Originally Posted by
70sSanO
Basically you buy a $10k bike on credit and sell it for $5k and buy a $5k bike with cash. No one could find your sold $10k bike to re-possess it.
The serial number could be marked as stolen, and the next time the S/N pops up, who ever is holding the bike is out of luck, potentially even if it wasn't reported stolen until after the person bought it.
The same thing is currently happening in the cell phone world. Many cell phones are financed in one way or another. There is a risk that a person will acquire a cell phone by one method or another. Then resell it before anybody noticed that it is either stolen or not paid for. Then the cell company will "brick" the phone leaving the buyer with a non-working phone. Many E-Bay sellers don't guarantee their IMEI is "clean".