Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I don't know, but I think the question should be -- if they were easily buffed out, wouldn't the seller have done that, rather than list an negative in the ad? You'd think that a seller would do the easy little things to make the item the most presentable, wouldn't you?
Anyway, maybe I'm just an eternal pessimist.
+1 That's my assumption as well. Its not like the seller thinks it will sell for MORE with scratches and scrapes. I look for ads with the exact opposite approach, ones where the seller thinks the bike is ruined or will be expensive to fix (often it is not). My last buy had white paint rattlecanned all over a beautiful paint job. Looked like total crap.
For the typical scrapes I see, I start with polishing compound and rubbing compound if the polishing compound does not work. Note both will remove some paint as well, and rubbing compound is more aggressive, so be careful.
I discount any and all claims by bike sellers. Some common claims are: "easy fix", "rare", "collectible", "fast" and more.