incorrigible
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Yeti Ultimate in Craigslist New Mexico
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anyone willing to buy this with me and ship me the frame?
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if any retro cousin is willing to help ship frame or whole bike, please get in touch
incorrigible
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Sorry if this reply/advice seems excruciatingly long-winded :shock: :roll: and maybe even a bit redundant, but I hope it helps all of you to get the bike(s) of your dreams:
My strategy for buying bikes listed in Craigslist at a distant location is to contact the seller, briefly explain that I want to buy the bike (but that I live far away from them), offer more than the asking price, i.e., another $50 to $100, or in this case, because it's such a rare bike, maybe even another $150 (nothing motivates a seller more than MORE MONEY in his pocket!), promise to cover all packing and shipping expenses, give them my email address and telephone number, and then wait for a response.
NOTE: If you’re looking for a bargain, then this strategy won’t work. This strategy is to be used when you don’t mind paying a bit more than you normally would in order to get a bike that you really, really want. If you don't offer the seller a premium, i.e., more money than he's asking, then he may just as well sell it to someone local who knocks on his door and has cash in hand.
If a phone call is my first contact with the seller, I just go on to the next step.
Next step: When the seller contacts me, I explain to them that I want to buy the bike, and that I’m willing to offer a premium ($$$) because this transaction will take some effort on their part. Before I get into my “sales pitch”, I usually ask for some detailed photos of the head tube and seat tube area if it’s an aluminum bike. Sometimes they find cracks, and the deal ends right there (better than me finding cracks after they’ve shipped it).
If I’m satisfied it’s a solid bike, I then briefly explain to them how they can sell to me on eBay using BIN, and that I can cover all costs to them so that when it’s all over, they will end up with more $ than they were originally asking. I usually ease into this explanation so that I don’t overwhelm them with too much info. I then offer to send them all the info they need in an email, and that they can get back to me at their leisure after they’ve had a chance to do any research and to mull it over (NO PRESSURE; I don’t want to scare them :twisted: or confuse them :? at this point because it might cause them to say “NO”).
Step 3: If they agree to hear me out, I then send them an email with a detailed cost breakdown as well as links to pages that can verify my calculations, to include eBay’s fee page, Paypal’s fee page, the courier’s shipping fee page, etc. I tell them I’d like to purchase whatever insurance the courier offers to cover the cost of the bike. I also tell them they can either get a bike shop to pack the bike for a fee (which I will cover, usually about $50), or they can get the box for free from the bike shop and pack it themselves (a bit risky if they don’t have any experience with a wrench or packing a bike). I also tell them my eBay username so that they can research my feedback rating to help put them more at ease, and I can even email them thru eBay to prove to them that I am the particular eBay user that I say I am. I end this step by telling them that I’m in no hurry, so they can double-check all the info I’ve sent them and get back to me whenever they feel comfortable enough to continue.
At this point, the “ball is in their court”, and almost every single time, they got back to me in a couple of days and agreed that we could do the transaction. The important thing was that I gave them time to do their own due diligence without me breathing down their necks, and the reason they’re motivated to do their own research to begin with is that I’ve offered them more $ than they were asking. They've also made their own determination that an eBay transaction provides protection for both buyer and seller. The fact that I spoke to them in person on the phone certainly helped as well; telephoning is a lot more personal than an email.
Step 4: When they get back to me and agree we can do the transaction, I tell them how to list the bike on eBay and that we can roll up all of their expenses that I am willing to cover (eBay fees, Paypal fees, packing fees) into the BIN price while listing the shipping fees separately, and that we need to pick a time when we are BOTH sitting at our computers AND speaking on the phone at the same time so that when they hit the “GO” button, I'm ready to complete the transaction. I already have an eBay “Advanced Search” page loaded with their eBay username, and I just keep refreshing the page every couple of seconds until the auction appears, and then I click on “Buy It Now” and complete the transaction while we’re both still on the phone. The auction isn’t even up for more than about 5 or 10 seconds before I swoop in and buy it. If a seller is relatively inexperienced with Paypal and eBay, I even tell him to take his time and wait until he's confident that the money is really in his account before he ships the bike. For my part, I feel that I'm sufficiently protected by eBay's and Paypal's policies, and the courier's insurance (incidentally, I'm using the term "courier" generically. It could be the US Postal Service, UPS, Fed Ex, DHL, etc. My preference is UPS or Fed Ex for a complete bike, and USPS Priority Mail for a frame-only).
I usually get glowing feedback whenever I buy this way, and after I receive the bike, I always leave positive feedback for the seller in these instances (even if I find a ding or a dent that neither of us noticed before) because I was the one who convinced them to sell to me on eBay in the first place (I want to be sure that I leave them with a happy feeling for all of the effort that they put forth).
You may wonder that at some point in this process the seller may get the idea that they can list it on eBay without my help, and just leave me to bid along with the rest of the world, but they don’t because I’ve already shown them how easy it is to deal with me. Remember, the reason that eBay wasn’t their first choice is that they don’t want to have to think about all the details involved with listing, calculating postage, etc etc., so they would have rather kept it simple and just sell on Craigslist, but because I'm the one who convinced them to sell on eBay, and because I'm the one who led them through the maze of information to help them get what they want, they're more than willing to sell to me exclusively.
