to anyone who's paying attention to this: nothing like a little spat between seller/buyer/reseller to prick up my ears...so i went to the item and looked and found an old, odd french frame set that was of little interest to ME....but people were bidding on the item based on what they read and what they were seeing...i thought the photos were plentiful and good enough...i saw the painted over boss probably grasped by a vise grip and rocked back and forth til it departed company w/ the tube...ugly-yes, fatal flaw-hardly!!!...in need of downtube replacement, ahhh, i would think NO. the frame and fork are what they are....fairly described and well presented....without reading tags or holding the frame in my hands the bike hardly looked like it was going to brake apart at the shifter boss if built up and ridden....i also looked at the seller's rateing which is high...i found the ONE negative and saw it was resolved by both ebay and paypal in the sellers favor...so far so good....read a bunch of the feedbacks, some pretty nice praise to the seller. once again, i'm getting nothing but green lights...back to the photos and i'm seeing all i need to see in order to make a decision to bid or not to bid....what more does a fellow need to present in order to sell something of this ilk on ebay....if mike thought the frame was a danger to build up and ride than maybe he shouldn't have sold it at all, even "super cheap"....obviously al saw value beyond mike's assessment and has gone to the world's auction site to offer it to a larger audience than the velo swap where he found this neat frame cheap.... even w/ a template al went to some effort to present his item with text and photos....again, the "area" IS mentioned, the one photo that shows the area is at an angle so you CAN see the detent....i think that mike has besmurched this fellow w/ inuendo.... something of a personal nature w/ words like, he's endlessly annoyed w/, lousy job describeing, jack up value, shaddy as possible, downright dishonest, I'm not perfect, I tried to persuade, the seller "claims" to have taken it to a framebuilder (what, he's lieing mike), boring race frame, not so exciteing workmanship, sleezy as you can, don't get dinged etc etc... mike, thanks for trying to protect all of us from this old frameset that'll top out at less than a buck fifty....but i think that ALL of us here are more than capable of discerning what's what w/ a tired old frame that is being saved from the trash by someone out there who will probably be delighted to have it, build it, and ride it. i do not see anything at all that al has done that deserves your brand of vitriol....and if an ebayer is uncomfortable, they don't bid, OR write the seller and ask some questions. that frame set offered nothing for me, but others have found it to be worth a few bucks to save....lucky for it. charlie flaherty baltimore maryland usa