Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:20:24 -0400 From: "Tom Sanders" <tsan7759142@comcast.net> To: "Classicrendezvous@Bikelist.Org" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]Fictitious E-Bay bike sales
With so many bikes being sold that are obviously rip offs it lends another reason for sniping on E-Bay sales. Rather than bid early in a sale, it is often best to see if the bike in question becomes the subject of discussion among classical bike enthusiasts. It is too bad that this takes away from the time and space available to discuss other things, but perhaps it is an important function of having a community of collectors. The keen observations and alertness of fellow enthusiasts may well save one of us an occasional soaking at the hands of some jerk. This has caused me to re-think my earlier discomfort with folks being overly critical of E-Bay sellers. I hate having to be skeptical of offers from folks I don't know, but it now seems necessary. I wonder if there could be a web site posting of sales that members have spotted something fishy with, or would this become a witch hunt and open us up to liability when the inevitable mistakes do occur and some honest person's sale is questioned? I guess I long for a perhaps more innocent time when we could adhere more closely to discussing bikes rather than financial and ethical complications associated with their sales. Darned if I can see a way around this. Tom Sanders Lansing, Mi
Tom:
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
You can always go to http://www.ebaysucks.com to look for alledged problem sellers, but that can be a bit of a wild goose chase also, as there are many axe-grinders there.
I think you are right about the collective knowledge on CR being a very valuable resource for those of us that are eBay junkies.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with healthy discussion about any eBay listing, IMO. We should always be cautious and gather much data before pronouncing someone or something to be a scam, however. Just like before sending any other post to this group of 1000+ knowledgeable vintage bike goofs (thanks Tom H. for the use of that term...), one should always think long and hard before hitting the "send" button if one's post contains information directly critical of someone else, I feel....
I have dealt with literally hundreds of eBay sellers from perhaps twenty countries worldwide over the last 5+ years, and can honestly say that 99+ % of them have been 100% honest. We have to be careful not to confuse honesty with knowledge or intelligence, though. ;-)
I have never failed to get something following the sucessful completion of an auction, and I can only think of a handful of real stinkers (off-hand) that have knowingly kept too much of my money following the occurence of a problem with a purchased item. Even those instances could be called "major differences of opinion," if you will....
I consider myself neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I'm a realist.... :-)
Greg "be aware, do your homework thoroughly first, then bid at the last possible moment" Parker
Dexter, Michigan