Dude, that sucks! Hope you get the cash. If it ends up on the wall, at least it's wall-worthy. Beautiful frame!

I'm having a hard time seeing what the actual problem is in those 2 pictures. I do see the paint crack in the first picture, but I don't really see anything unusual in the second one.

And, to me, the first picture with the cracked paint wouldn't stop me from building the thing up and riding it. What am I missing here?

I bought a used aluminum frame once and it had a crack in the head tube almost exactly like yours. I took the headset off and it was cracked all the way through.

My neighbor had his Colnago crack aswell. His was on the downtube just, near the seattube weld. Still a pretty frame. His is wall art. no sense in tossing it.

Where did you hear this?

Incorrect...you let that aluminum frame party with Lindsay Lohan and you will have to check it in for fatigue issues :P

Bummer, if that beautiful frame turns out to be toast.

Don't know it I said this earlier, but there is a what looks like a stress fracture on both the TT and the DT, which to me says that the frame was in a wreck prior to my owning it. The crack at the bottom of the headtube just proves it even more to me. I am not 100% that the crack is not in the paint, but I have a feeling if I take the cup out the seller(if he actually gets back to me) would put the blame on me.

That is a bummer!

Have you verified that it is the metal and not just the paint? Did you remove the headset to check?

It is toast.

Yeah, Craigslist doesn't have the best return policy. I lucked out once, but have been burned a couple times (and check things over with more care now).

Well at least you have some pretty wall art, and it sounds like you could have spent more for it, so there's that.

Yeah, this has taught me to be more thorough when dealing through CL. The guy hasn't responded to my emails so don't think I'm getting anywhere with him, although I do know where he lives...

You can always take him to small claims court.

Problem is , u might have to remove the paint or AT LEAST feel inside the tubes to see if those are structural or cosmetic cracks.
Aluminum is fragile..

Yeah, I'm not about to start stripping paint. While I work at a shop and believe it to have been in a wreck, I am going to bring it in the shop to see what our head mechanic thinks.

I did get a reply from the seller and he seems sympathetic and wants me to update him with any news.