Looking at a listing on ebay right now, and I am just a tiny bit suspicious of it. Which is a shame, as its exactly what I want. So I am wanting to see if it has any “history”.
Firstly, where should I go? Is there a central location for checking? What else should I be looking for in the listing?
Not pointing out the listing here at the moment, as I don’t want to “call out” a genuine seller on just an ill informed hunch, nor do I want to alert seller if it is “iffy”.
It’s a frame being sold as the seller says it’s a bit too xc for them. They have a photograph of the whole bike only, fully built up on the listing. I am aware people break down stolen bikes to make them easier to dispose of.
So I sent a message, asking if they had a purchase receipt (the item is nearly new – a few months old, allegedly used 7-8 times).
The answer I got was not to my mind satisfactory – they say they used to work for the manufacturers a few years ago and bought direct from them – so no handbook/warranty manual or receipt. Surely, even if you bought direct from a manufacturer, you’d get a receipt and warranty info, right?
Checking feeback on the bay – the seller has listed a couple of bikes in the last 15m, and several sets of forks, brakes, wheels, not enough to look like a fence, but more than most, unless a real enthusiast”. 4 sets of forks, 3 sets of disc brakes, 2 sets of wheels, couple of posts, saddle ect.
The manufacturer is English, and based at one end of the country, and the seller is on the South coast. Sure people move around, but with all the other little things wrong…
Am I being too suspicious? If they had a receipt, I’d be 100% sure it was fine. Or should I bid away? Having had 3 bikes stolen, I don’t want to support or encourage supply of stolen goods, but then there are a lot of bikes for sale these days, and many/most of them will be legitimate second hand purchases.
