randyjawa 

In all honesty, I could not believe the poor people skills or marketing effort of this seller (134031636667). Take a moment to read his or her complete description and feed back negative comments. Good grief! I hope that he or she in not a fellow Bike Forums member.

Colorado Kid

Don't feel bad. I was interested in a used bike. The seller wanted $100.00 less then a new bike. She didn't want to come down on the price because she said so. She couldn't tell me anything about the bike. I made her a good offer and she said, "Have a nice life". I guess she really didn't want to sell it that bad.

jdawginsc 

The only truly bad experience I had was when I won a bid for a group at a fantastic price.

The seller cancelled the sale because it wasn’t high enough (it was advertised as no reserve) and they took 4 days before they refunded the money.

When I asked why it was cancelled and why 4 days before refund, the seller responded, “because I can.”

Another buyer cancelled a sale of a group and apologized profusely that they goofed up and no longer had it. I can respect that.

randyjawa 

I can only wonder how often this sort of rudeness is displayed on the part of the seller. Rarely do I pinpoint a situation but this time I did. I hope more responses, pertaining to the seller's attitude and presentation come out in this thread. It would benefit us all to know which sellers to avoid. I might add that the targeted seller has other equally misleading listings. One can only wonder - oops, I said that already.

As for having to cancel due to low price. I have never and will never do that. In fact, I no longer auction unless I start at what I would expect at a minimum. Why? Because, I had to sell a lovely Legnano frame, fork and head set for seventy bucks to the high bidder. I hated to let that frame set go. I did, however, learn an important lesson.

Spaghetti Legs 

My guess is the percentage of dirtbags on eBay is about the same as in real life, higher than one would like. A few years ago I was high bid on a Merckx at a very good but not amazing price. Paid my money and waited. After a few days of crickets I sent a message asking when to expect shipping info and then the sale was cancelled and my money refunded. Turns out the place was a bike shop (upstate NY but not Piermont) so I called and asked what's up. Guy told me he sold the bike to someone else and I asked why I then had to ask to get my money back and he replied "what are you gonna do, call the cops?"

My opinion that people who routinely resort to these type interactions must by necessity lead joyless lives and I've found it best to move on quickly and leave them to their misery before I catch any of it.

mstateglfr 

The seller has 2 negative responses and 155 positive responses in the last 12 months.

Move along folks, nothing to see here, just some ebay complaining because a seller is too direct and unkind with words.

BFisher

It's eBay. Still a big source for hard to find stuff, but sure, some users may not inspire confidence. I rarely, if ever, buy from sellers with less than 100% feedback score. Poor communication = instant pass no matter how much I want the thing. Having said that, I've had way more positive experiences than negative. Way, way more.

gugie 

Given a large enough group of people, a certain percentage are stupid. This is expanded upon and proven in the video, below.

himespau 

My problem with that, is, once the sale is cancelled (or you get a refund from a product that didn't ship), you can no longer leave negative feedback. Even if it took a week or more and you had to get eBay involved to get the refund because the seller refused to respond.

swampyankee2

Too bad about the sellers attitude in the OP's post. Especially since he is local to me. Glad I'm not into those types of antique bikes.

In all my hobbies past and present, I've met some people that have become lifelong friends, and others that are just miserable souls. People that generously share in the spirit of comradery, and others who seem to think they are selling priceless artifacts. Fortunately, in my short time on BikeForums.net I've found only the nicest, helpful folks who seem to generous with their knowledge and patient with my ignorance.

delbiker1 

I have had a couple bad experiences with Ebay sellers, but by far, the sellers I have dealt with have been helpful if they can be. Having sellers that cannot tell anyone much about the product is not surprising. IMO, one has to understand where and how they are purchasing goods, and by default, realize the risk. The one that still bugs me if I am reminded of it, is a frameset that I purchased at a low price, and no reserve. The seller canceled the order due to dollars not being high enough. The reasoning was that they thought they were selling it to someone overseas and would be able to make the profit off of what they would charge to ship it overseas. They could not do that with it being shipped conus as the shipping cost was stated upfront.

USAZorro

What I see is a stem that I would be embarrassed to contribute to the box-o-crap for sale at an incomprehensible amount - and described in the auction details as a crank. I see a few other current items offered at special "no thank you" prices.

