Buying a Used Tandem? Please Do Your Homework...
While not making any friends with would-be tandem sellers, let me remind tandem shoppers to do their homework, particularly on previously owned tandems.
Buying a second hand tandem -- many of which are nearly new -- is a great idea. However, remember that bicycles and even tandem bicycles depreciate like everything else. Therefore, if you're in the market for a tandem and find one that piques your interest, do some checking around before making an offer, particularly on Ebay or any other on-line auction where the "thrill" of the bidding can sometimes get ahead of you.
Why do I bring this up? Well, as it happens, I've been hitting Ebay pretty hard for the past few weeks and whilst snagging some really great deals on parts for a resto project, I've noticed some really ambitious prices being asked for and in some cases bid for tandems that are well above the current fair market value. In some cases even a quick check of Ebay's closed auctions on similar items would have quickly disclosed what the going prices were for like items recently up for auction. A really good, recent example is illustrated in the attached screen shot from Ebay. Let's play "which one is not like the other".