Yep, just be truthful with plenty of pictures. If you can give a bit of information about the frame, seat post diameter etc. then at least it gives buyers who are serious/clued up a little bit of reassurance you know what you are talking about (don't just cut and paste the description from the makers website).

Just don't use txt speak and the word "dude"!

If you have other things to sell it might be worth putting them in (separate) auctions at the same time – sometimes I see what other items people are selling.

Even so, you might still get a lower price than usual because of feedback score.

Molgrips – if 50% of people don't even vote then even with PR surely you aren't getting a government that the majority support?

Whoa, try explaining that on Twitter or Facebook…….

I certainly wouldn't want to ring up the person selling the house and leave my telephone number with them – wouldn't like to start receiving "why didn't you buy my house" type calls from a bunny-boiler.

The only house in our estate sitting unsold is the DIY one. Loads of houses around have been sold in the year it's been up for sale.

He/she is either asking too much, or estate agents are actually (I shudder to say this) working.

Yes, you may save some money selling yourself but if it takes a couple of months longer when you're still paying the mortgage then maybe that would balance out.

Sure you'll get many people say they sold their house in 17 seconds. Think it depends on the area.

Yeah, I'm with the "land this plane here now, do you know who I am? I don't want to land 50 miles away with no security arrangements".

Hope it doesn't go astray/damaged otherwise that'll also be the money you'll get back from the couriers as compensation….

Can you imagine buying a TV online having never seen the picture on it?

Can you imagine buying a bike without riding it off road?

Probably more of an extended Argos model, than a John Lewis model. Read the (online) catalogue. Order and either collect in store, or delivered to your door.

Shops won't be able to sustain a 'showroom' type approach very long. Shops in city centres are very expensive to rent – why let people check your goods in the knowledge they're gonna go online and order from somewhere cheaper who can offer it cheaper because they don't have to pay huge rents on shops.

There'll always be people who care about service and happy to pay full price for something if it comes with a knowledgeable chat about it's suitability etc. Whether that hits the big retailers or the one-man bands the worst I'm not sure.

XX is the only off-road groupset that will work with SRAM Red.

Probably because XX is the only 10-speed mtb gruppo at the moment…..

If Newcastle city centre gets anymore coffee shops and the like taking over the area then the only thing you'll actually be able to buy in town is a latte.

I think the whole issues comes down to timing. If we'd have realised 20/30 years ago (some say we should have…) that we would need more old age care then the bullet should have been bitten and 1% or whatever bunged on National Insurance and ringfenced to provide the backbone of the care.

The problem is successive governments have ignored the issue and now the country desperately needs the cash now, hence these talks of big upfront charges/taxes.

Surprised Gordon hasn't decided to dip into whatever pension funds people have left…

SKS Race Blades are pretty skinny, though obviously they aren't full length jobs.

Titanium frame might last a lifetime but would you really want to be currently riding, say, a 1980s Stumpjumper? Fork travel has increased over the past years, frame angles slacker, disk brake mounts now de rigour etc. etc. Oh, and you could actually smash it up first ride out!

It could seriously stop you buying a new bike in a few years time. We can't have that…

IIRC, you can't charge anything for postage on sunglasses, which seems a bit daft when Oakleys, f'instance, could be worth +£100.

What's the price of the sunglasses got to do with anything? A £1.99 pair probably cost as much to send as a £100 pair. I accept that you may wish to insure said Oakleys but that's really for the sellers benefit. If you got £100 for some secondhand Oakleys then a quid for postage ain't exactly extortionate out of your earnings.

The contact system can be as simple as displaying your email address – most browsers will take you to an email client if you clicked on it.

Don't think there's anything wrong with putting some money aside for your children. There are enough people complaining on here they can't afford their first house. I could put £100k in a bank account for them and the government wouldn't touch it. Give them a £100k house and suddenly they want £8000 of it when I die…

If you can't be good, be careful.

either way looks unfair.

Yeah, I must admit I'm struggling to see a positive in either side of the argument.

How about having a chat with the LBS, trying to get the broken spokes fixed for free and walking away with lesson learnt from both sides?

Putting aside the problem with a shortfall right now, why isn't that fairer? Is it because people are stressing over not getting 'what they have paid for' if they die early?

I think Votchy kinda summed it up (with some subtlety…).

Difficult for people to feel it's a 'fair' system that they can sit in one bed when they are old beside some other scrounger who's not done a days work yet is getting his bed for free.

The so-called 'death tax' is going to get loads of complaints that poor off people have had to sell the family house that their parents wanted to leave them because they couldn't afford the, say, £8000.

I'm not really sure what the answer is. Maybe it could be an expansion of the NHS rather than paying over the odds for private nursing homes making a pretty penny for the owners.

Hey, maybe instead of a bankers tax we could could have a 'private nursing home' windfall tax…

How about using one of the other auction sites, selling the DVDs to moneymagpie or even advertising them in the local newspaper? No. Because they won't sell, or if they do it'll be for pennies.

Whilst I don't hugely agree with the fees eBay charge I accept that I sell stuff for a lot more money than I would elsewhere and even taking their cut into the equation I get more bucks back.

Still, of course, you could send someone anonymous on STW a cheque (or bank transfer) and await your goods that may or may not arrive (with no form of comeback). Don't see us all calling it EvilTrackWorld….

I'm with no_eyed_dear on this one. You want people watching/bidding on your stuff as the red mist descends.

Once you get them excited and feeling like it's a personal insult if someone outbids them then they'll pay good money for what was (originally) a bargin 99p. No one is interested in a £1600 buy-it-now.

