Originally Posted by
matimeo
He's obviously finding a huge supply of low-quality old bikes for cheap, investing nothing into them and trying to sell them for way more than they're worth.
"He's obviously finding a huge supply of low-quality old bikes for cheap,".
I call that either a lucky guy or a hard working man!
How do you know he's "investing nothing into them"?
"and trying to sell them for way more than they're worth."
Trying and doing are two different things. Who's to say his prices aren't highly negotiable? Who's to say what someone else should charge for a bike? The buyer may have had one when he/she was a kid and is thrilled to find another and willing to pay a premium to get it. What's wrong with that?
I recently sold a handful of gaspipes on CL that I had thoroughly cleaned up, repacked bearings, replaced cables, tires and tubes as needed, and got a good price for them, surely more than the people on this forum would pay for them. Does this make me one of "those guys" on CL? I sure don't think so. How do you know this guy is any different without even going to look at what he has for sale?
BTW... Craigslist allows you to repost an ad every 48hours to bring it back to the top. In a busy CL city that's a smart thing to do to get your ad seen.
The guy may or may not be a CL flake like you suspect, but these things tend to work themselves out on their own. Either enough people see through the scam and flag him off the list, the guy is forced to drop his prices in order to compete, or is forced to fix up the bikes to get the price he wants (if he hasn't already done so). I imagine very few people actually get scammed. Caveat Emptor.
PS If someone actually is selling overpriced junk, it sure makes my good stuff sell easier.
