Touring - Anyone pick up a 2003 Randonee off CL?

There was a blue one listed in suburban Chicago on Friday for $375 with "only 500 miles". The seller was either a flake, a shyster, inexperienced at selling things online or some combination of all of those; and I'm hoping someone here picked it up if it was a nice as it could have been (assuming it actually existed). Anyone got a new ride?

How out-of-line do you think the price is? I would say that that it's at the low end of fair market value but not crazy. An anxious seller may say $50 less is worth selling it fast.

I thought the price was fine. His evasive answers to some simple questions that made my think he was a shyster, and his inability to tell me where he was after inviting me to come look at it that made me wonder about the other 2 things.

How out-of-line do you think the price is? I would say that that it's at the low end of fair market value but not crazy. An anxious seller may say $50 less is worth selling it fast.
+1
I think what used bikes go for varies pretty widely, both geographically and on a case by case basis though.

There was a blue one listed in suburban Chicago on Friday for $375 with "only 500 miles". The seller was either a flake, a shyster, inexperienced at selling things online or some combination of all of those; and I'm hoping someone here picked it up if it was a nice as it could have been (assuming it actually existed). Anyone got a new ride?

Keep in mind that there are an equal amount of flakes who's browsing CL hoping to buy bikes for next to nothing or just simply kicking the tires and wasting the seller's time. When I sold my last bike, I had to weed out the TW (Time Wasters or tire kickers) and concentrate on the serious buyers and sometimes I would employ tactics like this like I would hide in one corner and observe who came to see my bikes. I decide if I want to appear and do the deal. Perhaps the seller thinks you're one of those TW or TK and that's why the seller is acting like that.

I've been through enough encounters that most of them are just wasting my time or want a bike for like 80% off asking like opps I only brought $100 for a $375 bike.

A friend of mine told me that his daughter had her bike stolen in Chicago, they put a different rack on it and made a couple other minor changes and put it on Craigs List. Since she did not have a record of the serial number or other documentation to prove she owned it, the police took no action against the seller.

That friend of mine told me that story over a year ago, that bike was not the recent posting that you mention.

Keep in mind that there are an equal amount of flakes who's browsing CL hoping to buy bikes for next to nothing or just simply kicking the tires and wasting the seller's time. When I sold my last bike, I had to weed out the TW (Time Wasters or tire kickers) and concentrate on the serious buyers and sometimes I would employ tactics like this like I would hide in one corner and observe who came to see my bikes. I decide if I want to appear and do the deal. Perhaps the seller thinks you're one of those TW or TK and that's why the seller is acting like that.

I've been through enough encounters that most of them are just wasting my time or want a bike for like 80% off asking like opps I only brought $100 for a $375 bike.

Agreed. I spent too many years working in sales to disagree with you on this - there are too many on both sides of the coin. But telling someone who's gone to the bank to get cash to come look at it and then not telling them where you are is a truly bizarre way of selling something. I think he'd either sold it to someone else, satisfied his wife that he'd tried to sell it without actually selling it or just went on the the next scam.

One of the companies I worked with when I was a salesman had an unofficial motto about not wasting time with jerks. It sounds like you figured this out too!

He's baaaack! This is exactly the same ad I responded to on Monday and then Tuesday of this week.
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/bik/3289659973.html