I've been looking on ebay for the last couple of weeks for a new road ride and I don't know if it's my paranoia or what but there seems to be a ton of shady dealers. In the last week I've come across two sellers who could not give me a straight answer about where their bike came from, and no new pictures of the bike to confirm it's condition.

Some of them got downright angry when I pressed them about questions that they had to answer honestly(one was a guy who said the bike was a second one he got from a sponsorship at a local bike shop - so no warranty of course - but he declined to tell me which shop and got mad when I wanted the name).

Another guy didn't even bother responding when I asked him questions that required some honesty and could incriminate him.

The latest was a great deal on a new cannondale r1000 that was super cheap. Had an automated email that seemed pretty legit(I can show you guys if you want) about payment. But then all of a sudden this morning the auction was gone. Now it's back again with a different email for payment and a different user's feedback...https://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Sounds weird to me. Am I being overly cautious here or are there just waaay to many scam artists around ebay? Do you report these people right away or let it slide?

...I'm beginning to wonder if ebay is just too risky to bother with. I don't like the idea of losing $1300 to some a$$hole.

I think there are enough bikes for sale in the US not to have to trust shipping it from Overseas, say like, for example, Castellon Spain. The other board site i visit (for Volvos) has messages up all over about not sending money overseas in this especially severe period of international transfer fraud.

I wouldnt buy anything overseas, its too risky. Your best bet is to look for something in the US Mainland.

Ebay has become of haven for stolen goods. When it comes to bikes, I would get insurance for anything over $300.00. There's a way to do this but I'm not sure how Ebay handles it. One thing is certain, Ebay could CARE LESS if someone robbed you $1,000.00 dollars on a fraudulent trade. I hope the government gets on Ebay's case because there is just so much fraud and stolen merchandise, it incredible how they manage to stay online.

I saw on TV some professional shoplifters from Mexico selling stealing loads of goods from retailers and then selling all this stuff on Ebay for a fraction of the retail cost. Incredible.

You can risk life and limb and rob an armored bank truck and get 250 grand, maybe half a mil. You rob a truck carrying intel processors and you can get away with like $10 mil in mercandise which you can then hock on ebay. I only trust those guys with several hundred if not thousand feedbacks.

Feedback is NOT always a guarantee. I was looking at a bike from a seller with great feedback - only thing is, someone had hi-jacked his account. After a few emails it was pretty clear that the guy didn't know what he was talking about and was a fraud. Buddy of mine confirmed it by contacting the real seller.

I bought my bike on eBay, but only after talking to the seller (happened to be a bike shop that my buddy had heard of).

Bottom line is be wary of ebay.

Use an escrow service. You give the money to the escrow, they hold it untill you've approved receipt of the merchandise then they pay the guy.
They charge a nominal fee so its like insurance.

To protect your purchase, buy from seller's who utilize Paypal,one's EBay account can be compromised but both would be much more difficult to extract $$$'s without a paper trail which most thieves try to avoid and not including the thief would need to break both Ebay and Paypal passwords for entry. If seller is adamant on Western Union and the bike is incredibly cheap. Big red flag you’re going to be scammed (BTW try to avoid any Western Union transactions), https://www.escrow.com/index.asp is available for your protection.Good luck...

fake feedback is common...the well trained scammers endure entry costs of winning their own auctions jsut to inflate feedback. I had to deal with a scammer that did this a while back...I supposedly won a nice fisher tube amp for $50....well basically I found out after recieving some weird emails, that this person had not shipped this amp to many other folks...so i basically sent the person an email confronting them about it...then a few days later again...thier ISP email was down...guess they ran...

I usually buy from guys who have several thousand feedbacks, all on say, bike products so if I see an item that's also a bike product at a reasonable not too low not too high price, I bid on it and I use paypal and get the protection from it.
I'm not sure how easy it is to fake thousands of feedbacks without hijacking an account. As for that, well sh*t happens, just be wary and smart about it.

I recently bought Spinergy Wheels, and couldn't get them but found a set in classifieds.. However I would have felt much better purchasing from eBAY at least on there you have proof of what you were trying to buy, and can get proof if it wasen't sent ect. Usually if you are scammed, you can press the issue with ebay or the person, and get your money back.