anybody ever bought a bike thru ebay?

[Matt K]

I'm thinking about it, but it kinda scares the crap out of me... Maybe I'll restrict it to bikes in the MA area I can go see first and won't have to ship... any experiences/opinions?

[Gangsta SV]

Originally posted by Matt K
I'm thinking about it, but it kinda scares the crap out of me... Maybe I'll restrict it to bikes in the MA area I can go see first and won't have to ship... any experiences/opinions?

don't buy a bike you can't see . . people luv to screw people over with ebay

[jsven007]

don't buy a bike you can't see . . people luv to screw people over with ebay

The CBR1100xx in our garage was bought off Ebay. It's a 1998 model, had 200 miles on it when purchased. Bike looked brand new like it just came off the showroom floor. Drove to Ohio to pick it up and saved a good amount of money on bike.

If you buy a bike, plan on seeing the bike in person before the payment is made. If the bike is not as advertised, don't pay for it, and file a claim with Ebay. The worst you could get is negative feedback.

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by Matt K
I'm thinking about it, but it kinda scares the crap out of me... Maybe I'll restrict it to bikes in the MA area I can go see first and won't have to ship... any experiences/opinions?

It's a gamble. I bought my 2000 zx6e on Ebay. 2000 miles, salvage title, minor fairing scrapes. Cost me $2750. Would I do it again? In a second. Was I nervous as hell? You betcha. I would definitely recommend looking for local sellers, when you do an ebay motors search you can restrict it to the boston area (which is pretty much new england, since there arent' any other major NE cities listed).

I bought the bike from someone over in Pelham. It was good, I got to see the bike, but more importantly I got to see the owner, and where he lived. You can learn alot from talking to a guy and observing how he keeps his home and other vehicles. This guy was an auto mechanic, he had a few well kept vehicles in his garage, rode a BMW, restored old cars for a hobby. Talked about how he bought the bike for his son, at auction, but the kid never held up his end of the monthly payments they worked out. He spoke sincerely, made eye contact, and answered my questions without hesitation or nervousness.

Look for the signs. If they avoid eye contact when answering questions, walk away. If anything in their story doesn't add up, walk away. If the bike is in the middle of a garage filled with chopped bikes and gixxer parts...walk away, then tell Ken But if you get a good feeling from talking to the guy, and the bike is what you're looking for...you can often get quite the deal. Good luck man...

[Matt K]

yeah, I was basically thinking that. I bought a car thru ebay once, and it turned out to be a wicked dog. I threatened to contact e-bay about it, and the guy let me back out... I guess I just won't bid on anything I can't go see before I shell out $$$.

[WW]

Two years ago I saw my 99 R1 on ebay. I won the auction but didn't meet the reserve. I emailed the guy and he sold it to me for $100 more than the winning bid. The bike was in southern NH. I drove up there to check it out and put a deposit on it. The bike is bone stock in great condition. At the time, I never rode a motorcycle or have my license. The guy delivered it on his trailer to my house in Quincy for no additional charge. How's that for service. As with anything... let the buyer beware. I'm one of the lucky ones. Good luck!

[zx-stewie]

Originally posted by WW
Two years ago I saw my 99 R1 on ebay. I won the auction but didn't meet the reserve. I emailed the guy and he sold it to me for $100 more than the winning bid. The bike was in southern NH. I drove up there to check it out and put a deposit on it. The bike is bone stock in great condition. At the time, I never rode a motorcycle or have my license. The guy delivered it on his trailer to my house in Quincy for no additional charge. How's that for service. As with anything... let the buyer beware. I'm one of the lucky ones. Good luck!

Is that the same "R1" your sitting on in your avatar?

[JJ]

Check feedback, try to ask as many questions you can think of, you can get a good deal but beware people with negative feedback and no current feedback (ex. past 6 months or so). I went down to PA from NH to pick up some stuff off something like e-bay. Had fun on the trip as well. If something is wrong that wasn't mentioned in auction or wasn't told to you in the questions you asked you don't have to get it. If they leave bad feedback because of it just explain that they didn't mention to you what was wrong ever after you asked. Blah, blah, blah, anyways good luck.

[Kip]

I have bought 2 bikes on E-bay and in both cases the reserve wasn't met and I told the seller what I would give them for the bike and both the seller's excepted my offers. But one bike was in VT and the other was in NY so I was able to look the bike over before I bought it.

[Gangsta SV]

Originally posted by kip
I have bought 2 bikes on E-bay and in both cases the reserve wasn't met and I told the seller what I would give them for the bike and both the seller's excepted my offers. But one bike was in VT and the other was in NY so I was able to look the bike over before I bought it.

excepted ?

[NHViffer]

I've had good success buying with ebay. Sniped my 91 VFR (sniping = last second bid - there are programs that do this!) and went to NJ to pick it up. I sent no money before going to get it though. Saw it in person, paid, loaded it, and got a great deal on a nice bike.

Bought my Daytona and an '86 VFR from other NH ebayers (the Daytona was brand new at Nault's). In both these cases the reserve prices were not met and I emailed them private offers. The VFR I bought (it was someone that I knew from the town that I grew up in), but it was a little worse than I expected. Got it for $1250, sold it for $1500, but had put way too much work and money into it. I lost on this this one in the overall.

Got a smokin' deal on the '02 Daytona - very happy with this purchase.

I have not had very good success selling vehicles on ebay. Tried a few.

Hints: Do not bid from people with poor feedback. Do not bid unless there are decent pictures and payment/shipping terms that you like.

[WW]

Originally posted by zx-stewie
Is that the same "R1" your sitting on in your avatar?

