polymorphself 

Many people appear to have luck on eBay around here. Meanwhile I don't seem to find much of anything that isn't super inflated. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be looking internationally as well? Not searching certain sections? Mostly looking at frames and full bikes, not components.

ridelikeaturtle

Search french, dutch, italian, and german ebay.
Search on frame material (e.g. "columbus"), and use non-english terms ("velo", "bici", "rahmen", etc.).

Be patient.

scarlson 

Choose your keywords carefully. Use the "cycling" category but leave it at that (because there's "vintage cycling" and then there's "frames" and they're different categories but both can contain what you want), sort price-ascending, and click the little link that says "view all results". Try again and again with misspellings and different words based on your knowledge of dialect. If you know a foreign language and dialects, repeat searches on foreign ebay in foreign language. Don't be scared to message people with offers, or ask "local pickup only" people if they might ship if you send them a Bikeflights label. Be persistent.

jdawginsc 

My best frame buys have been Italy. Even with the shipping.

Input Telaio bici Columbus!

MrK.

This...I finally found the TA Cyclotouriste crankset I have been looking for on Ebay France.

SurferRosa

That's a hot tip.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/Telaio-Bici-...b-9e49dfa6c582

dedhed

Spell things wrong as people are poor spellers

Piff 

Just as with Craigslist, use vague, accurate keywords and sift through many many pages of listings. I recently bought a couple NOS wool/poly (80/20) jerseys for $30 bucks each, but it took a couple hours to find them.

r0ckh0und 

As other have suggested it's all about keywords. After you check the results continue scrolling through the results with fewer keyword matches. Many items are poorly listed and with incorrect information.......you can sometimes find deals this way as the seller has not done their research. You can also do saved searches and get alerts when desired items are newly listed. Attractively priced items can sell in a matter of minutes thru BIN

randyjawa 

I check out Ebay every day, except when I am riding in Jamaica. Perseverance is tip one.

Know the prices as best you can by looking at completed auctions. Knowledge is step two.

Then, as others have mentioned, be patient. Patience is step three.

Spend. If it is really hard to find, or rare, or unusual, be prepared to bid high. That is tip number four.

Don't hesitate. More than one really good deal got away because I did not have the guts to commit and spend the money immediately. Tip five - sometimes just buy immediately or you might not get another chance. I have lost good buys through hesitation.

No sure if "get lucky" can be considered a tip but it is part of the game. The more perseverance and patience you apply, the luckier you get - something like that.

For what it is worth, patience is a big one. Actually, luck is right up there with patience. And I have gotten lucky, on Ebay, many times. The most recent lucked out offered me a NOS late sixties cottered crank and bottom bracket, all for under $100.00. Check out old cottered Legnano crank sets and you will understand what a good deal this was/in...


The same thing happened with a recently purchased Columbus decal for an old Torpado. I got the Torpada and a couple of weeks later a very hard to find sticker showed up on Ebay. Actually, two were offered and I bought them both cheap...


This has happened many many times, over the years. Patience, perseverance and luck will all help out. And...

If you do run into a listing that offers something needed or wanted or similar to, do not hesitate to contact the seller and ask if he, or she, happens to have this or that that you need. I have found unusual stuff this way also. This Legnano embossed heas set hit was priced as "Buy It Now" for a very low price. I bought it with-in minutes of its being listed. I paid immediately. The seller contacted me later in the day and said that he, or she, had made a mistake. He or she had intended to list the head set for $100.00 US. A long story ensure but the seller turned out to be a decent person and honored the transaction. Don't hesitate sometimes...


The last tip that I can offer is communicate. Ask any and all questions that come to mind. Keep a record of what you asked and what answers you received, just in case of a dispute later on. If the seller is slow to respond or responds with little care - go elsewhere! If he or she cannot be bother to communicate I see it as a red flag and forget about the item (usually).

Anyway, hope this is helpful

nlerner

Turn off your computer. Ride your bike.

jonnybgoode

I search and then click on sold items. If I find what I’m looking for I reach out to that seller. They sometimes have ability to get more of that item!

Reynolds 531 

My pro tip is to add " - The Pros Closet " into every search because they are a terrible seller.

smontanaro 

Set up saved searches so you get notified of new listings and don't have to go back again and again wading through stuff you've already seen. (Sort your search by "newly listed".) I used to use eBay's saved search facility extensively, but most of my stuff is now done via inoreader.com. (it's an RSS reader - I use it as my home page in Chrome.) I collect lots of different searches there (bits I'm interested in, people I know or follow, bike shops I follow). It also serves as a way to organize all my searches in one place - news, eBay, science/tech, Craigslist, etc.

Sometimes you have to search multiple ways. For example, I have a search for 60-64cm frames, but also have a search for vintage frames. The second turns up a lot of frames of no interest (too small or large, old school BMX, etc), but every now and then shows a frame which for some reason the 60-64cm search missed (likely because the size wasn't clear in the listing). When you're scanning for frames, you will quickly learn how to guesstimate the frame's size by the head tube and can quickly scan past a lot of uninteresting stuff.

wrk101

+1000 Do not hesitate! I routinely get messages from people who were watching my item: "Hey, what happened to your listing, I can't find it!" Uh, wake up there buddy, it SOLD. If you want it, don't wait for an even better deal, as someone else will be buying. I can't get over the number of messages I get like this, people wanted to buy my item, but were waiting to see if they could find an even better deal. They will ask "do you have another one?" "No."

