Originally Posted by ryanspeer
New - used - no reason to differentiate between the two in my opinion. There are many LBS's that have eBay stores and sell their wares there simply because it's a great place to liquidate stock that has a hard time selling in the physical store itself. Other eBay stores are authorized outlets for certain companies. Again, there's absolutely no way whatsoever to determine an exact or even roughly approximate percentage. And frankly, I'd feel far more comfortable buying a new bike than a used one.
There is a huge difference between an authorized sales channel and an unauthorized one. If you are buying a new name brand bike (Trek, Specialized, Giant, or whatever) over EBay, the sale is at best gray market, not authorized by the manufacturer, and not covered by the manufacturer's warranty. If the seller is a legit authorized bike shop, he won't tell you that, because he would lose his contract with the manufacturer if he did.