I sit on both sides. I collect retro bikes, but also split them too. Some people hate the fact that other people split bikes but then the same people are happy to buy parts. Splitting a bike also ends up making multiple people happy as more people benefit from parts they need to keep their bike working. On the opposite side it’s a bit bad to split a nice bike up.
It takes lots of time/cash/risk to split bikes and sometimes it’s nice to get a bargain so i understand danbe’s frustration if that happened after the sale was agreed. However it happens loads. I’ve driven miles to collect bikes and come away empty handed for various reasons so at least nothing is lost financially or timewise.
We have dedicated places on the forum to ask for pricing help. So if the seller had no idea of value then ideally it would be posted there firstly. On this occasion it wasn’t and was a cheap buy for someone which danbe jumped on, only to have people tell the seller it’s too cheap. I like the fact the forum is a honest place that tries to help everyone and it’s good that they didn’t want the seller to undersell it. But also the seller has a responsibility themselves to do research and put it to market at a fair price prior.
Here’s another thought, we have the forum rule that says all adverts should have a price. I like this rule. But surely it’s morally wrong to advert something and then increase the price. I’ve sold some items in the past too cheap but I’ve honoured the price as it’s just seems fair even though there isn’t any obligation to do so.
There’s far worse things going off than missing a cheap bike so let it go and hunt for the next one. I’ve had multiple dealings with some members who commented and they are really good guys so I can’t imagine any menace intended.