+10 Know values, so you are comfortable pouncing.

Sort by price, lowest first. There are always people asking sky high prices.

Buy handlebars with controls. I bought a handlebar with stem, brake levers and bar end shifters. Price was less than what the bar end shifters sell for. I sold the stem for more than I paid for the entire setup. There are sellers out there that are unwilling or unable to disassemble handlebar/controls/stem assembly. I am there to help them out! Do the same with derailleurs. Sometimes you can find shift levers, FD and RD for less than the RDs are selling for. Buyers tend to look for ONE thing, like the RD, and skip right by a listing that has more. Ditto brake calipers and levers. You can sometimes find a complete set for what the levers alone are selling for.

I am OK buying extra stuff in a package I don't need, if the price is right. Then you can resell the extra stuff, and offset some of the $$, sometimes you can offset the entire price paid. Nothing better than FREE vintage parts!!

The typical buyer out there has NO IMAGINATION! Use your imagination and you will get a better deal.


Local pickup only, if it is within driving distance of you, can be a great deal. Picked up a nice bike for $15 that way.

Search the entirety of Ebay, not a category. I bought a nice Trek 620, it was in Transportation Collectibles category, and they didn't list the model in the listing either. Even funnier, it was a listing from a storefront Ebay outfit, so some fool paid them to do a lousy job of selling his bike.

If its a bike or frame that will be shipped, I check the seller's feedback first. If they don't have multiple positives on prior bike shipments, I avoid.


But all in all, my best deals tend to be items I buy on road trips: C/L, FB marketplace, thrift stores, whatever.

Old Fireleg

I don't know with which local setting works the ebay elsewhere, but for me (here in Central Europe) .com also displays this Italian frame. Just like everything from Australia over South Africa to Canada. But I don't see anything from Latin America, maybe they don't ride a bike there ... (sorry) The Germans have an ebay-Kleinanzeige.de for the domestic market, but you can talk to them from time to time for foreign transport as well (at least to Europe). Along with the little things, I bought a Pinarello Prestige and a Basso Ascot frames from this ebay-Kleinanzeige. Also, some serious things (frame, bike) also appear in sync on .com (usually more expensive)


I hunt like this: I go into the Cycling category of ebay and then type the brand in the search engine (maybe some extra info next to it). I set them to be up to date. And finally I save it to the Firefox's (explorer, etc.) bookmarksdirectory in a folder called ebay. Then, every day (or less), I just look through my saved bookmarks. It brings the new pieces nicely, no need to typing, just one click. I think a lot of people do that.

jet sanchEz

I'd use google to search Craigslist and then the facilitators thread if something really neat pops up.

Whit51 

+1 when I bought my my Univega Specialissima online many years ago, there were few if any other bidders because is was advertised as a Nivega. A pump clip or something was obscuring the U in Univega.. The seller was obviously clueless.

ohjonnybegoode

Agree with what other folks above have said... if you see something you want at a decent buy it now price...snag it. This is how I just got my grail bike after years of searching...a new Waterford is way out of my price range...and I searched eBay for years to find one my size and at a decent price. When I saw this one, I didn’t hesitate and am so happy I didn’t.

Also try searching auctions that are close to ending soon...I got my Davidson that way...for some reason no one bid on it...I was the first and only bidder and got it for a song...

USAZorro

If searching Internationally, and you want something 60's or earlier, "ancien" is your friend.

JaccoW

It helps switching over to other localized versions of eBay. Today I came across a seller in Hungary that sells decals for a large number of bikes and ships internationally. Every url should be the same right?

• eBay.com - 14 results
• eBay.co.uk - 272 results
• eBay.fr - 272 results
• eBay.de - 272 results
• eBay.nl - 272 results
• eBay.co.jp - not found

And every single country shows a different order.

DiegoFrogs

I've never executed on it, but I usually search for "Fugi."

Not being the dumbest marble in the shed can have it's advantages.

Old Fireleg

Interesting, I pushed for your .com links and I got 279 results . There may be some local throttling in some countries. Maybe it’s in the background, my country doesn’t have its own ebay site.

DeLoreanDMC81

I've started searching internationally, as well. I would have friends that found cool stuff, but it came from Germany, or some other part of the world.

So I've branched out some. lol

James

RiddleOfSteel

As an owner of a 'rider' quality (paint-wise) Davidson Impulse--in the same 64cm size, even--I would think it fitting if those were people's Grail Bikes, they're that good. I've tried a lot of steel race frames, and yes wheel/tire choice is very important and has an affect on things, but get the Impulse right (or right-er) and it will show you its brilliance. I got lucky on CL and found my Impulse as a frameset for a crazy low price. It was almost sunk by a meh set of wheels and tires upon my first building of it, but I kept it around, found "its" wheels and "its" tires over time (aka pretty recently), then paired them with a groupset that matched it's apex predator capability (10s Ultegra Di2). It's not even close how good it is and how much better it is than other race-geo steel.

Yet still, because I am smart, I look at other frames to buy and try and build up. A Paramount of numerous vintages in my size, in race geometry (my '74 P15 is superb, but let's get lighter!) is still on my list. Glad you found your Waterford for such a deal!