dashuaigeh

Just took a trip to Houston. Worst trip ever. Went to go pick up two bikes that fellow BF member habes78023, who very helpfully picked up both a sweet Mercier for my friend (almost full arabesque 600, great shape, Columbus tretubi) and a Panasonic DX-5000 for me with full tricolor 600. I also ended up picking up two eh-mediocre bikes for friends who needed rides back in Austin (Miyata 512 and Fuji Del Rey).

Problem: I had emailed the DX-5000 seller before, and asked him condition. He said it was good with a few paint chips. Turns out the top tube has some serious rust on it (so much that I'd worry about riding it) and to make it worse, there's a dent in the top tube that neither habes nor I caught at first (it was night when habes picked it up...and it's a black bike). The seatpost had somehow corroded from a 26.6 to a 26.5 diameter and no longer fit well in the seat tube, which was rusty on the inside too. Even the Tricolor QR skewers had rusted shut. The Tricolor setup itself was OK, but not great - visible road rash on both the RD and levers.

So, in addition to a 9mph-over-the-speed-limit ticket I got on the highway, this bike puts me at a loss of about $200 counting gas (I'm not sure how much I can flip something like this for). I'm trying to see if Paypal can cover me in any way, but I'm not optimistic. Plain and simple, I'm going to admit this was my fault for buying a bike I hadn't seen and trusting a seller I didn't know. But I'm hoping I'm at least not the only one who has made bad buys like this in the past.

marley mission

ouch - lesson learned i guess

MarylandDeRosa

I bought a Trek 670 on eBay, seller takes bike to shipping place to mail it for him. The shipper proceeds to "custom make" a shipping box the exact size of the frame and jams the rims and everything else taken off of the bike into the box. No bubble wrap, foam peanuts or anything else to protect the bike and ships it on it's merry way. lol Luckily I got my money back in a few weeks, bike had to get picked up and went to Texas I believe so damage could be inspected.

himespau 

Bummer dude.

ColonelJLloyd 

It's hard to say without pics, but I'll bet the DX-5000 could be made right with a blast and powdercoat and perhaps some Bondo for the dent. I've had great success with rusted skewers using OA.

In the interest of sympathy, I recently bought an NOS seatpost from France for a c. 1972 bike. I thought I was buying an aluminum Atax post. Turns out it is from 1983 and is made from what looks like Rubbermaid (it's a dull black color). Interesting, but inappropriate for my use. All told it cost me $50 and I'm not going to use it. I should have studied the photo more closely.

Bianchigirll 

How does one get a ticket like that in TX? last time I was down there I was the only one driving the speedlimit, and only because my truck would only go 64.5 MPH.

I don't flip but did buy two bikes for frineds that they later decided they did not like. one I still have the other I lost money on somehow.

the only real problem bike I bought for myself is a Bianchi frame that suddenly went from $300 to $100. the seller never mentioned the Adj cup was seized or the fork was a 27",

Flying Merkel

I bought an Ironhorse mountain bike complete except for wheels. Made the mistake of looking at it at night in a dark garage. The 'Horse had a crack in the front fork that rendered it gar-budge. Fortunately, I found a cheap suspension fork that fit, but it killed the profit. Bought off Craigslist.

The worst bike I picked up for flipping was a Nishiki hybrid. Found it in the alley for free. Should have left it there. Everything was worn out. No maintenance had ever been done on anything. The stem was cracked and I could not find one at the local swap meet. Barely broke after long hours of work. Both of these bikes were good bikes after I finished, but took too much work & material

Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you.

JReade

10 dollar continental that ended up needing new rdr and freewheel, along with pretty Much everything else. all said and done I was under by 100 bucks.

big chainring 

I say give it a chance. I've often been disappointed by the condition of bikes when I first get them. After cleaning and personalizing them to my riding style I have found that some of the disappointments turn out to be my favorite riders.

dashuaigeh

Thanks, Justin. I'd prefer not to invest any more money into the DX-5000 though, and the powdercoat + bondo around my area would be another $200. Most of the time, I feel like I'll never get my money back with new paint jobs.

