Monday, April 23, 2007

For Sale

Just for the hell of it, I routinely read the bike listings on craigslist even though I’m not looking to buy anything. It’s a behavior that’s symptomatic of my addiction.

I’m always amused by the odd logic of people selling their bikes, such as those who claim they’ve never ridden a bike that they bought new (why did they buy it?) or the bike they say they’ve ridden once or twice (sadly plausible, in this society).

But I also get a laugh out of the people who clearly overvalue crappy bikes. I especially enjoy all the people trying to sell their dusty Magna and Huffy bikes for $150. I’m not even sure you find one of those bikes selling for that much at Sprawl-Mart, where they’re at least brand-new and freshly assembled by the marginally employable. Maybe those sellers figure that their bikes will look like a good deal among all the thousand-dollar road frames and full-suspension mountain bikes sprinkled around the sale listings.

On Friday, someone posted a reply expressing concern about this ad:

“Selling my SHOGUN 12 speed mountain bike. (I'm 61) I can't ride it anymore. Why pay over $500 for a high-quality bike when you can buy mine for $250. Rack and special seat. Probably has 200 miles. First $250 rides it.”

The person replying to the ad was concerned that some clueless buyer might actually purchase the damned thing. The way I see it, if you’re dumb enough to do that, life’s too short for the rest of us to worry about saving you from yourself.

Personally, I liked the ad. You’ve gotta love that second sentence, which is really quite honest when you read it thoroughly. It roughly translates to: “Why pay over $500 for a high-quality bike when you can buy my shitty one for $250?”

Caveat emptor, baby.

6 comments:

Jeff Moser said...

I've seen a couple local ads for Hummer and Porsche mountain bikes. They wanted around $1,000 for them, and they looked like complete junk. They probably spent more than that themselves from the Sky Mall in-flight catalog...

daveIT said...

Yeah I saw that one on CL. I also saw someone left a message for the guy busting on him, but then that one disappeared.

By the way...I posted to my blog. First time since Oct 11, 2006. You better get over there and check it out. It might be the only post this year!

Tim said...

I don't remember your blog address, Dave. I deleted it from my links because you never updated the damned thing! What was it called again?

Mike said...

I saw an add for a bmx bike on Cl once. Kid said he'd just gotten a licence and wasn't likely to ever ride for transportation again.

I wanted to cry.

-M

ps the word verification is only three letters away from being "carssuck!"

The Old Bag said...

Hmmm...a "special seat." One of those two-circle jobbers with no nose?

Dano said...

Over here in Wisco we have a few Pro\Semi Pros that sell their bikes every fall.

Every time they say how limited use the bikes have be we all know the have been rode hard and put away wet.

I chuckle over it :-)