Oh, and don't bother with reserves. People will see that and not bother as hey know they won't get a 'bargain' even though in reality they will pay more at the end of the auction.

I normally put a 99p start on everything with a buy-it-now price. I get very little that sells for less than the b-i-n price.

Anyway, if you're after a Nomad it's a fair chance you have kit you want to bring over from your old bike so splitting higher end stuff is always policy.

Funny Clubber, all the other staff in BA have done their bit without complaint so the management must be doing something right.

Don't think you'll find much sympathy for the strike for those within BA that are not trolley dollies. Most haven't had a payrise for 3-4 years now.

Or more likely just noticed you were getting lots of payments that you paid fees for, and a couple that didn't – probably enough to trigger them. Maybe even worse if you're set up as a business user?

Not quite as tall as you, but I'm more than happy with my Kona Jake the Snake. I've got a 60cm one, I think they do a 62cm version as well.

I have to defend Sidis honour somewhat, I've got some very comfy Dominators in the Mega wide fitting, do me proud on and off road.

Daffy – best slipping yourself into a bike shop (or two) to try on different shoes. Lake also seem to be more of a sensible fitting shoe too, though my old Spec Pros were okay, just a touch too narrow for me.

Presuming you have an MTB is it not worth just putting SPDs on your road bike to keep a bit of flexibility in terms for shoe/cleat compatibility?

There's a yearly charity ride from Seahouses to Newcastle. One of the carparks has a restricted height barrier – you'd be amazed how many people drive there lovely roof mounted shiney bikes straight into it every year….

uplink – suppose it depends. c/c companies don't really care about anything less than £100 (thats why a lot of scams often get you for £97 or whatever). I think the OP was hinting at a 'clawback' from the card and I must have misread paypals interpretation.

Irrelevant anyway as the standard approach will get resolved.

Raise the problem with eBay/Paypal – because the seller is nor not a registered user you should get your money back pretty quickly – it's happened to me that way, you don't have to wait 20 days or whatever.

By the way, you can't snatch back the money from your credit card – you'd have to prove it was an unauthorised use of your card (say someone hacked in to your account), just you paying for it and then saying you didn't get the goods won't wash.

You should get a fairly prompt result using th normal channels.

Druidh – the 'smaller' retirement houses round ours are actually going for more than the bigger family house. The 2-bed bungalow beside me had a right old bun-fight going on, sold for £70K more than the next door 3-bed was going for!

Agree with Pieface – giving someone a rail network for a couple of years is hardly an open invitation for investment in the rolling stock.

Oh, and don't forget the Victorians built our current rail network. I'd like to see what the current shambles will make of it:-

building company: "we can do that for £25 and a bag of crisps by next week. (chat to you later about the job on the board"

government: "sold to the lowest bidder"

building company: "ah, now we've signed the contract we've noticed you actually want some work doing. We need 1000 billion. Oh, and twenty five years"

goverment: "here's the open cheque. After 30 years we'll write you out another one to stop your (non) work and declare everything a wonderful success in bringing Manchester only 7 hours train ride away from the centre of the world (London)."

public "erm, it only took 2 hours before you started work, and it now takes me 5 hours to drive into the centre of Manchester to get the high speed link to London"

Sorry but thats twaddle! I KNOW thats what fox quote, but a gentle rinse after a ride, wipe clean and lube the wiper seals and stanchions before use, put upside down for 5 mins to allow the internal oil to soak to the top bushing and they'll be fine.

That's fine for general maintenance. But have you tried having any warranty repairs done after servicing them yourself?

Maybe worth checking out eBay – people seem to sell a few low hole count hubs after they've mangled their fancy wheels in a crash and seen how much the replacement rim/spokes cost.

Depends what you want to do in retirement.

If you buy an expensive house and the prices go up, yes, you've made a profit.

A profit that will then be spent renting a property in your old age as you've never actually 'bought' a house, just like some say above, rented it off the bank.

If prices do go up then your 'profit' might not be enough to buy you that little retirement bungalow because their prices have gone through the roof too.

Not sure we're going to see house prices double in 5 years like we say a while ago. Probably settle down to a little, say, 5% rise a year so it might take you a long time even to cover the throwaway stamp duty fees/solicitors costs.

Go for the middle ground, maybe the best house you could afford on repayment.

Yep, all non-UK buyers now blocked from my auctions.

Maybe a bit harsh of Paypal if everyone is worried, though you do have to send it signed-for and no doubt a few other caveats (probably like confirmed addresses). If you do everything their way then they'll probably see in your favour but it does make you think….

Ah, checked the paypal rules on charge back – if I provide a valid proof of refund (ie paypal refund) then they won't come looking for me. Jobs a good 'un.

For info to people questioning how people can scam you when you already got the Paypal funds in the 'bank – there's such thing as a Paypal cargeback, basically the scammer uses a credit card to fund the paypal payment. He gets the goods, then tells the credit card company that it was an unauthorised use of the card (or he's not received the goods, plus a few other ways), then the credit card people demand the money back of paypal who then take it off the poor punter. They don't absorb the cost, and wipe their hands of it saying it's a credit card company decision. You suddenly end up without goods or the money.

Ed2001 – just for info, I wasn't suggesting all Latvians are scammers, he just happens to be from Latvia and is telling me a good yarn.

Anyway, Latvia is £100 postage including insurance from Parcelforce and I ain't running round finding deals for him, so refund it will be.

I was half tempted to say I've sent the frame then refund in a couple of weeks when he says it hasn't turned up!