This is probably old news for some, but it's still happening, so I'll post a reminder...
Watch out for eBay scams - most sellers are legit, but there's always a parade of rip-off artists out there using second-chance, escrow, money order and Western Union scams to rip people off.
I just found this yesterday, but it seems like this guy is out there pretty regularly....when doing a search for a "Cannondale Synapse", I only found 3 or 4 the other day, but yesterday, I found LOTS of bikes from "Gerrards Bikes" - Cannondales, Treks, Specialized (usually hard to find from the same dealer) - he had 111 auctions in all, with great prices on 'blow out 06 models'.
When I checked the feedback, it was all positive, but I also found an almost identical sales list (111 bikes on different auctions) for another poster, with 100% positive feedback, in German.
Smelling a rat, I went to the guy's web site, and it was a legit-looking website, but a there was no info about him on Google for the location he listed...in fact, the Google Maps address was a Flying J truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Looking further, his domain name (www.gerrardsbikes.net) was just registered yesterday. I looked on eBay forums for similar things, and it looks like he lists a huge number of bikes at blow out prices every few months or so, under different domain names, grabs lots of peoples money and disappears.
So, be warned - if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Here's the forum thread discussing this character on eBay forums:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000170758&start=0
Watch out for eBay scams - most sellers are legit, but there's always a parade of rip-off artists out there using second-chance, escrow, money order and Western Union scams to rip people off.
I just found this yesterday, but it seems like this guy is out there pretty regularly....when doing a search for a "Cannondale Synapse", I only found 3 or 4 the other day, but yesterday, I found LOTS of bikes from "Gerrards Bikes" - Cannondales, Treks, Specialized (usually hard to find from the same dealer) - he had 111 auctions in all, with great prices on 'blow out 06 models'.
When I checked the feedback, it was all positive, but I also found an almost identical sales list (111 bikes on different auctions) for another poster, with 100% positive feedback, in German.
Smelling a rat, I went to the guy's web site, and it was a legit-looking website, but a there was no info about him on Google for the location he listed...in fact, the Google Maps address was a Flying J truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Looking further, his domain name (www.gerrardsbikes.net) was just registered yesterday. I looked on eBay forums for similar things, and it looks like he lists a huge number of bikes at blow out prices every few months or so, under different domain names, grabs lots of peoples money and disappears.
So, be warned - if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Here's the forum thread discussing this character on eBay forums:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000170758&start=0
