The whole buying and selling thing.....TRUST

[2manyoranges]

I’ve done the ‘grandfather’s axe‘ at the level of my entire stable over the last two years, moving from a whole series of retro-goodness to a fleet of very modern bikes, largely due to the extreme need of my growing son, who has grown into different cycling disciplines as well as growing upwards. ‘What’s THAT for?’ Said my partner when seeing a new jump bike emerging on the build stand ‘..for jumping...’ - ‘WHAT?!!...anything else?’ - ‘Er.....no.’.

Out with the old and in with the new....11 bikes out, 11 in (but kept the road Klein...). So this has involved a LOT of buying and selling. All the new bikes have been bottom up builds ... very intensive scouring and buying. I don’t like the tax practices of the transnational tech companies and prefer private sales, but find myself having to scour ebay as part of life.

I guess I have bought thousands of parts. And quite a lot of it has been through my favourite form of transaction - between me and another person. Retrobike and Pinkbike have just been great. Actually, strangers interacting with incredible and reassuring TRUST. At he outset I worried about sending 500gbp for some forks, entirely on trust. And every time you can sort of sense the vibe from the person and know whether they will come through or not. In all those thousands of transactions I have only had one bad exeprience. Now it seems absurd:

Do you still have the Hope stem? Yes.
I’d like it please. OK
I’ve made payment. Thanks
Did you send the stem, it hasn’t arrived? Yes.
Did you send the stem, it hasn’t arrived? Sorry I will post it tomorrow.
Did you send the stem, it hasn’t arrived? It was sent back to me. I wil post it tomorrow.
Did you send the stem, it hasn’t arrived? I need to refund you but I can’t access PayPal.
Can you refund me then please? I dropped my iPhone and it has a cracked screen.
Can you refund me then please? Give me your bank details.
Er no...refund through PayPal please. OK.
And so on and so on.
I have now resigned myself to never receiving it, and the guy has removed his profile from Pinkbike

And that’s the single problem I have had. And quality has been fine, too. It strikes me that trust between people does still exist in a community like cycling. And the sales pages of Pinkbike and RB have just come through time and time again. And outside the dubious profit making and tax strategy of the big tech companies.

 

[2manyoranges]

Just reflecting on one of the stand out good conversations I have had over some components. It was on here, and I wanted just to have a look at and try the now defunct Hope milled cassette. The seller put up a freehub and worn cassette at a very low price, and warned that it was quite worn. I expressed interest, and the PMs which came back said:

'Are you sure you want it? It's really quite worn and I am not sure it will work reliably'.
'Yes, I'm just interested in them...' I said.
'OK that's fine....but don't have it if you really need something in good condition'.
'Thanks but don't worry, I'll still take it even in that condition'.

That's exactly how it should be....mutual understanding and everyone happy.

 

[d8mok]

Pink bike can be hit and miss for selling/buying. I wouldn’t personally trust anyone from there on a whole. I’ve had good and bad in equal measures.

Retrobike is totally the opposite where I trust everyone until proven otherwise.

 

[slackboy]

I think of pinkbike as being like Facebook marketplace. Or the wild West.

This place is more like a virtual cycle jumble where most people aren't looking to make a pile of cash, but sell something useful to someone who'll value it.

 

[raidan73]

Pink bike can be hit and miss for selling/buying. I wouldn’t personally trust anyone from there on a whole. I’ve had good and bad in equal measures.

Retrobike is totally the opposite where I trust everyone until proven otherwise.

Agree with that last statement. That’s how I play things here too

 

[KermitGKona88]

On the whole the buying and selling on here has been very good to me (Perhaps too good judging by the piles of parts surrounding me ). A few hiccups along the way, like having to agree to let someone take £30 from my refund for 'Special postage'......

I agree trust is something special and once lost it is very hard to regain, unfortunately since the smashing of the Union I have posted 2 quite expensive parcels to mainland Europe only to have them both mysteriously 'disappear' in the postal systems of the countries I sent them to..... So this means I will no longer post to the European superstate, which is a shame as I think there are many who are honest but alas......

 

[d8mok]

Exactly the reason why I don’t post to Europe now. Somehow once they leave the UK and can’t be tracked properly they suddenly disappear apparently. Funny that.

 

[The History Man]

Done a bit of selling. Not keen on the join, buy, disappear members.