Looking back a bit, I see items that seem to have been sold for reasonable sums. Quite curious.

Haven't used e-Bay since the Eriol experience - largely because I have enough projects to keep me occupied, and because trades seem to go better when attempting to get the occasional item necessary that isn't on-hand.

fender1

Ebay is for buyers only. If you willingly buy from someone who runs a listing like this, you will more than likely be dissapointed by the experience.

I had two recent ebay sales one for a set of cranks and another set of brakes that put me off ebay selling going forward.

In additon, you now get the added benefit of having to pay taxes on your sales over $600! Hooray! (sarcasm)

70sSanO

While it doesn’t foster a good buying experience, there are probably exponentially more buyers that receive an item and then claim it was not as advertised and want a discount. I think it is really difficult for sellers on eBay these days.

I see it as someone who has bike parts in an array of condition just saying this is the part, it may be junk, if you really want it, get it and don’t complain afterward that you didn’t realize it was junk.

I have had many more good experiences than bad on eBay as a buyer. That said, I am hesitant to sell on eBay.

John

CliffordK

The guy seems to have good photos, and indicates that he would answer questions.

For a century old bike, I would have no expectation that the stem size would be standardized. So, I'd expect the stem diameter and bar diameter to be measured with a caliper.

The one thing I find annoying is the irrelevant keywords he has put under "Item Specifics".

Coca Cola, Rectangular, Square, Tractor, Gas Station, Porcelain Sign... It is hard to imagine what the guy thinks he is selling.

gugie 

Oregon (no sales tax) ftw!

fender1

Not just sales tax my friend......

"Since the beginning of the new year, Venmo, PayPal, and other so-called peer-to-peer payment platforms are required to report income to the IRS if a user accumulates at least $600 in business transactions a year."

repechage

Things happen- I won a competitively bid auction for a bike, knowing a friend would buy it straight away, not to make a profit but to get him a replica of his bike from 46 years ago.
paid promptly, nada.
a week later get a eBay message reply that maybe for $1,000 more he Might sell it... and it now had sentimental value...
( isn't that what reserves are for?)
finally got eBay on the phone, they stated they would give him a black mark... they read the messages and said, "that's so wrong"
what good is that?
still took another 30 days to get my money back.

jethin

Came for the pooey stinko. Left disappointed.

gugie 

Oh crap.

What constitutes a business transaction?

CliffordK

The most annoying group of sellers on E-Bay in general are the junkyard auto parts dealers.

Look for a transmission for your car, and some will post a photo of a transmission out of any old jalopy. Not the one they're selling, and not even the same make and model that they're selling.

Here is an example.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194138595667

None of the axles in the photo are being sold, or perhaps even related to the one being sold.

You have dig deep in the description to figure out what car they may fit. Why not put the sub-model in the title? And, I'm still not quite sure what it fits other than my car is FWD, and this one is listed as RWD.

I've asked sellers to send a photo of what they put in the box before they ship... NOPE.

And, of course, they expect the buyer to have 100% responsibility for ordering the right one, or all the subunits ordered actually being included.

BFisher

Almost spit my soup out!
You win the thread.

gugie 

"The tax-reporting change only applies to charges for commercial goods or services, not personal charges to friends and family, like splitting a dinner bill."

Wondering if using the "friends and family" payment gets around this. I always use the Friends and Family option with BF members, since I trust them. Won't work with people you don't know on eBay, you'll want the protection that giving Paypal a taste of the action provides.

scarlson 

Between you, me, and everyone we know? nothing.

I've been researching this for offloading things prior to upcoming aspirationally-planned move (coincidentally out of the state this seller is from..) and yes, they'll kick you a 1099 no question, but you don't have to report it if they are personal items sold at a loss. You don't even have to touch the 1099. Don't have to include it on your return. Yes, the IRS has a copy of it too, but it's your choice whether or not to file it.

And if you do get an audit, which is highly unlikely for anything under maybe 10k, you say they are personal items and likely they'll accept that. It's rare that they'd ask for proof, unless you really smell like a business. If they do ask for proof, you say that you bought these personal items in private transactions with cash. They can't get you.

And, yes, F&F gets around any IRS reporting. We're all friends here, and it's all personal items, so I say it's not even a little bit illegal.

merziac

Anything other than a cash sale.