Whew! OK, Peace out. I’m done. It’s "Miller Time" (now where's that beer-drinking emoticon?).
Best of Luck to anyone that took the time to read this.
My strategy for buying bikes listed in Craigslist at a distant location is to contact the seller, briefly explain that I want to buy the bike (but that I live far away from them), offer more than the asking price, i.e., another $50 to $100, or in this case, because it's such a rare bike, maybe even another $150 (nothing motivates a seller more than MORE MONEY in his pocket!), promise to cover all packing and shipping expenses, give them my email address and telephone number, and then wait for a response.
NOTE: If you’re looking for a bargain, then this strategy won’t work. This strategy is to be used when you don’t mind paying a bit more than you normally would in order to get a bike that you really, really want. If you don't offer the seller a premium, i.e., more money than he's asking, then he may just as well sell it to someone local who knocks on his door and has cash in hand.
If a phone call is my first contact with the seller, I just go on to the next step.
Next step: When the seller contacts me, I explain to them that I want to buy the bike, and that I’m willing to offer a premium ($$$) because this transaction will take some effort on their part. Before I get into my “sales pitch”, I usually ask for some detailed photos of the head tube and seat tube area if it’s an aluminum bike. Sometimes they find cracks, and the deal ends right there (better than me finding cracks after they’ve shipped it).
If I’m satisfied it’s a solid bike, I then briefly explain to them how they can sell to me on eBay using BIN, and that I can cover all costs to them so that when it’s all over, they will end up with more $ than they were originally asking. I usually ease into this explanation so that I don’t overwhelm them with too much info. I then offer to send them all the info they need in an email, and that they can get back to me at their leisure after they’ve had a chance to do any research and to mull it over (NO PRESSURE; I don’t want to scare them :twisted: or confuse them :? at this point because it might cause them to say “NO”).
Step 3: If they agree to hear me out, I then send them an email with a detailed cost breakdown as well as links to pages that can verify my calculations, to include eBay’s fee page, Paypal’s fee page, the courier’s shipping fee page, etc. I tell them I’d like to purchase whatever insurance the courier offers to cover the cost of the bike. I also tell them they can either get a bike shop to pack the bike for a fee (which I will cover, usually about $50), or they can get the box for free from the bike shop and pack it themselves (a bit risky if they don’t have any experience with a wrench or packing a bike). I also tell them my eBay username so that they can research my feedback rating to help put them more at ease, and I can even email them thru eBay to prove to them that I am the particular eBay user that I say I am. I end this step by telling them that I’m in no hurry, so they can double-check all the info I’ve sent them and get back to me whenever they feel comfortable enough to continue.
At this point, the “ball is in their court”, and almost every single time, they got back to me in a couple of days and agreed that we could do the transaction. The important thing was that I gave them time to do their own due diligence without me breathing down their necks, and the reason they’re motivated to do their own research to begin with is that I’ve offered them more $ than they were asking. They've also made their own determination that an eBay transaction provides protection for both buyer and seller. The fact that I spoke to them in person on the phone certainly helped as well; telephoning is a lot more personal than an email.
Step 4: When they get back to me and agree we can do the transaction, I tell them how to list the bike on eBay and that we can roll up all of their expenses that I am willing to cover (eBay fees, Paypal fees, packing fees) into the BIN price while listing the shipping fees separately, and that we need to pick a time when we are BOTH sitting at our computers AND speaking on the phone at the same time so that when they hit the “GO” button, I'm ready to complete the transaction. I already have an eBay “Advanced Search” page loaded with their eBay username, and I just keep refreshing the page every couple of seconds until the auction appears, and then I click on “Buy It Now” and complete the transaction while we’re both still on the phone. The auction isn’t even up for more than about 5 or 10 seconds before I swoop in and buy it. If a seller is relatively inexperienced with Paypal and eBay, I even tell him to take his time and wait until he's confident that the money is really in his account before he ships the bike. For my part, I feel that I'm sufficiently protected by eBay's and Paypal's policies, and the courier's insurance (incidentally, I'm using the term "courier" generically. It could be the US Postal Service, UPS, Fed Ex, DHL, etc. My preference is UPS or Fed Ex for a complete bike, and USPS Priority Mail for a frame-only).
I usually get glowing feedback whenever I buy this way, and after I receive the bike, I always leave positive feedback for the seller in these instances (even if I find a ding or a dent that neither of us noticed before) because I was the one who convinced them to sell to me on eBay in the first place (I want to be sure that I leave them with a happy feeling for all of the effort that they put forth).
You may wonder that at some point in this process the seller may get the idea that they can list it on eBay without my help, and just leave me to bid along with the rest of the world, but they don’t because I’ve already shown them how easy it is to deal with me. Remember, the reason that eBay wasn’t their first choice is that they don’t want to have to think about all the details involved with listing, calculating postage, etc etc., so they would have rather kept it simple and just sell on Craigslist, but because I'm the one who convinced them to sell on eBay, and because I'm the one who led them through the maze of information to help them get what they want, they're more than willing to sell to me exclusively.
Whew! OK, Peace out. I’m done. It’s "Miller Time" (now where's that beer-drinking emoticon?).
Best of Luck to anyone that took the time to read this.
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thanks for your efforts!
its certainly worth considering.
its certainly worth considering.
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