Just to set the record straight, you guys were right! The bike is f***ed. The fork is bent, hence the no brake pads, otherwise it would be obviously impossible to spin the front wheel. The stem is WAY bent. almost every threaded part was basically hand tightened and way out of adjustment. no campy parts, it was keyword spamming. Missing about 5 loose bearings from the headset. a skewer was bent when I tried to put the wheels on. I was blinded by the looks of the frame itself. the crank bolts are stripped, but no matter, the spindle is mad deformed on the bearing surface and the bb lockring is stripped, too, so the whole BB is trash. I don't even think the seatpost is the right size. he even chipped the paint on the seat lug with the sharty pack job in a small box.
Holy crap, I'm going to poke myself in the eye for good measure. It will take a long time for me to make an impulse purchase on anything on the internet again!
I've sold so many awesome beautiful things on ebay and am honest, I was nieve and thought everyone else is. I really can't think of any reason of karma to give me this!
Thanks for the phone # off craigslist. the # on his ebay profile hung up on me 3 times.
It's not over, I just didn't expect to need a fork, headset, bb in order to get this on the road.
There's nothing like hearing "you were right" so there you go.
YOU WERE RIGHT.
Please keep relentlessly flagging his CL posts!!