I don't know how popular this bike is, but it's possible that they copied another listing and eBay auto populated the size.

Yes I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because it's happened to me not with size but with other characteristics of stuff I've sold.

To answer your question, yes that was rude.

That's enough for me to not bid or make an offer on something no matter how much I want the item. If you aren't going to be professional when a potential customer is asking questions, then you aren't going to be professional when I give you my money.

Also - what bike is going for $10k+ on ebay?

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Reluctant to post actual bike model as there are several other sellers of this model and it’s unfair to have them lumped in.

That said, there seems to be a problem with the sizing of this model. Several are being listed as not fitting correctly or not comfortable and I just discovered one that was actually grossly misclassified (listed as a 52cm, actually a 45cm)

I think you're over-reacting - you said he answered a few questions already, so this was just another one.

If you've sold anything $$ on ebay, you often do get a bunch of potential scam artists who try and 'show their interest' in your purchase' by asking lots of questions and trying to bait you into favoring to do a deal with them because you've already sunk so much time and frustration into dealing with their inquiries.

It does sound like the question you're asking isn't so easy for the seller to answer - I think he'd already not want to deal with you if you're expecting him to go bust out a measuring tape and measure it precisely the way you want.

I purchased from bike room,seller of bikes in Europe. I was looking at 2 bikes,and they busted out a tape measure for me to get exact sizes, which made me drop from 58 to 56 even though the sizes listed on site.

Sure, but would YOU bust out the measuring tape if you were selling such a bike, realistically? When you might be getting 4-5 or more questions of similar complexity, and have already answered multiple other questions from each person such as the OP did?

We are talking about a sight unseen transaction for over $10k, and my questions were the exact type that a knowledgeable serious buyer would ask. The seller stated information that could not be verified on the manufacturer’s site as they have four sizes that could be considered as ‘small’ . I understand the philosophy of treating everyone as a ashhat so you are never disappointed, but if you are trying to sell a high end triathlon bike online, that hasn’t sold in probably six months, answer relevant questions.

I just sold a tri bike yesterday on eBay and one of the questions for a 56cm bike was "What is the step over height?" I went into the garage, put a yardstick next to the bike and sent a photo of the answer - 31 inches. I agree with others that if the seller is not answering your questions, then you should take it as the seller has an attitude and walk away.

I've grown more suspicious with the possibility of bikes on ebay and other places being stolen. When a seller gets defensive like that it's a sign for me to walk away. For me it's just not worth it. Even if it's not stolen if they're acting like that I don't want to take the chance on how they'd handle shipment and whatnot.

I understand people have bad days and so forth, but then that's an opportunity to be made up with another person on another day.

You are 100% correct that your question was totally reasonable, given the price of the item and fact that it was due to a discrepancy in how they described the size compared to manufacturers methods.

That reaction from the seller is a huge red flag. Steer clear I'd say.

Idk if any of them sell, but there are a ton of bikes for over 10k on eBay. Not unusual IMO

I would think twice about this transaction. Most eBay sellers are very well intentioned and will bend over backwards to be helpful, even for small transactions (ex. measuring the actual underarm width of a $25 used bike jersey you are thinking of getting). Ask yourself how this seller is likely to respond if you have issues with damaged packaging or a missing component. You are covered by eBay's money back guarantee in many cases, but only if the information in the listing was wrong (not insufficient or vague).

Disclaimer: former eBay exec.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

pricing and confused sizing info make me think about pinarello bolide tt bike

A seller/rider of such a bike would be clued up on the specs and understand why a buyer would want to know. If they are being weird I would suspect it’s stolen.

Can’t confirm or deny. But as an aside, anyone looking at a Pinarello Bolide should contact a Pinarello dealer with the S/N to have the size confirmed. Pinarello also had information on their website about fake frames.

My fear would be that they don't actually have the bike to be able to measure it.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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What I’ve noticed about scammers on eBay is if they get back with you, they are typically polite but try to get you to buy quickly. Like ‘not by the bike now, but need to sell, others very interested, how about $X (low price).

Had a guy scam me on an eBay car purchase. I stated the legal definition of something to let him know he was being fraudulent. His response, “Yes, I know, I’m a lawyer”.

For $10000 I would do pretty much whatever was asked of me. The people willing to purchase a bike at that price point is pretty small so pissing off someone who is showing interest isn't likely the way to go.

That being said use bikeroom or pros closet

But at $10k the number of scam-purchasers is quite high - to the point you might realistically suspect the vast majority of your 'buyers' who are asking you questions, communicating with you, and taking more of your time, are actually scammers trying to set you up.

I haven't sold anything that expensive on ebay, but I've sold other items before that weren't cheap, and I suspect every single person inquiring was a scammer - there were like 8 inquiries per item, all of them seemed legit in the first few questions with more and more (annoying) complexity, and then either no bid, or better yet, private messages telling me they could give me a 'deal' if I sold to them outside the auction and shipped it to them fast so they could wire me a 'bonus'.

The time annoyance was big enough that I've stopped selling items on ebay since it seemed everyone buying my higher-end items were all scammers.

I'd not touch it with a barge pole.

There's probably more chance of being contacted by a real Nigerian Prince who just needs you to quickly send that $10k to help him release his $50,000,000 that's tied up because of a procedural hiccup, that this being legit and not stolen.

I have been selling very high-end items on eBay for more than 23 years and have never been ripped off.

Josh at Silca has a story about selling a high end bike with new Dura Ace and getting it returned, but now with used 105 components installed. Think he took a big loss.