Seeing a lot of bogus bike listings on ebay

[Redd Rockett]

Is anyone else seeing these? Lately I have noticed a lot of sellers on ebay posting $200 Walmart beach cruisers for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, like this one. This guy's description says that this bike is from the 1950's and it belonged to his deceased grandfather and it has been stored for many years. Also that it is all original, nothing has ever been changed. This bike is obviously fairly new, and there are tons of obvious giveaways that it is a modern bike, to point out just a few, the gel seat for example (which also says Gel right on the seat) , the tube style forks and also the down tube is a dead giveaway. Not to mention many other things. I don't know if these sellers are actually that stupid, or just don't know anything about what they are even selling, or if these are some kind of scam. One of my friends thinks it's a scam, another one of my friends thinks that some people just don't know anything about bikes, and another friend just plain thinks it's hilarious.

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Like P.T. Barnum once said,”There’s a sucker born every minute “ !!

 

[Redd Rockett]

Like P.T. Barnum once said,”There’s a sucker born every minute “ !!

LOL yep! I just hope that nobody falls for this!

 

[twojs.bike]

The reflectors are a huge give away. They weren’t putting reflectors on bikes in the 1950s. As far as I know anyways. I wasn’t here yet.

 

[Redd Rockett]

The reflectors are a huge give away. They weren’t putting reflectors on bikes in the 1950s. As far as I know anyways. I wasn’t here yet.

Yeah not on the spokes at least. There are many giveaways on this bike. It's weird that the seller doesn't see it. Unless he's a scammer.

 

[user 35233]

"Collectable Vintage Classic Bikes"
They paid thousands for classic replicas and now they're trying to recoup their losses.

 

[Captain Awesome]

"Collectable Vintage Classic Bikes"
They paid thousands for classic replicas and now they're trying to recoup their losses.View attachment 240652
View attachment 240653

That guy has been rehashing and reposting that same Jacksonville ad for at least a year maybe two

 

[ingola]

People see cantilever they think classic look at Facebook and Craigslist every new beach cruiser is antique or vintage and every bike with high handlebars and a banana seat is a stingray (mustang here in Canada)

 

[user 35233]

That guy has been rehashing and reposting that same Jacksonville ad for at least a year maybe two

Nice to know we're all reading the same thing. This is like a book club.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Scam someone out of $1900 and then still charge them $269 for shipping. Nice.

 

[Redd Rockett]

That guy has been rehashing and reposting that same Jacksonville ad for at least a year maybe two

Wow. That's crazy!

 

[Poor Side of Town]

EBAY claims to investigate fraud . I had a situation where I bought a propane torch , it didn't melt steel girders the way they claimed it would . After 5 minutes it stopped working . I contacted MRTORCH and was told to give them my credit card info , and they would credit my account . Paid with PAYPAL and was told by MRTORCH it takes 20 days to process a refund . I called PAYPAL , and got my account credited , pronto . What I dislike most , is the pidgon english replies to tech questions when a problem exists

 

[user 35233]

What I dislike most , is the pidgon english replies to tech questions when a problem exists

Curious transferral of liability from employer to employee, product to person. Where the impoverished vilify indigence corporate propaganda has previously prevailed.

*Pidgin

 

[musclebikemadman]

Like P.T. Barnum once said,”There’s a sucker born every minute “ !!

And like I always say "there is a scum bag loser born right after"

 

[R Wheeler]

When I see local ads on FB or CL that state “vintage” when the item is clearly newer, I usually chalk it up to people either not caring enough to use the proper terminology or simply aren’t educated or aware enough to express proper verbiage. To many people, the terms “vintage” or “antique” are interchangeable with terms like “retro” or “collectible” (kinda along the same lines as people who think all vintage bikes are Schwinns- I call this The Band-Aid Effect).
That said, there are lots of people who truly cannot tell the difference between something that is retro and made to look older (ie: the tin sign fad) and a real deal vintage item. I chalk this up to short attention spans and our throwaway society. People don’t know what anything old and well built even looks like anymore because everything is plastic and replaceable. We have to keep in mind that we lovers of antique items are kind of a niche population. There are plenty of other people who are quite aware of this though, and are more than willing to take full advantage of those with less knowledge. These are the people whom I think we’re dealing with here.
There are still others though. There’s a bike for sale local to me, a very good condition black ‘63 Schwinn Tiger, that has a price tag of $1,000. Sure, it’s a nice bike that has been parked in a basement for years after barely being ridden, and it’s got great original tires and near perfect chrome- but it’s still a single speed base model bike that was pumped out by the thousands. They don’t know what they have, they only know it’s a Schwinn and have dollar signs in their eyes. I can’t fault them, except for having not taken the time to actually research it. They just know they have a fancy lure and are hoping to land a big fish. This I attribute to laziness and greed, the most common thing we all run across.
This guy though… seems like kind of a combination of all of them with an extra dash of patience and pinch of stupid. If he waits long enough he may get what he wants, but in the meantime he’s got a small horse to move around and we get to laugh at him. Should we care enough to hate him? Maybe, but it’s a waste of time.

