tomhoward – Member
1. Scammers can copy the pic and serial number.
2. Most things the thieves are selling don’t have serial nos in the first place. Unless you can tell me where the serial number of my bars/stem/pedals is?

That won’t help them when you get the part and the serial number/pics don’t match; Besides, a quick Google or search of the SN and the part name should find the original advert and reveal a thief. In the same way, the police could Google the SN and a Description of the parts found on stolen bikes and potential reveal their owners through FS adds.

Mechs, brakes, forks, frames, cranksets, stems, seatposts, even some pedals all have serial numbers on them.

Thomson have a sticker inside the stem/seatpost/bar, as do Easton and Bontrager…that’s how you can identify the myriad fakes on eBay.

Which basically amounts to “Refuse to buy practically everything”, and by extension “Can’t sell anything unless you spend your whole life fannying around with receipts, and even then not always”. Real world solutions please.

Bike theft is a problem, you can put your head in the sand and ignore the fact that what your buying is nicked or you can demand evidence that the owner is the owner. Be it receipts ancient photos of said bike, boxes etc.

If buyers demand proof the item isn’t nicked, gets harder to shift dodgy goods, which might actually reduce the numbers of bikes stolen to order.

…at the cost of destroying the secondary market, which in turn rips the arse out of the primary market. It’s not a solution.

@Boxfish, who was the STW person flogging the stolen parts?

So apart from being cautious to the point of suspicion. I guess if it’s to good to be true.
Meet the seller
No paypal gift
If it’s less than 2 years old and the seller brought it new they will proof of purchase for larger items

Not sure if it’s a bit ott but I look for good spelling, communication and on here a decent chat/bike forum history.
I’ve bought a couple of bits on here, turned a load down as i wasn’t sure. Looking for some 9mm rebas at the moment for a good price and those posted earlier caught my eye but had scam all over them so I didn’t approach the seller – could easily of been legit but I’d rather not risk it. Even if the heavy classified only users are not stealing bits, with the heavy usage some of them have they could easily be moving stuff on that has been stolen.

I’m the same selling though, i have loads of stuff I could sell off around the house but I won’t do unless I know the buyer, too easy to get scammed.

…at the cost of destroying the secondary market, which in turn rips the arse out of the primary market. It’s not a solution.

does it?????