Originally Posted by johnny99
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.
I don't debate the POTENTIAL of what you're saying in the least. However, that still doesn't take into account the dozens of legit LBS's that, as I said in a previous post, simply utilize eBay as a HIGHLY effective way of liquidating New Old Stock (NOS) or even NS (New Stock). If you're buying NOS or NS from a legit shop, then I see no reason why you'd suddenly be out of a warrantee. I don't see how it'd be any different than someone finding the LBS's number in the phone book and calling from a different state and having it shipped. If they take a hit on the price, then that's their decision. Trek still gets paid the minute the bike is ordered by the LBS.
ALL THAT ASIDE, this has nothing to do with the original post.
It still fails to show even in the least how that means that 60+% of them are "stolen".