 

[Poor Side of Town]

Resellers * know * what they paid The problem is when a real ' barn find ' exists , the owner thinks it's crazy valuable , when in reality it's a treasure , not a Cash Cow .

 

[Redd Rockett]

When I see local ads on FB or CL that state “vintage” when the item is clearly newer, I usually chalk it up to people either not caring enough to use the proper terminology or simply aren’t educated or aware enough to express proper verbiage. To many people, the terms “vintage” or “antique” are interchangeable with terms like “retro” or “collectible” (kinda along the same lines as people who think all vintage bikes are Schwinns- I call this The Band-Aid Effect).
That said, there are lots of people who truly cannot tell the difference between something that is retro and made to look older (ie: the tin sign fad) and a real deal vintage item. I chalk this up to short attention spans and our throwaway society. People don’t know what anything old and well built even looks like anymore because everything is plastic and replaceable. We have to keep in mind that we lovers of antique items are kind of a niche population. There are plenty of other people who are quite aware of this though, and are more than willing to take full advantage of those with less knowledge. These are the people whom I think we’re dealing with here.
There are still others though. There’s a bike for sale local to me, a very good condition black ‘63 Schwinn Tiger, that has a price tag of $1,000. Sure, it’s a nice bike that has been parked in a basement for years after barely being ridden, and it’s got great original tires and near perfect chrome- but it’s still a single speed base model bike that was pumped out by the thousands. They don’t know what they have, they only know it’s a Schwinn and have dollar signs in their eyes. I can’t fault them, except for having not taken the time to actually research it. They just know they have a fancy lure and are hoping to land a big fish. This I attribute to laziness and greed, the most common thing we all run across.
This guy though… seems like kind of a combination of all of them with an extra dash of patience and pinch of stupid. If he waits long enough he may get what he wants, but in the meantime he’s got a small horse to move around and we get to laugh at him. Should we care enough to hate him? Maybe, but it’s a waste of time.

What also drives me crazy is the complete misuse of the word 'retro'. So often do I see an ad that either says 'vintage retro', or the post is something old (not necessarily a bike) and it will say 'retro'. Retro means made to look old, such as a beach cruiser bicycle. If it's old, then it's old, or vintage if you prefer, it's not 'retro', it's the REAL THING. People just think everything is 'retro' whether its old or not. Not only do they not take the time to research what they are actually selling, but they obviously can't be bothered to look up words in a dictionary either.

Resellers * know * what they paid The problem is when a real ' barn find ' exists , the owner thinks it's crazy valuable , when in reality it's a treasure , not a Cash Cow .

Right. Perfect example here. This guy has, at least in my opinion, a $40-$50 bike. It is very rough and it is nothing special. I don't know where people get these prices. They see an old bike and they automatically think it's a gold bar.

 

[68z27]

I agree with the above comments. It is the same/similar of the "old" car market. Someone with an abandoned clapped out hulk returning to its natural elements is viewed as a gold mine due to watching these auto auctions and pseudo reality TV shows that are getting 5 & 6 figure $$ amounts. This has been going on in the car market for the last few decades and has pushed ownership out of reach for the regular "working Joe".

 

[Redd Rockett]

I agree with the above comments. It is the same/similar of the "old" car market. Someone with an abandoned clapped out hulk returning to its natural elements is viewed as a gold mine due to watching these auto auctions and pseudo reality TV shows that are getting 5 & 6 figure $$ amounts. This has been going on in the car market for the last few decades and has pushed ownership out of reach for the regular "working Joe".

True. There used to be a YouTube video titled '20 Grand, man' or something like that, it was this guy who had an old Indian motorcycle that looked like it was unsavable long ago and was literally sunken into the ground. Looked like it was sitting out there for decades and appeared to be junk, unfortunately. But the guy thought he was sitting on $20,000.

 

[rickpaulos]

Scam someone out of $1900 and then still charge them $269 for shipping. Nice.

$269 is typical quote from UPS or Fedex these days. Bikeflights bookings are far less even though they use UPS to do the actual shipping. Be sure to pay Bikeflights the extra for insurance. UPS specifically won't cover third party bookings.