Ok ok hold your horses. When I made that original post there was a 99% chance that I was going to pay for the bike. If that 1% chance came up I am sure the "power seller" could find someone else to pay close to $950 for that bike. He actually just posted another one today. "sincerely tried their best to win that auction?" You make it sound like you break a sweat when trying to win a bid on Ebay.

It's hard to read that as anything other than you considering not going through with the sale.

No, but his previous posts told me all I needed to know.

Too late. You already did when you won.

I realize that now. I'm going to set up a PayPal account tomorrow night. I didn't know that you HAD to buy something 100% if you won the bid. I thought there were rare circumstances where you can back out. I guess I was only thinking about reserving the bike at that price rather than the total price with tax and duty. I appologize to everyone. Santiago.. how can I avoid brokerage fees?? As well there is $0 duty on the bike?

Good man.

I've got bad news for you. It's bicycle frames that are duty free and not bikes.

If you look at the following tariff schedule, look at 87.12.00.00 you will see that bikes with a country of origin for each of the following Tariff Treatments, there is a different duty rate.
- CCCT, LDCT, UST, MT, MUST, CIAT, CT: 13%
- CRT: Free (0%)
- GPT: 8%

Forget about CRT. The bike would have had to have been made in Costa Rica.
The Scott is very likely made in Taiwan, which means it does not qualify for GPT. That leaves a 13% duty rate.

At one point there was Anti-Dumping that applied to lower priced bikes, that's what my original post alluded to. I can't find any references to bike anti-dumping so that may have been rescinded. In any case, that only applied to lower priced bikes.

With respect to brokerage fees you will need to do the following:
- You have to be close to an import point. In Montreal I use the customs office at Trudeau airport.
- Once you have a tracking number call UPS and ask them if brokerage fees are included with the shipment. There is an outside chance that the vendor ships it using one of UPS' all-inclusive shipping methods. If that's the case, there's nothing for you to do.
- If the UPS shipment does not include customs clearance then tell them that you do NOT authorize them to clear customs for you and that you will do it yourself.
- Keep an eye on the tracking information and when you see that the goods have arrived at the UPS depot, call UPS to find out if the papers to clear customs are ready. Keep calling back until they are. This will take about a day or so.
- Once the papers are ready, go to the UPS depot to pick up these papers.
- Drive over to the Customs Clearance office. The UPS depot here in Montreal even hands out little maps to show people how to get there.
- At the Customs Clearance office hand your papers over to the customs officer and they will process it. You will then have to pay any duties/taxes owed. They will then stamp your paperwork and you can head back to UPS.
- Hand over the stamped paper and walk away with your goods.

Now here's the funny thing about the Ebay vendor you won from. i won a Fox fork from them but when the package arrived, the sticker was filled in by the vendor as "Used Camera Equipment". You see, they also sell a lot of camera equipment and i think they got confused in the warehouse. I even told the customs officer that it was bike parts and not camera equipment but he didn't seem to care. In my case there were no duties to be paid.

Good luck with this.

dude you NEVER bid on something before having the money lined up... that just makes you a terrible person :-P

like everyone else said.... this isn't a bid if you want to buy it, it's a bid if you have the money in your hand ready to hand over.

I know I've broken a sweat trying to land stuff on Ebay..The last few seconds on a hot item can be really intense.

When I really break a sweat is when I have someone win one of my auctions and then not pay right away. It sucks not knowing if they are going to pay, especially since I know I am going to have to pay for selling it. Then if they don't pay after I wait two or three weeks I have to finally repost it for sale and then worry about them contacting me wanting to know why I am selling something that they have already won.

Just because they were thinking about buying it I ended up having to wait an extra three or four weeks for money plus it cost me extra money and stress.

Anyway, it's sorta nice having feedback around the 250 mark with 100% positive feedback.

Please don't bid on any of my Ebay items. People like you are the problem with Ebay.

i find good deals on ebay all the time. it just takes research because ebay doesnt always have the deals. but from what i looked at, i think its a good deal and you should buy it. update us if you buy it.

