying a bicycle on Ebay, take care
> to make sure the seller actually has a clue as to how to pack and ship a
> bicycle!
>
> Pat in TX


I actually bought my Raleigh M60 off of ebay. The guy I bought it from
had never sold anything on ebay and he set the price of the bike WAY to
low for the upgrades he had on it. Everything on the bike was upgrade
with the exceptions of the shifters which are stock. I priced the
components when I got the bike and I calculated about $850 in upgrades
alone. I went up to where he lived, about 2 hours away, and picked up
the bike. I'm not sure I would trust buying a bike I could not see/ride
before I payed for it.

M. Prindle

Gooserider

I've bought a bike and two frames off eBay, among other things. It helps to
buy from people who've done a lot of selling, preferably who specialize in
bikes. Not a problem here, but you have to really know what you want, and
for cryin' out loud know your measurements!

BanditManDan

Pat wrote:
> So-o-o-o-o if one of you has thoughts of buying a bicycle on Ebay, take
> care to make sure the seller actually has a clue as to how to pack and
> ship a bicycle!
> Pat in TX



I've bought three road bikes from ebay, all were packed very well and
were exactly as described. You make a good point though, I guess I was
just lucky.

Dan.



--

toolguy

"Dan Richter" <Danrichter@cablerocket.com> wrote in message news:<4099b206$0$19876$2c56edd9@news.cablerocket.com>...
> That's good advice! I have bought on eBay and have been happy with my
> purchases, never a bike though...
>
>
> Dan
> "Pat" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:c7bq1i$273ht$1@ID-194653.news.uni-berlin.de...
> > Today, as I was putting a bicycle box in my car, a man came up to me and
> > asked if I knew if they had any more bicycle boxes to give away as he had
> > just sold a bike on Ebay. My car was near the dumpster, so he went over
> and
> > looked in and saw a slightly bent box there. He fished it out of the
> > dumpster and threw it on top of some junk on his pickup truck. I said,
> "How
> > are you going to keep the wind from blowing it off?" and he pulled out a
> > ladder and threw it on top of the box. I reached inside my bicycle box,
> got
> > out the plastic fork protector, and handed it to him. "What's this?" he
> > asked me. I told him and he said, "I've never heard of anything like this
> > before!"
> >
> > So-o-o-o-o if one of you has thoughts of buying a bicycle on Ebay, take
> care
> > to make sure the seller actually has a clue as to how to pack and ship a
> > bicycle!
> >
> > Pat in TX

The advice above is good. I just sold a bike to a fellow in Texas.
I'm in Canada. I packed the bike better than it came to me complete
with fork protector, manual, warranty card and tons of packing
material. It was the first purchase the guy had made on Ebay. That
would make me nervous to buy a bike as my first experience and this
was not a cheap bike. He was very trusting and didn't ask many
questions so I asked and answered the questions he needed to know for
him. All in all, it was a perfect transaction for both of us. You
often can't touch a feel the stuff on Ebay so it's best to ask good
questions to the seller before you bid. Just the way people
communicate tells a story about themselves.

Neil

toolguy

Oh! I should also add.... I once was close to buying a bike on Ebay
(when I was a newbie) and luckily some other guy was watching out for
scammers and got me out of the deal. This seller was a complete
scammer and was banned from Ebay. I've seen him back though under a
new name. Very scary.

Signs to watch out for to catch this scammer or others....

1. City location says U.S. On email he says he's in Europe (usually
Romania).
2. Will only accept Western Union. Stay away from this. Once you
send money via Western Union, it's GONE. You can't get it back. No
trace.
3. Will not accept escrow (cause he has nothing to ship to you). Any
honest seller should allow escrow if the buyer is willing to pay the
costs.
4. Sell's via private auctions. This is horrible and Ebay shouldn't
allow it. A private auction only allows the seller to see the bidders
names. I believe this was developed for selling "personal items".
Private auctions have no place in cycling. This was a result of the
auction I bid in. It wasn't private then and the guy that knew he was
a scammer clicked on my bidder name and emailed me warning me to get
out of the auction. Now that he has gone private no one can
interfere.
5. When emailing he will have whatever you need. "We're a new shop in
Romania and we get deals on bikes. You need a 54 cm, ya we have
that."
6. Zero feedback. No kidding, he has a new name for each auction.
7. He sells very expensive bikes for cheap. Enough money to make it
worthwile for him to do this but cheap enough to sucker people in to a
sketchy deal (all the above comments). I've seen him repeatedly sell
Cannondale Team Replica bikes going for around $2000+.

Buyers need to be aware, ask good questions and only buy from people
with good feedback.

Happy dealings...

Neil

David Reuteler

eyagerusenet@chartermi.net wrote:
> When dealing with large items like bicycles the cost of shipping for buyers or
> sellers can be astronomical.

err, you're going to have to define astronomical. that to me means cost
prohibitive and the cost of shipping a bike fedex ground is not cost
prohibitive. goto fedex's rate finder punch in some options .. it's just
not that much.
--
david reuteler
reuteler@visi.com