Originally Posted by
madpogue
Okay, I was going just on the close-up. Yeah, that's two different bikes. Adds a whole new smell to the ad.
Even worse, I think it's the same bike involved, note the black zip tie on the white cable housing in all the photos. Almost looks like the seller put on a more modern water-slide decal for auction ... but why? Why would anyone add to the questionability of the bike when the original decal wasn't cracked and split like they normally get after a couple decades? (which is also suspect, why wasn't the original decal dicked up like it normally would be after that much time?)
And I'm still sitting here asking myself, why in the world would Sears actually contract someone to build a 531 frame with a cottered crank and stamped dropouts yet not bother with the fork decal? It's an illogical example of spendy-cheap-cheap-cheap. And with no signs of a fork blade decal, maybe is main-triangle 531 only, which is the only explanation that could possibly fit for me given the DO and crankset? But you're right, still doesn't smell quite right either way.
It's stuff like this that doesn't quite sit right with me. And yet another reason I don't like the auction site much anymore. Auctions
like this don't help much either, but at least they edited their auction to acknowledge the damage.