How to buy a bike on eBay

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brand

Guest
Firstly do a search, adjust the search so you are not getting irrelevant items. Make sure you are looking in the right categories ie bicycles and not accessories. If you have a particular brand include that in the search but not the model as it may not be in the heading. Save the search and get an email from eBay when your criteria is met.
Make sure you start looking well before you need it to avoid buying at higher price than necessary. Buying out of season should be considered. I always assume mid winter is not the best time for selling although supply and demand analysis may suggest otherwise. It took me 18 months to get a pair of ice tyres but £30 is better than £100 for something you won't use a lot....hopefully!
Most important of all DO NOT BID ON THE BIKE! Use a bid snipper site to bid for you. Basically this is a site which will bid for you 6 or 10 seconds before the end. Go for 10 seconds as I find 6 seconds unreliable. The advantage of this is that you do not become involved in a bidding war. Trying to snipe yourself often fails. Bidnip charges $9.99 for 20 snipes you only use one if you win the auction. You can of course have more than 1 snipe running but keep an eye on them and have them at least 24 hours apart. IE you don't want to win 2 bikes!
Consider taking out a zero interest credit card to pay. I have a Tesco 16 month zero interest credit card. The money I spend goes into a savings account and I pay the credit card off at the end of the 16 months, keeping the interest for myself. In other words negative interest. The only requirement is financial discipline.... don't do it unless you have it. Got young (you define that) kids...iffy.
 

sidevalve

Über Member
All good ideas but I would add try spelling the item wrong - it can throw up some good finds if the seller is careless and/or can't be bothered to check the listing. It does happen.
 
OP
OP
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brand

Guest
Rare to get a miss spelling find, as eBay seems to put them in anyway.
My recent purchase a staggering bargain was pure luck other than "touring bike" having a minimum bid of £1000. It was in the "you might also want to look at this" part. £1000 little bit high for a start bid. Turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It was Rohloff equipped but nothing in the heading so not likely to come up on a search. Minimal interest got it for£1200 bargain
 

Rooster1

I was right about that saddle
I so nearly got an absolute bargain last year, was an incorrectly listed "Mountain Bike Frame", on inspection of the photos it turned out to be a Carbon Trek Madone 2013 frame - went for £150 - absolute steal - I missed it by a fiver. The moral of the story, bikes get listed in the wrong categories, so bikes can sneak through relatively unnoticed.
 
OP
OP
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brand

Guest
The best place for truely staggering bargains is baycrazy. It is for items which can be collected locally but the real bargains are the items which are collection only.
Now if I was a fan of vintage bikes (as far back as prewar) then I would be made up in my area. I have seen prewar with original tyres. These are sometimes referred to as barn finds. If you don't put anything in the search box you will find a staggering amount of things you didn't know you needed!!
Opps they do have searches for misspelt and for items finishing in the early hours of the morning. Some other searchs as well.
 
OP
OP
B

brand

Guest
I so nearly got an absolute bargain last year, was an incorrectly listed "Mountain Bike Frame", on inspection of the photos it turned out to be a Carbon Trek Madone 2013 frame - went for £150 - absolute steal - I missed it by a fiver. The moral of the story, bikes get listed in the wrong categories, so bikes can sneak through relatively unnoticed.
Tight arse!
 

Diggs

Veteran
And of course, if you are selling a bike on ebay, make sure that you leave all your nazi memorabilia out of shot (a tip I picked up whilst browsing for kids bikes a while ago)

Ebaybike.jpg
 
OP
OP
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brand

Guest
Putting a minus in you search will remove unwanted items. If searching cycling, adding -badges to the end of your search, will remove all the cycling badge listings.
I do that but sometimes you just have so many minuses but good way most of the time.
 

mattobrien

Guru
Location
Sunny Suffolk
Do you apply that rule? or is it that "do as say not as I do"?
I would like to stamp out all bike theft (along with all other theft) so I don't want to be part of the chain of stolen bikes / provide demand and a market for thieves. So yes, if I were buying a used bike from ebay I would want to satisfy myself that the good were not pinched ^_^
 
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