when is nos not nos?

Lets apply the condom analogy:

Sealed and fresh in packet - new
Sealed in packet from 5 years ago - NOS
Fitted to see what it looks like but not actually used - used
Fitted and used, but only briefly - used
...you get the idea!

Why do we not apply the same to bike parts.

...not only that, but Trading Standards do actually apply even here

Chopper1192":u1h556lh said:

I'm pleased to hear, Uncle G, that you don't mind paying over the odds because someone gives it a bit of a wipe down and lists as NOS to bump the price up. It's suckers that fall for it without question who bump up the price of tidy used kit for the rest of us.

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In no way was that what I said at all, Chop.... see below
I never said I liked or wanted to, or was willing to pay over the odds prices...
I even went on to give an example of telling the shmuck where to conceal his NOS stick, who was chancing his luck with an damaged "NOS" item at 4x the price of a "Mint" alternative

NOS means nothing to me, other than beware

G

unkleGsif":u1h556lh said:

Personally I couldn't give a monkeys whether its billed as NOS, (Nearly)NOS, Mint or MintChocChip

If I buy it, its because I like it and at that price, and its getting used no matter what pigeon hole someone wants to label it with (deliberate mixing of semaphores there ).I painted black some "NOS in the packet RC20" chainrings because I needed them black, and wanted those particular rings

NOS to me is an excuse to charge more, doesn't guarantee anything, and comes across as a tad pretentious


Same in the VW world... NOS = big bucks, but is meaningless ultimately
I needed a new full front quarter panel/inner wing for my '63 Beetle when I was welding it up. I found a guy with 2. The "NOS one was still in the original wax wrapping, he wanted £300 for it, but you could feel a huge dent in it where something had been dropped on it whilst "on the shelf its entire life"

The one I bought was identical, cost me £75, and was completely unmarked in every way :roll: :facepalm:


G

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Chute55uk":2rc357cs said:

buy a stem from ebay that comes in a box, only fitted to see what its like, dont like it take it off and list it in the fs section..

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That description matches plenty of stuff sold as new, in any shop, anytime. Buyer would never know in most cases.

I'm not blowing my own trumpet { if I could I'd make a fortune in pay-per-view webcam footage; but I digress } but this is why I always have a no-quibble refund/unswap rule to my stuff. People just DON'T KNOW these days what exactly N.O.S. is and call even the shonkiest gear with a mild patina of shine just that.
N.O.S. is an OBJECTIVE state of being and everything else { excellent/very good/good condition } is SUBJECTIVE and therefore open to interpretation. Why is this so difficult to grasp?

My Zaskar is covered in NOS - shame I've ridden the tits off it since...

shogun":26qqgqur said:

Chute55uk":26qqgqur said:

buy a stem from ebay that comes in a box, only fitted to see what its like, dont like it take it off and list it in the fs section..

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That description matches plenty of stuff sold as new, in any shop, anytime. Buyer would never know in most cases.

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well.. no. shops dont buy their stock from ebay ( as a rule). the point being if a shop advertises and sells something as new then its exactly that. its jubject to the trades description act, sales of good act, consumer trading laws ect. Lets say they buy a saddle from a wholesaler and a customer wants to try it out so the shop fits it to the customers bike, the customer sits on it decides they dont like it and the shop takes it off again. its still new as they have not sold it yet but it may be listed as shop soiled if for example there was a spanner mark. if the customer buys it rides it down the road then brings it back and the store decides they will swap it, by law it cannot be described as new.
Im sure there are unscrupulous shops that would but we certainly diddnt.
things that dont exist:
nearly nos
almost nos
if you cleaned it, it would be like nos.
no its not a difficult concept to grasp but the for sale section mtb and road are full of the above descriptors but yet were told its bad form to make negative comments on fs threads when clearly the seller is trying it on with their "subjective" and sometime downright bollox (sic) descriptions with little or no recourse.

I dont think there is anything fundamentally wrong with statements like "as good as NOS", or "looks like NOS", as it gives a fair description of the quality of the part being sold..... just dont go putting 50% mark-up on it as a result, which many people do


G

And the whole NOS issue is further complicated (from a buyer's perspective) by what seems to be a growing trend since the rise of ebay whereby people are realizing that packaging makes things more saleable so people are keeping their packaging for re-use later when they attempt to re-sell their old goods. One example within cycling is Hope QR skewers - used ones are frequently appearing on ebay (especially front ones as people migrate to 15mm axle forks) in the original Hope packaging. So besides the issue of correct use of the term NOS, there's also the more sneaky tactic of creating the impression of NOS without actually declaring it as such. Or is that what a seller would innocently call "good marketing"? :roll:

There seems to be some confusion as to what NOS might actually be. According to Yahoo image search it's as follows and i for one wouldn't mind if they come with or without packaging: