BoyBurning":21vstry2 said:
There are members on here that I have been to collect bikes for and deliver to.
Costing me money in both time, effort, petrol etc.
As soon as the bike has been delivered it is split and sold for double the money they have paid, and involving zero effort on their part.
Ie, buyer has made money on something I have done out of kindness and for nothing.
That IS out of order, and I won't be doing it anymore for any other members.
I agree, that is worse - but the only person who could call them out for it is you?
The 'problem' as I see it is all that all too often, you see a bike or part sold for £X then within a matter of weeks it's back on sale here or on eBay for more than the buyer paid. Sometimes this is just blatant profiteering i.e. the buyer knew they were getting it cheap and could turn a quick profit, or people add up every penny the part cost them (postage, fees etc.) and add these on. I admit the second scenario is a grey area as there have been genuine costs but all it serves to do is drive up prices.
There are countless examples of this throughout this site. When I first got in to buying old bike parts there was the odd person who was at it, but now it appears to be 'de rigueur'. In 2 - 3 years I've observed the prices of the majority of parts increase between 50 - 100%, and it's not because they are getting rarer!
Obviously any part is only worth what someone is prepared to pay, and if you need a part badly enough you'll pay what is being asked (I have). Herein lies the problem; I've watched the same parts go through the for sale ads several times, each time getting a little more expensive until ultimately it can be as much as double what it first cost.
I'm not some raging anti-capitalist and I fully understand how and why this happens. Hell, I've even bought a whole bike for peanuts then ended up selling parts of it (so I'm a hypocrite too). Saying that, I've never bought anything just to make a profit on! (Ok, I tried once but it took me so much effort getting it in a condition fit to sell for a profit that I decided I shouldn't have bothered).
But honestly, buying a single item then doing nothing to it beyond writing an advert (which here is free, not even a listing fee) doesn't warrant a price increase surely?
The way I see it is by doing so you are insulting not only the person you bought from but also all the potential buyers!
But hey, if everyone's doing it...
(Oh, and regarding the OP - if you'd been up front and said here's a bike I just bought for £225 would anyone like it? You'd have got a much warmer reception, your 'intentions' weren't clear so frankly it looked like you were trying to turn a quick buck. Rightly or wrongly, I don't think it's unfair to 'out' people in this circumstance - finding out you've lined someones pockets after you've paid can leave a pretty bitter taste, believe me!)