Yep, that was the point I made at the beginning. Too bad some were too slow to pick up on it. This guy really is an ebayers nightmare. It's not really surprising that this thread has turned into an ebay issue, because that is what it really is. You even title it "first ebay experience."

I think the chaff has been sorted from the wheat here. My work is through.

Oh there are those types of circumstances, but they are indeed rare, and it doesn't like you are in one.

And while you are "legally" bound to it. But the legality isn't really enforced. The most you will get is a non-paying bidder strike, and another negative feedback. Neither of which prevents you from bidding on more stuff. Some sellers automatically reject bidders with negative ratings, But most don't. And I think you have to have 3 non-paying bidder strikes within 30 or 60 days to get suspended.

I've had lots of buyers buy something and decide it wasn't what they wanted, or I get an email saying the buyer's son was on his account and is under 18 and thus not responsible, or on a listing that says "U.S. only" a winner in Israel wins a very heavy item and expects it shipped for the same price as the quoted Continental U.S. shipping Ebay!!

Also if you are just now setting up a paypal account it may take a little while for them to verify you and actually put money into the account (especially with a negative overall rating). So you may want to check the seller's payment deadline to make sure you won't go over it. When I have lots of stuff to sell I'm pretty strict about my deadlines.

The right thing to do is ask whatever questions you need to the seller, but do not back out of the sale, go ahead and pay for it, if you don't want it, just resell it (perhaps on ebay) and call it a lesson learned.

The seller might be nice enough to take reimbursement for his listing fees and exchange postive feedbacks and relist the item. But he is in no way required to do that as it is against ebay policy. I've done it for many ebay newbs, it mostly depends on their demeanor. If they say "oh im sorry I didn't know i was required to pay for it, i just bid on stuff to watch them and so i get an email when it's over, i will happily reimburse your fees etc..." the fees on low cost items are around $3, so i just go along with it. If they say "dadgummit i aint payin fer nuthin!!" then i would happily exercise the non-pay bidder and negative feedback forms.

Be a man, and just pay it. It's only an Ebay rep, but it is still your rep. And that should mean something to you. It is also only money. The only decent way to not pay is to get approval from the seller and pay their fees.

xxx

This whole thread is really,really flippin funny!

Actually this whole thread should be a case study for ebay. Guys like this ruin it.

You mean you didn't read the big frickin' message on the screen that says 'ARE YOU SURE, THIS IS A LEGALLY BINDING THING AND IF YOU BID YOU HAVE TO PAY'?

Do you just not read, or do you think the rules don't apply to you because you're special or something?

xxx

FWIW buying a bike on sale through a shop or something is worth it. You get personal service, it's built and QC by a trained tech, and you get the after-sale service as well. You could probably get a good deal too, depending on the bike.

If you are having second thoughts then file for a bid retract otherwise do not worry about getting screwed over or anything like that. Personally I would not buy a complete bike from ebay simply because I perfer to give buisness to local shops in my area along with getting full service, warranties etc.. However if the price is right then who knows, I could be swayed.

So if you win the bid, then yes your stuck with the bike though you could always try talking to the seller. Otherwise you will get a negative on your feedback if you bail on the purchase.

I don't think I'd buy a full bike online, but it's hard not to buy parts online. When I got my BB7s i saw them on sale at pricepoint for $59-each wheel with the rotors. so $118. so i called my favorite bike store and asked for their price. (as a rule if its within $20 of the online purchase (shipping included) I'll just buy local). my LBS's price was $120 for each wheel!. so pricepoint had them for less than 50% of what the LBS did. Shipping was $11 so it was 53% of the LBS price. I just couldn't justify the extra $120 to go to my LBS. The brakes installed easily and work great. If it was a part I would need help with, I would probably get it at the LBS because i would feel ashamed if I bought it online and took it to them.

Bump!

Looks like our friend "Did the right thing."

https://myworld.ebay.com/tuneman6212/

Enjoy the bike!