I'm not sure. That confused me as well - maybe b/c it was on the highway near the city limit? Or maybe b/c it's nearing the end of the month and cops need to fill ticket quotas?

Sucks on the frame, Bianchigirll - did you ever get the cup out?

That may be so. I know that was true of my Voyageur, and now it's my most commonly ridden bike. But for the Voyageur, I at least knew what I was getting and considered it a good deal for the money.

WNG

Only thing that I can state to make you feel better is that you're not alone. Lot's of us have hits and misses. Earlier on, my personal mistakes were due to being too impatient, caught up in a buying frenzy, not knowing better, and plain ol' carelessness. Fortunately, the losses were compensated by flips (so far). Mine are: a Cannondale M300 LE MTB for $35. And an 86 Schwinn Prelude for $50, back in 2007. I got stuck with these due to buyer's frenzy and all the traffic on classic Cannondales and Schwinnasonics here. Both cases, I should have walked away and patiently seek out better examples. I just joined BF, now I know better.
The Cannondale not only is too big for me, I discovered a dent under the monostay, rust under the black painted Cro-Moly Spinner fork, and every part but the headset and seatpost, were trashed. The cost in parts and labor just to flip it will barely break even. Frameset sits in a box in limbo for now.
The Prelude is also a bit big for me, used heavily, had two frame dents, and busted spoked rear wheel. Rusty, and has a broken SIS DT shifter. Schwinns weren't popping up much on CL, so I convinced myself to take this one. In the bright revealing light, UGH, what did I do?!?
It's low priority in the queue of projects due to the amount of work it'll take to refurbish...sandblasting, dents need rolling or filling, repaint, decals. Decision is to keep it and experiment on it. But if another Tenax Schwinn can be found for cheap, the Prelude will likely not see the light of day.

The other mistake I made was to send others less knowledgeable to buy on my behalf. Never will do that again.
My wife went twice for me to check out CL ads. Both times she bought the items, although haggled down the initial prices, the end results were near useless junk. I was out of town both times. One was a titanium MTB frame with Deore LX wheelset for $85. Looked good from the ad. But the seller was pawning off a junk Ti frame, and when my wife looked like she was about to leave, threw in the set of wheels. The frame looked like someone was learning to weld Ti. It was incomplete....no BB threads, no water bottle bosses, just holes, the rear spacing is 120mm!! The thing my wife couldn't discern was the frame was re-welded at the BB and seatpost junction. Oxygen contaminated welds, warped the seat tube so that a post won't fit. The final kicker was much later, I discovered the seat tube was welded onto the BB shell off center! The frame isn't salvageable for any purpose. Maybe I'll create a Ti funny bike from it one day.
Consolation is a pair of used Deore LX/Araya boxed rim wheels.

Bianchigirll 

I did thanks, I used huge wrench at my brothers. the whole story plus some other whining is here https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...f+those+months

good luck with your Panosonic.

Veloria

Nothing too bad has happened to me yet, vintage bike-buying-wise. I've bought a total of maybe 3 bikes that ended up not being right for me. But I experimented on them and ultimately sold them breaking even.

The bike purchase I most regret is my new (at the time) Pashley Pricess, which was of course expensive and I ended up outgrowing in various ways after less than a year. I sold it at a reasonable loss given that I had bought it new, but it was a loss nonetheless. Damn new bikes!

mazdaspeed

It's funny because both the bikes in my sig were technically bad buys that needed a ton of work, but in the end they worked out and are keepers.

habes78023 

I am definitely the less knowledgeable person. I will take the blame on the top tube problems, I should have known they were deal breakers, and I should have given the bike a more thorough inspection before I loaded the bike up.

I do know that whatever happens with the Panasonic, it is in good hands now.

ALSO, it was a pleasure to meet a fellow forum member. Sadly the meeting was cut short by my school schedule but I wouldn't miss another opportunity to deal with Jesse.

dashuaigeh

Shaun, this is in no way your fault! You did a huge favor for a guy you've never met before, and stored both bikes in your dorm for a long time. I really appreciate the help, and I will never blame you for this. Plus, it was dark when you got the bike. I'd say the blame rests on the seller and me (mostly me). And it was awesome to meet another forum member.

