I only deal with people who will talk to me on the phone. I'll answer questions asked in complete sentences by people who are demonstratively actually interested in the bike but only set up a viewing if they contact me on the phone. Otherwise it is a waste of time.

When communicating with a seller it is best to never use the words "come see" or "come look at" when attempting to set up a face-to-face. Use the words "pick up" or "buy" instead and I am sure you will be taken much more seriously by a seller. Many buyers who have the nicer bikes end up showing the bike to quite a few lookie-loos who are not interested in actually buying the bike or want to throw lowball offers at them. Most prospective buyers only waste his time.


Sellers will filter prospective buyers so as not to waste a ton of time with those who are not serious. Make sure you don't sound like a problem buyer (or seller if you are selling) to the people you are dealing with and you will be less likely to be filtered and/or ignored.

Most of what I'm looking for are parts bikes to keep the current stable of vintage bikes running. I just ebay off rest of the bike. If I can recover my initial investment or get the desired part for a reasonable price I'm happy the deal.

It seems that some sellers don't operate on the same kind of time clock that buyers of nice C&V bikes are running on. I find the "undervalued or desirable something" on CL. Call seller and tell him I will buy it. He says, ummm, I am busy and can't show it for a couple of days. You want to say, ummm, maybe you should have waited a couple of days before listing it.

2 weeks ago I called a seller 3 miles from my house. He says come on over. I go and he's not home or answering his phone but the bike is sitting outside his house. It was a POS but couldn't tell from the little picture. Weird.

Total agreement there, I never make offers until I see the merchandise.

Many years I had listed a vehicle on CL, the only responses I got were car dealers out of my immediate area trying to grind my price down. One guy asked what was the least I would take, I paused and told him "5 bucks". He was not expecting that, so while he was still gasping for a response, I told him that he needed to see the car before making an offer, maybe he would love it so much that he would offer more. This was too much for the guy and he hung up on me.

I think I would prefer to filter them out on this behavior before having to go through the motions of a meeting.

Someone who is willing to bargain on something sight-unseen isn't really after anything but a massive bargain. Because they are just in a hurry to find a low-end deal they can flip it doesn't matter to them what it looks like. I don't have anything like that in my inventory. My stuff is all "value-added" high-end restored stock. There are no bargains to be had here. I'm not a junk dealer so the junk hunters are a waste of my time.

YMMV

^
What he says!
I've learned to filter out anyone who who does not communicate their intentions clearly (and in full sentences) - or, who does not provide a reliable phone number where they can be reached.

PS- There is a secondary reason why you should never meet anyone who does not provide you with their phone number: It can mean that they want to remain un-traceable/anonymous.

As an aside note, the scammers are starting to ad phone numbers to their responses. Usually unassigned numbers with weird greetings.

CL is a classified ad system. However, a person buying a real classified ad tends to have time and maybe money invested, they're more real about it.

CL can and is subject to the whims of a wide range of the population, and regrettably, some of these are simple morons or uncaring dolts.

Not CL, Ebay, but here's my most recent seller fun. I purchase a Trek of EBay, Buy it now, local pick up. I do the buy it now, pay right away. I send the guy an email right away, "Hello! would it be possible to pick the bike up on day this week? Can you give me your address and some times that work for you?"

the bike is like 65 miles away but its at the beach so I figure i'll take my son and make a day out of it.

5 days go by, no answer. On the 6th day, now at the end of the week I wanted to pick it up I get a response.

"i never received your payment"

me
"uhh, yes you did, i paid as soon as I won, here's my receipt for paying with paypal, here's the email it went to"

two more days go by

seller " I have your payment, you can come this saturday or sunday before 2pm. i'm behind the Dairy Queen"

that would have been this weekend, including fathers day, so I said, yeah i'm sorry I can't do that, how about one evening next week?

seller - "sorry man, I'm in another state during the week. Do you want to just end the auction since it seems we can't meet up?"

Now i'm getting pissed. First the idiot doesnt even know he has the payment and waists 5 days I could have picked the bike up, now he wants to end it and is making it very hard to pick the bike up.

I told him i still want it, i can wait until a weekend i can come and get it before 2. that is unless he can take it with him to the other state he's in during the week because thats actually closer for me. That was 3 days ago, no response.

you can be damned sure i'm getting the bike and you can be damned sure he's getting negative feedback after I do.

the seller has all positive feedback btw.

I just inquired about a local pick up on ebay and ask about the condition of the wheels............seller responded with, pick up is ok, condition of wheels is ok." I responded with "could you please be more specific as to the condition of the wheels?" Seller responded with, "If you don't like my answer, do us all a favor and don't bid on my bike."..................What?

Take his advice, don't bid on his bike. He probably doesn't know how to answer the question. No reason for the guy to be a Richard about it. Should have asked you for clarification.

Well.......when you put this in the text of your ad and then respond as if I'm bothering you........KEEP IT! I just feel sorry for the unsuspecting soul who gets sucked in.

"Condition of Items: I am always honest in the description and condition of all of my items. I am not an expert on every item I sell so please ask questions to help me help you in your decision to bid or buy my items. I would rather answer ten emails about an item than for you being disappointed after the purchase for not asking for not asking. Unless listed otherwise all of my items are sold “AS-IS”. Returns: Unless stated otherwise, I do not accept returns."

Wow. NONE of this has ever happened to me. I use lengthy comprehensove descriptions with four or five large, focused hosted pictures. I request a cell or text in reponse, and of course, once you have a text you have a phone number. I always start the conversation by giving my name and asking theirs.

I always show the bike during business hours in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center that has a bike store, so if they need something bike-ish (helmet, pedals, gloves) the store is right there. The store guys love it (adds traffic) and my customers (vintage restored bike, downtube shifters) are not going to buy a bike from them, so I'm not the competition. Actually, the deal is, every time I finish a bike I'm supposed to bring it by the store so they can ogle it.

I do about 15 bikes a year, and every one through all these years- with only one exception- has sold to the first person who saw the bike. Cash. No pricing haggle. Never been stood up.

Am I doing something wrong?

I specialize in hybrids and older rigid mountain bikes. Cheap to buy and fix. These aren't classics to be ogled, but good all-around transport bikes. Different market, different buying mindset.