- Buying a bike or bike parts off Ebay is big business.
And we could reason, you can find loads of good,
and interesting and potentially rare bits of bike on there.
We covered how to buy a used bike just last week,
but buying a bike off Ebay tends to be slightly different.
'Cause it's unlikely that you'll be able to
go and see it first, so you are just going off photographs.
And that is a risky proposition.
So with that in mind, I would much rather buy a bike
off Ebay that I can actually go and see,
it's close enough to home.
However, if you can't and that's probably the likely option,
what can you do to make sure
you're buying something half decent?
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My first tip would be to buy a brand
that you're familiar with.
There is an awful lot of weird stuff
lurking around on the internet, but buying a familiar brand
at least eliminates some of the risk of going secondhand.
Yeah, you might not get the warranty
but at least you know that it was decent
when the product was new.
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Is the bike or are the parts in the photos clean?
Because I don't know about you,
but if I was gonna sell something,
I would make sure that at least it looked
like it was in good condition.
Because if someone hasn't even bothered
to clean the bike for its' Ebay photos,
I think you can guarantee that it's probably
not been very well looked after.
So you want to proceed with a little bit more caution.
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A poorly maintained bike isn't necessarily
one to be avoided though.
You just have to factor into the price of the bike
the cost of replacing few key parts.
So that might be brake cables, or brake pads,
a new chain possibly and therefore cassette and chain rings.
Maybe a bottom bracket, the list does go on.
Now hopefully you wouldn't have to spend that money,
but this way, if you do, you're not gonna be upset
at having to invest in order to get the bike
back to as good as new condition.
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Don't be afraid to ask questions of the seller.
Although, don't be one of the people
that asks annoying questions that have already
been mentioned in the description.
So do not ask dodgygeezer-69 what this bike was made out of,
because look, it's clearly said there
it's made out of something metal.
Instead, you might say "Well when did you
last change the chain?"
Or, "Why are you selling?"
When "How much did this bike get ridden?"
Look, before the last three years,
and the "Where is it stored?"
Although again, don't ask dodgygeezer that,
because he said he's just dug it out of the garage.
Seriously, though, if someone has looked after their bike,
the chances are that they will happily and very easily
be able to give you the answers to your questions.
And give you a little bit of reassurance.
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Another good although far from failsafe technique
is to look at the feedback that's been left on the seller.
Now I wouldn't buy a bike on this alone
but you can tell a lot about what type of seller
someone is from their feedback.
And then also have a look and see what other items
they've previously sold.
Alarm bells would be ringing here, I'm not gonna lie.
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Here is a super cool tip that John, who works here,
not chocolate-voice, another one, just told me about.
People make mistakes when listing items on Ebay,
so they might, instead of writing Colnago write Kolnago.
Or Colnagi,
or Colnag,
or Colango...
Would you believe it?
Anyway, so when searching for something that you want,
head over to FatFingers.com which is basically a website
that searches for spelling mistakes on Ebay.
So you could find yourself a total hidden bargain.
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So you have found something that you like,
now you have to buy it.
We won't go into too much detail here because
it's probably worth a video in itself.
But, do have an idea of what the bike is worth
and then offer what you'd be happy paying.
That way if all of us really do get outbid,
you won't have any regrets.
(gentle jazz)
If when you do get the bike, it's a complete pile of pants,
then there is one possible thing that you can do.
If it's not as described, although be careful
about loose descriptions, and you have paid using PayPal,
then Ebay has some kind of money back guarantee.
So you may well be able to send the bike back
and get a refund.
But having said that, if you've already put into place
and practise one of our previous points, then it
shouldn't ever really come to that.
Just do your groundwork, ask plenty of questions,
and scrutinise those photos thoroughly.
Now do make sure that you have subscribed to GCN
before you leave this video.
It's very easy, just click on the globe.
It's completely free, then if you want more content,
well I talked earlier on about that video about
how to buy a used bike, if you want to see that
you can get through to it just over there.
Or, if you want to see how to recondition old bikes
we've tackled a couple of bits and bobs including a
rear derailleur which was quite hard, but very good fun.
And that video is just down there.