In retrospect, while not a great deal, it's not a complete loss. The wheelset is shiny, in good condition, and that should be worth at least a little once cleaned up. The crankset is in fairly good condition too. The derailleur, shifters, headset all have significant scratches and road rash, but I imagine all together, I could probably net a little over $100 on a good day. Or just put it on another frame and try to flip that.

KonAaron Snake 

The bike Gods giveth, and the bike Gods taketh away. In the words of Rounders, quoting a book - "Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career."

I bought a Lemond Zurich for my wife from a LBS that sells used stuff...I paid a lot more than I normally would have because she wanted one and it was her size. She rode it and fell in love, so that was that. Somehow...and I have no idea how...I missed a dent in the ST. It's not functional and the bike is rideable...but MAN did I overpay considering the dent. I felt like I overpaid BEFORE I saw the dent.

Write it off...it's a bad beat and you'll make it back on the next one.

gaucho777 

I replied to a CL ad for a "vintage 10-speed." Guy says it's still avail and to meet him at a local metal recycling co. Says they were going to recycle it, but thought he'd offer it on CL first. I think to myself, this could be a great contact! THen it gets a litle shady. He meets me at a back entrance in the dark of the night in a bad part of town. He has keys to the door, but says he can't turn the lights on because the switch is in another locked office. So I view the bike by flashlight, a late 70s-early 80s Raleigh Grand Prix. It's my size, but it's in rough shape. I talk him down to $20 thinking it might be worth fostering this relationship.

The next day, I have a look at the bike in the daylight...











How did I not notice that enormous bend in the down tube??!!! Well, it wasn't a complete loss. I did get a full bike's worth of parts for the bin, including a couple nice Raleigh-branded Suntour derailleurs and a pair of Suntour barcons.

degan

I once bought a frame off ebay without looking at all the pictures closely enough. It turns out it wasn't a regular three piece bottom bracket, it was a thompson bottom bracket, which are seemingly impossible to find. It wasn't a huge purchase, I think $40 all together, but I've had it for about a year and done nothing with it.

tugrul

I bought a 1971 Raleigh Super Course not realizing it had a Raleigh proprietary BB. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but it looks like somebody installed a wrong sized spindle and mounted the chain rings on the outside of the spider to compensate, causing the crank arm to rub on the front derailleur on the big ring. And it had one chain ring bolt missing, which wasn't an issue until I had to use that cottered arm.

The next above freezing day around here I need to take it out side and disassemble it again so I can get a proper spindle or maybe one of the 5 series square taper spindles T-Mar has.

I'm only out $80 for the bike and $28 w/ shipping for a complete crank set, as I didn't really trust the current crank set to be free from some other type of tampering. But I do wish for all this trouble, I had gotten a 25.5" frame, not the 23.5" one.

The condition isn't great, but I love the bronze color and the Nervex lugs. Hopefully it rides as well as the cult following here indicates.

SteveSGP

Long drive, dark garage, first time seeing damage like this and not realizing what it was until I had it home and was taking pictures.





Yup, bent frame. Lesson learned.

southpawboston

I can't say I've had any bad buys, bike-wise. I've had a few minor disappointments (such as discovering that a NOS French Cibie headlight I bought from ebay.fr was chromed plastic and not aluminum), but all in all, these have been minor and infrequent.

DVC45

' 87 Peugeot Bourdeaux(SP?). The thing has a bent crank arm. Then when I tried to fix it, the crank nut broke.

I pick it up for $80. The tires were flat so I did not get to ride it. I could have cought the problem if I had at least tried to work the shifters and rotate the cranks. But it was late and the seller was on a hurry.

gomango

I overpaid on a Zullo Criterium.

The worse part was I had to drive all the way to Sioux Falls from the Twin Cities.

We had a pre-arranged price before I left from home, and when I arrived he said he had another offer.

Take it or leave it are dangerous words in a transaction!

I coughed up another hundred, put her in the Chevy, and headed back to I-90.

I must admit though, I drove for an hour with some steam coming out of my ears.

Then I looked back at that pretty bike and cracked a smile.

She was all mine!!!

tugrul

You seem oblivious to the purpose of this thread