Ebay Trials and Tribulations

Ebay is a wondrous resource for finding rare parts to complete projects and dream bicycles that help you relive your childhood. That said, information gleaned from Ebay item descriptions should be taken with a grain of salt, most obviously because the person presenting the information is trying to sell something to you. Then the less obvious is the person might not know what they are selling and pieced together some misinformation from dubious sources. To even further complicate the purchase is trying to purchase something off a foreign version of Ebay, like Italian Ebay or French Ebay, as you find many, if not all, sellers that have English as a second language.

Often i find simple inaccuracies in Ebay listing stating the wrong model or wrong time period, not malicious. I like item descriptions that just state the facts- condition and photos, and if known- model and time period. I find long winded descriptions about great-grandfathers uncle's cousin's bike stories filled with too much extraneous information and hearsay. As much as I love stories of cycling history and the provenance of bicycles, too many times the stories are not true.

Just remember to do your homework, if it seems to good to be true, there is a good possibility it is.