BlueDevil63 

All is resolved. Yes it was the large yellow Mercian I had. The buyer was not completely out of line. They did complement me on the overall condition of the bike and the packing and were pretty reasonable about everything. I learned a lesson about being more careful in my descriptions. Something I think is trivial may not be so to a buyer and the buyer has all the power on Ebay. I have to admit I have been a hard ass buyer myself in the past when it came to unmentioned dents in frames or really poor packing resulting in shipping damage. I just never really thought that a difference in spokes, when everything was still completely serviceable, would be an issue.

wrk101

Good lesson. The best approach is full, full, full, disclosure. Better to not call bike original unless you know positively for sure. Some picky buyers will nitpick you to death, clamps, bolts, cable housings, etc., not original. Give me a freakin break! Its really best to make your item appear to be worse than it really is. Its one reason I hate selling complete bikes or even frame sets on ebay.

Recall the situation a year or two ago where the seller had his bike pictured on a display stand, and then did not include the display stand. In your case, certainly if a bike was described as original, I would expect the wheels to match. Now if you disclosed they were not matching, as a buyer, I would not assume spokes matched. Some parts of a vintage bike are less likely original: stem, saddle, pedals are all often changed to match riders preference. Then if the bike was frequently ridden, after decades, wheels, freewheels, tires, cables, housings, bb, headset, etc. can be changed out. At least half of the vintage bikes I pick up are missing major original parts like derailleurs. Sometimes the changes are upgrades!

Why put up with the pain? Depending on the item, ebay continues to be the one place where you can get full market value. Now to those listers in a red hot market like Toronto, NYC, SF, Portland, not true. But here in Hooterville, high end vintage bikes get ignored. That's great when I am buying, but it sucks when I am selling.

+10 To Robbie's comment: Shipping without delivery confirmation is asking for trouble. There are scammers hoping sellers make this mistake. Its another reason to use ebay's label printing program. Your label, the address, and all tracking is transparent to ebay. I had one last year go that way. Seller stated they never received item. I just called ebay, they dismissed the claim. If you fully utilize ebay's processes, you can eliminate 95% of the issues. And $250 or more (including shipping) ebay ONLY covers seller if you also require a signature. A lot of bike stuff is going to be above that mark. Be careful!

A good recap of some ebay scams here:

https://www.wealthwatching.com/consum...lling-on-ebay/

lostarchitect 

All great advice, Bill.

crank_addict

Sorry but for selling anything USED on fleabay, I would never offer 'returns accepted'. AS IS period. You don't like it or the terms, next buyer please. 100% feedback. Thank you-

BTW: Ebay and Paypal has changed drastically against seller in disputes.

lostarchitect 

The problem is, it doesn't matter if you say "returns accepted" or not. If Ebay sides with the seller, you WILL be accepting a return. Sometimes it's better not to be totally intractable on these issues.

BlueDevil63 

Yes I was a bit sloppy with this one. I did say highly original, not completely original, but in the future I think I will be much more specific like "original paint and decals" or something rather than claiming the whole bike as original. As you point out I don't really know for sure that it is original. It was sold to me as original and everything (except for those things I called out in the ad) was period correct and correct for the bike, but that is not the same thing as knowing for sure it was original equipment.

I always ship fully insured, signature required and only to the buyers verified Paypal address. No exceptions. And I do say as is, no returns but as mentioned that doesn't matter to Ebay. If the buyer claims the description was not accurate, which is really easy to do on something like a complete bike, then you are screwed no matter what your policy is.

I've sold about 30 bikes on Ebay with very few problems so far so in the big picture this isn't a huge deal, it just surprised me a bit. There is no local market to speak of for me so Ebay is really the only option.

Oh and in the end the buyer did give me really good feedback.

dailycommute

Thanks, very good information/experiences. I find ebay useful as a buyer but avoid it as a seller generally--still may have to list the 1984 specialized expedition there soon so good to be prepared.

-holiday76

My advice was given assuming the seller already decided to accept returns. I personally do not accept them, but I'm also not a larger seller. Weather I accept them or not though you can still end up in a situation where a buyer as asking for some credit, so it's kinda irrelevant.

headset

I have to admit I'm going to miss your Mercian on ebay. I would regularly check in on it and dream a little. My size and a bit of a grail bike for me, but I simply couldn’t justify the expenditure at this point in my life (and your pricing was more than fair). Nice work taking care of that beauty.