That's a 50cc single 2 stoker my buddy bought used in highschool for $350. He gone thru a tank of gas on it and let it sit for 15 years. I tored the whole motor apart, soaked the carb, freed the throttle valve, and replace the fuel line. It ran great. He than sold it for $750 to a guy who responded to a post in the want ad. What a sweet deal!

[zx-stewie]

Originally posted by WW
He than sold it for $750 to a guy who responded to a post in the want ad. What a sweet deal!

I'm sure your buddy agrees it was a sweet deal as well!

[SWEET_Z]

I would never spend that much money on something i've never seen. Unless it was a new or leftover bike; I would do it over eBay if the price was right.

[PinHead]

I saw Chuck's Bostrom on sale about a month ago on e-bay. (remember him) Said it was mint! Didn't say anything about the fact it was in a huge accident?

[PinHead]

I was just trying to make a point that you dont really know what your getting on e-bay sometimes.
I was told that bike was a total loss

[jsven007]

One of my neighbors is a Lawyer and he is a total fruitcake. He is about 40 yrs. old, lives in a huge home all by himself, and has his parents cut his grass and snowblow his driveway!

I swear the only car I have ever seen in his driveway is his car and sometimes his parents.

This winter we had that big snowstorm, and who shows up? The Lawyer's 60+ year old father with a snowblower. Watching his old father snowblow the driveway was sadddddddd......

And then there was that time...

[sandman]

Originally posted by PinHead
I saw Chuck's Bostrom on sale about a month ago on e-bay. (remember him) Said it was mint! Didn't say anything about the fact it was in a huge accident?

pinhead i don't remember seeing you at the accident.
the accident was minor and the bike is mint.

[jsven007]

pinhead i don't remember seeing you at the accident. The accident was minor and the bike is mint.

Fight, fight, fight...

[PinHead]

If the accident was so minor why did he get so fucked up? (didn't he run into an animal on the road)
Was he just tesing out some Rhino armor?

Were you there?

Wait a min, Chuck really isnt a Lawer is he?

When a bike crashes it is never *mint* again. OK then, why wasnt the fact the bike was in a minor accident on the description then? Dont seem to remember him saying it went down, just saying the bike was perfect. I saw the add myself, blatent misrepresenting.

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by sandman
pinhead i don't remember seeing you at the accident.
the accident was minor and the bike is mint.

Here we go...

I too seem to remember some broken bones and the bike being described as a total loss by the operator himself. Doesn't much seem like a minor get off to me. Then again, I wasn't there either. Just going by what the person involved was telling me...

[FazerChic]

I bought my bike off ebay way back in the fall. I am still in the process of getting the damn thing registered. By the way, I've got my NY appt to get the thing looked at so I can get a CLEAN title on Monday! I bought it with a NY Salvage title....serious pain in the ass. I got a brand new Ninja with 700 miles on it for $1200. When we went to pick it up, the seller informed us that if it wasn't what we expected, then we didn't have to purchase. That was a bonus. It was a sweet deal, but the waiting game has been killing me. I have vaca next week, so if all goes well, I will be riding around all week!! (FINALLY!)

[Chuck]

I've been busy and haven't been on the NESR site in quite a while. Hope everyone has been well. Despite not posting, it seems that someone has got to crawl out of the woodwork from time to time, make a post about me, which I get notified of, and promt a response. Now I know what celebrities feel like when their name appears in the taboids. : )


During the accident last year, I did a stoppie to avoid killing a pitbull dog (one of several running back and forth across a main road in VT). The stoppie was a very good one...too good, causing the bike to flip over, face planting me Christopher Reeve style. The bike bounced off my back and slid 10'. Result: broke both elbows (radial heads) by putting my hands out to stop the impact and driving the forearms back into the radial heads. Also, pretty violent head snap due to the chin impact. Thankfully, the Suomy helmet and RHINO Body Armor (yea, that's a plug : ) ) did a fantastic job and my back and spine were fine. The Bostrom received cosmetic damage to the carbon fiber (which was replaced). There was no internal mechanical damage, one lever was replaced, but no engine damage whatsoever. Friends asked about condition of both me and the bike and not having seen it since it was at BCM and I was in a hospital, I described the accident, which of course, sounded bad. The bike was at BCM for quite a while because getting new Bostrom carbon fiber bodywork is nearly impossible. I contemplated giving up riding and advertised the bike for sale on a couple of websites and in the Want Advertiser. It was never advertised on E-Bay. The Want Advertiser is not the best place to advertise a bike valued at over $20K and given the soft market I didn't expect the bike would sell quickly. Besides that, no one wanted me to stop riding. Well, I shouldn't say that, maybe a few assholes might have, but they are such lowlifes so as not to say anything in person that their opinion matters little. lol. I didn't see many ads that said "bike crashed but looks good" or "pulled a mondo stoppie endo but bike survived" so decided against running such a negative ad. Not only would I give any prospective buyer a full rundown of the bike's meticulous maintenance record, but also a list of all new parts, and BCM's telephone number. To insinuate that it was deceptive to not say in an ad that a bike had been down and repaired, especially given a current mint condition status, is foolish. Pinhead, your first post I saw as making a point that you should check out any bike purchased over the internet, since you never know its past, which I agree with. However, your second post comments are merely cheap shots, not a constructive evaluation of the situation. Regardless, as we have all seen over the years, it's easy to start an internet war. Sometimes friendships develop from them, sometimes not.

Chuck

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by Chuck
I didn't see many ads that said "bike crashed but looks good" or "pulled a mondo stoppie endo but bike survived" so decided against running such a negative ad.

[Chuck]

Hey Jay, wassupp! Congrats are in order. I heard and now see that you have joined the illustrious NESR Racing Team. Personally, my favorite group of racers, although I don't get to the track nearly enough to cheer them on. Kevin Martin is planning on racing this season with you too. Best of luck and say hi to Derek, Gerard and the others.