Re: Re:
player":1gtemgvk said:
Bash1000000":1gtemgvk said:
This is my bike on eBay and I've bin informed from some 1 in America that the user name retro spud is advertising it and they will ship it any where?? It's not there's to sell or ship and I won't be selling it to them as I believe there trying to scam u but on my behalf so pls do not listen to them or place a bid unless your going to pick the bike up on person...
I think your American contact is rather confused and as said here retro spud is totally sound and is just trying to help regarding the collection of your bike!
Nope, no confusion on my end. I'm the American user he's referring to, and as succinct and detailed as I was in my message to the seller, he has unfortunately misunderstood my message.
I sincerely hope the seller realizes that I mean no disrespect in commenting here - I'm merely attempting to clear up any misunderstanding on ANYone's part about what's going on here.
Therefore, in the interest of full-disclosure and to quell speculation, here's the synopsis of eBay messages between myself and the seller:
I first wrote:
"Would you consider selling to USA?"
Seller’s response:
"Sorry no I won't mate the bike is in excellent condition/mint condition and if it gets damaged in shipment it comes back to my feedback which is 100%. It's not worth my trouble.
Sorry mate"
My message to seller after I heard back from Retro Spud:
"Hello again. I can appreciate that you don't want to risk reducing your 100% feedback score; I also have 100% feedback since 1998, and I strive to keep it that way every time I buy and sell on eBay.
I found out about your bike on the retrobike website because one of the users posted a link to your auction. You can google that site to see that it's a collection of like-minded individuals who appreciate the older mountain bikes like yours. My username on that site is 'incorrigible', and I'm a fanatic of the elevated chainstay bikes in particular, especially when they are as beautiful a specimen as yours.
If you google "Purple Ozone with XTR", you can see the page from where your auction is linked, and that another retrobiker (username 'Retro Spud') has offered to pick up for anyone that wins the auction, and he's willing to ship to anywhere in the world as long as the winner pays all postage fees. I've already contacted him (his name is Nick), and he's OK with shipping to USA, so I'm wondering if it would be OK for me to bid and then, according to him, he can pick it up in person. Apparently he lives somewhat near you in Royal Forest of Dean.
I don't think eBay will allow me to post links in this message, but you can easily search the retrobike site for my feedback and Nick's feedback as well.
Is there possibly a way we can do this if Nick is the intermediary? If nothing else, I'll see if he'd be willing to bid for me from his eBay account.
Thanks very much for your consideration. I hope I haven't bothered you, and I hope to hear back from you soon.
Cheers,
Frank"
Seller’s response:
"Hi thanks for your message but tbh I don't see how he can do what his saying he can do.. I don't live anywhere near Forest of Dean plus I will only let the bike go to the person who wins the auction and that means it's some 1 in this country I'm not prepared to ship the bike so it's pick up only, so I thank u for bringing this to my attention I really do appreciate it but if I was u I'd ignore what u have bin told by the 3rd party Cus now I'm going to block him from the auction"
I didn't bother to reply after the seller's last message, but after seeing all these posts here, I feel obligated to state that I think we all understand that the online world is rife with nefarious ne’er-do-wells that troll the internet seeking to scam legitimate buyers and sellers, and that vigilance is one’s best line of defense, but I would hope that the casual observer would see that RetroBike is a site comprised of aficionados who are passionate about their hobby. Measures of a user’s integrity readily available for viewing on this site include feedback ratings, number of posts, duration of membership, and especially content and frequency of a user’s posts. I would think that a spammer wouldn’t bother to take the time to become entrenched in a community such as RetroBike knowing that they could probably be more "productive" elsewhere as they soon realize that the community exercises a group vigilance of its own, as can be seen in these last 2 pages of postings.
My hope is that there will eventually be a happy ending to this situation; that the seller gets paid, and that a buyer gets a beautiful bike and cherishes it for what it is (as opposed to someone who just needs a bike to thrash until it's thoroughly beaten and then throws it out). The ultimate happy ending, of course, is that we now have a new member who hopefully will eventually feel at home amongst friends and will perhaps even contribute to this community with facts, opinions, pics, stories, etc., and who won't hesitate to ask for a favor if he needs something that seems out-of-reach, given his particular situation.
Welcome, Bash. I hope you stick around and get to know us all better, and best of luck to you with your auction.
Cheers,
Frank