“My loss is your gain…” is my favorite. I think its almost now required in the bike or bike parts description for the seller to start crying with: “My loss is your gain.”
And, if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard the sad story 100 times: the sellers in a dire financial situation. He would keep this fine, fast, aero, all-world, famous bike because its so good, but he just can’t. He would if he could, but he just can’t anymore. Please come take advantage of his plight (meanwhile his bike price is way too high!). His loss is YOUR GAIN.
And if you buy it at his price, it’s fixing to be A LOSS, YOU ARE FIXING TO HAVE!
“Ironman Ready Triathlon Bike” This is a good one, or just “Triathlon Bike,” which, as for the bike itself, it most often happens is NOT AT ALL A TRIATHLON BIKE but instead a Road Bike with clip on aero bars on it.The seller figures some newbie won’t worry about the standard triathlon frames. All you have to do on Ebay to call the bike, a “triathlon bike” is stick some aero bars on a road bike. It could be a Mongoose or Schwin Continental or Huffy Roadster, just add aero bars: it’s a Triathlon Bike.
“WOW!” Love this one in the ITEM DESCRIPTION. WOW! The seller has a bike for sale and in the title he himself isn’t ashamed to get excited about what a deal he is giving you in the title. “WOW!” or “WOW NO RESERVE” Turns out, its not a very good bike. “WOW!”
Then there’s these two themes: “I’ve have X amount of dollars invested in this bike,” and/or “retails for X.” This is used to sometimes justify a high price. I always want to email them and tell them, well, go take it to your bike shop then, see what your LBS will give you for all of your investment in it for six years: what are you doing out here telling us about this?
The question is, what’s it worth RIGHT NOW? Somebody will have an six year old QR Kilo, with 4,000 invested in it. Well, it’s worth barely 600 bucks today, buddy. Sorry you did that but you get no points for what you put into it.
By putting those others in the title…everyone searching for those will pull up this listing. More views = more competion = better selling price.
Remember…this isn’t about impressing folks with a paltry bit of bike knowledge or wording format…I don’t really care if I sell my stuff to a 250lb gorilla who will squash that previously treasured vintage frame…I just want to get the most money I can for the item.
I forgot about the sellers who take pictures of the “Odometer” total mileage figure to prove total mileage. “This bike only has 134 miles on it…” Then over on the right side is a picture of the odometer showing 134 miles on it. Okay. That’s that. Done. I doubted him. We doubted him. Its 134 Miles! He proved it!
Then there’s the seller which has a bike “with an issue” but as the seller claims, “it” doesn’t “affect the performance” of the bike or bike part. There’s a dent in the rim but it still brakes well, it just unfortunately makes a “clicking sound,” when you try to brake. But it doesn’t “affect performance.” His idea of performance is: the brake still stops the wheel. My idea of performance is that it should stop the wheel and not make any unusual sound. I think performance includes “sounds” too.
Then you don’t understand… I think CG understands it just fine.
**By putting those others in the title…everyone searching for those will pull up this listing. **Yeah, that’s the part that’s damned annoying. If I’m searching for a Cervelo, it’s annoying to pull up 30 ads for a bike that specifically is NOT a Cervelo.
Here’s one of my favorites “Raced in X race to X placing (usually a win or close to it)” as if some of that engine will rub off on the saddle only to be re-adsorbed into the butt of the next person riding it.
Or how about “never crashed”. Maybe. It might be more truthful to say “fell over at a stop light once and then put the bike away in the garage” or better still “paid too much, never ridden”.
You got it Vitus. I tend to be quite specific when purchasing something on ebay. If I’m buying a Cervelo I want to see Cervelo listings, not a whole bunch of “not cervelo” listings.
I understand why vendors do it, but still find it annoying.
that includes all the unverifiable claims. There is currently some HED wheels up that says they were ridden just once in Kona this year by pro Alexander Taubert. Maybe or maybe not but how could you prove it and does it matter?
Remember, Booth…we’re selling to the LCD, not you. I, you, and most others see through this sort of BS…but the guy that’s willing to pay $4000 for that 6 year old QR…well, he doesn’t…If the seller can convince that person to shell out that sort of $, good on him…otherwise…he’ll get the $600 that it is worth from the savvy buyer…UNLESS he really IS crazy and sets his reserve up there around that $4000 mark…then he’s just a wishful idiot.
Ebay is a good game, IF you know how to play…I once got a $2100 2002 Specialized road bike in a November 2001 (yes, two months BEFORE the model’s calender year started, and about 2 months after release)…for $800. Brand new bike. I couldn’t touch that price even with a 25% discount at my favorite LBS. I took the remaing $1300 and zooted it and my cycling wardrobe up at the LBS.
I have gotten more than full MSRP on items several years old…just by listing them with all these crazy ways. I don’t lie about the items. I just say what gets noticed. “WOW, look at this vintage pair of Sidi road shoes.” Sidi Genius cycling shoes NOT Carnac/Northwave/Vittoria/Nike. I got $1400 or so for an 8 year old Computrainer 3d. The thing was immaculate, and worth as good as new, but I’d be damned if I would have paid that much for one that old, I don’t care if it was kept in the box from delivery to sale. But somebody wanted one that badly. Its just about listing it for maximum exposure, at the right time, and a bit of luck as well.
“This bike was maintained by me, a professional bike shop mechanic.” - but not to be confused with “maintained at the LBS by a mechanic”.
We all can’t be shop mechanics, plus being actually have been one for a while, I know for a fact that there is always someone you can unload your truly good stuff on without using Ebay.
Or if you are the kind of mechanic like I am who never sells anything because “that old Ofmega crankset would be wicked cool on a fixie” (that I’ve yet to and never will build).
I’ve got to to say…I DO always feel a little silly…AND ANNOYING when I put those not xxxx parts in… but hey… a man’s got to support his tri-habit somehow!
I don’t know if you guys would consider it a cliche…
I’m continually gutted by the folks who list bikes, even top-shelf bikes, without putting in basic measurements like frame size and wheel size…as if I can tell it is the size I’m looking for by their grainy, slanted, sunspotted VGA res photo.
More annoying to me than the not this not that listings are the JUST LIKE XXXXXX listings. Same principle. But the dolt uses 5 extra spaces from the limited amount of available space in the title…he could have stuck TREK in the title…thousands of the Lance bandwagonners would have seen that listing… So this one is annoying to me on TWO levels. One, it AIN’T just like XXXXXX, and two, you suck as a seller.
if you do an advanced search on ebay you can search for cevelo and then under excluded words put in “not cervelo” and it will exclude a lot of the ads for products you don’t want.
I don’t dispute it is real (in this case) I am just saying there are so many people who put claims that are not verifiable by anyone. In this case I would believe HED, ( I ride their wheels and trust them) just using as an example really