How would i check if a bike bought on ebay is stolen property or not, i gather they often are and want to know because i dont want to be recieving stolen goods. Its a dawes super galaxy , 03 or 04 looks barely used.

An original receipt with corresponding serial number would be a start.

You need to talk to the seller and size him/her up.

Trust your intuition.

If you think it’s shady, why did you buy it?

Impulse buy on BIN right size near new, been looking for months took 5 mins to decide, then only considered it afterwards. Will have to ask about frame number at police i guess.

If it were me and I was worried;

arrange to pick up from seller

then;

when there – does it look like the sort of house that would have that bike? Does the seller talk about it in a way that shows they know what it is? Do they have other bikes for sale – is the explanation for why reasonable?

Most people who own a tourer would know what it was and why they bought it and are selling it.

Yes true that. Its too far to pick up would have to use courier, Asked them for reciept or owners manual,maybe they wont get back to me with an invoice i dont know. some wierd thing yesterday when comunicating (by email) they were saying cant give the address now as keyboard just broke? while typing on it? They are selling a 26″ wheel dawes frame too!, im guessing bought to swap components over then discovered that other is for 26″ wheels. Doh

cant give the address now as keyboard just broke? while typing on it?

that sort of thing would worry me tbh.

Maybe ‘arrange for a mate’ to collect so you can get an address to try and verify and then change your mind and go for courier?

Oh well im now hoping that they wont invoice me. its a great bike at a knock down price but too many buts. Its a bit of a fail as their postcode and name comes through on ebay once BIN is clicked

Just invoiced. what to do

so, you now have a name and address?

I guess the real question is ‘why do you think it might be dodgy?’ – there’s lots of ‘honest’ stuff on ebay.

In the end, and if you’re that worried, maybe talk to the seller on the phone but don’t expect them to be happy – questioning someones honesty is unlikely to be well received and neither is provaricating after you’ve bought something.

It’s no different to buying anything else, if you have reason to suspect it’s stolen – don’t

Otherwise, go ahead with the purchase

From what you’ve said so far, there really doesn’t appear to be much evidence that it’s stolen

ask for a phone number and talk to him?

if now ‘selling for a mate’ walk away.

tell them exactly what you think and see what they say – the cant give address is both a lame excuse and shows they are a bit dim.
Your problem but all you can do is ask /fish if you want to be subtle and see if the answers appease you or not