[CR]ebay outing: cinelli

(Example: Framebuilders:Rene Herse)

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:24:00 -0500 (EST)
From: <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]ebay outing: cinelli

You see this kind of madness every once in awhile:

http://ebay.com/<blah>

If I read the auction description correctly, someone, inexplicably, actually BID on the bike instead of paying the buy-it-now price (which was very reasonable, imho)..and now, the bike will--needlessly--cost more than it would have if the first person who wanted it had simply bought it.

Why do people do this? Sure, the bike started at 900, but the first bid was 1650!! the buy-it-now price. Did the first bidder accidentally bid on it, instead of buying it? Assuming the auction description is accurate?

I've seen this a few times on ebay now, and I always marvel at it.

It's as if you went into your local bikeshop and they told you you could buy that nice Masi Special (worth, oh, say, 3K to any reasonably educated buyer) in the window for a grand. But, if you wanted to bid $900 instead, they'd spend a week auctioning it to the highest bidder, who may or may not be you.

Freakin' weird, is all I can say.

Nice cinelli though. Someone missed a great deal there, imho...the seller got lucky.

Charles Andrews
Los angeles