General Cycling Discussion - Good Questions to Ask (Stolen?)

I'm looking at this used bike:

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bik/2001561510.html

...for only $40.


Now either this could be a very good deal or it could be stolen. The bike is fairly new, so why would it be so cheap?

Anyways, what are some good questions to ask the seller to verify that they are the original owner? I may not be able to ask some questions because it (supposedly) belonged to his sister and it's a good alibi if he's unfamiliar.

Any good questions to ask?

Does it function? Several times I was interested in some bike for sale and asked what the models are, the owner didn't know, even though they said they just bought it recently. That sounded strange to me :rolleyes:

You could of course just ask him directly, how he responds, even if he lies, will help answer your question. Ask him if it is stolen and consider anything but a straight up, unhesitatingly spoken no as a yes. That's why cops ask if there are drugs in a car when they stop them, it isn't what they answer that's particularly important but how they answer.

You could of course just ask him directly, how he responds, even if he lies, will help answer your question. Ask him if it is stolen and consider anything but a straight up, unhesitatingly spoken no as a yes. That's why cops ask if there are drugs in a car when they stop them, it isn't what they answer that's particularly important but how they answer.

I suspect that if someone asked me that question, I'd have a very long hesitation while I considered the politest way of inquiring if they're a complete moron. :-)

If the seller is selling it from his house- and not meeting you downtown in a car park-- Then I would trust him.

$400 bike for $40? Heck of a deal, but agree - sketchy.

Too much talking, I recon it's probably already been sold :)

I don't know, but when I've contacted sellers about bikes where the seller was sketchy (and the bike was probably stolen) the sellers wanted a lot more than that. Cheaper bikes were always sellers that didn't know the worth and either sold before I contacted the seller or the seller figured out quickly it was too low and took down and relisted it.

"It belonged to somebody else and I don't know nuthin' about bikes" is also a good way to hide all sorts of problems like cracked frames, bent forks, etc.

Also consider that if a deal is too good to be true, it may be one of these runarounds where there just isn't any bike- more likely on the high-end than on a $40 bike, I would think.

What about low price because "I am leaving the states in a few days and cannot bring the bike with me"?

I had a person try to sell me a bike I'm pretty sure was stolen for that reason (well across the country), but on the other hand, I sold a car cheap for that reason as well, so it's hard to say.

If the seller is selling it from his house- and not meeting you downtown in a car park-- Then I would trust him.

Sometimes a neutral location is preferred. If you're the seller, you may not want strangers knowing where you live.

Pretty bold to post pics of a stolen bike on craigslist. It is odd they did not search on the bike and see it is $400 new.

Pretty bold to post pics of a stolen bike on craigslist. It is odd they did not search on the bike and see it is $400 new.Did you look at the spelling and grammar. Not odd at all. The hard thing to believe, is this guy has a sister smart enough to get into college.