New thread? Personally when I advertise a bike, I sort out any problems with the bike that I know of, I clean the hell out of it and I photograph it really well from all angles. I then write an essay about it so that there's pretty much no questions left in the mind of a potential buyer. Other people do it differently....
Show us the worst adverts for bikes you've seen recently.
Here's a photo I came across this morning...
Crappiest adverts
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- mark vb
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Re: Crappiest adverts
Millenium M/C's have an ad on-line for a lovely, 196-mile XT500 at around £13k (no wonder it's still for sale). The half dozen or so photos are all of one side of the bike, 3 pics are of the engine from the same angle, and one pic is of the seat of a scooter.... not too impressive!
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Re: Crappiest adverts
To extend this out a little, I'd like to just offload one of my pet hates: online listings/adverts for things, which have crucial information missing. For example: "Chest of drawers (usually there's then some gushy marketing spiel). Material: white gloss. Drawers: 4. Length: 1300mm Height: 1000mm." And? Where's the missing, but crucial, 3rd dimension? Or "M10 bolts, galvanised, without nuts. £1.10 ea."
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- cozi70
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Re: Crappiest adverts
I once bought a hayabusa. Gumtree special.
No pictures and the description was almost as much Info as the title,along these lines.
"2003 suzuki hayabusa gsxr1300r, good condition, needs tidied, has oil leak"
It was only up about 25 minutes and local so I called and he eventually answered after about 6 attempts.
Anywho, I was able to to get there first to find a bike that looked in a sorry state.
No mot.
Flat battery.
Both side fairings removed and overall the bike was very dirty, and weirdly the bike was covered in stickers of playing cards and semi dressed lady's .
Priced cheap enough so I bought it on the assurance it ran perfect, which it did, and started removing the multitude of cheap stickers and sourcing the oil leak.
General consensus eventually pointed to a leaking output shaft seal, which really requires a complete engine split but holeshot racing informed me of an easier external repair, which I eventually also didn't need.
Transpired the black dripping liquid was hot grease from inside the front sprocket cover. I don't know what chain lube this dude has had used over the years but he'd used plenty.
No pictures and the description was almost as much Info as the title,along these lines.
"2003 suzuki hayabusa gsxr1300r, good condition, needs tidied, has oil leak"
It was only up about 25 minutes and local so I called and he eventually answered after about 6 attempts.
Anywho, I was able to to get there first to find a bike that looked in a sorry state.
No mot.
Flat battery.
Both side fairings removed and overall the bike was very dirty, and weirdly the bike was covered in stickers of playing cards and semi dressed lady's .
Priced cheap enough so I bought it on the assurance it ran perfect, which it did, and started removing the multitude of cheap stickers and sourcing the oil leak.
General consensus eventually pointed to a leaking output shaft seal, which really requires a complete engine split but holeshot racing informed me of an easier external repair, which I eventually also didn't need.
Transpired the black dripping liquid was hot grease from inside the front sprocket cover. I don't know what chain lube this dude has had used over the years but he'd used plenty.
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Re: Crappiest adverts
There's lots of these about on french facebook marketplace. It's the 'Can't even be bothered to wheel it out of the garage, let alone clean it' shot. If they can't be arsed, why should I be bothered to go and look at it? Amazing.
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Re: Crappiest adverts
Well yeah, that certainly does exist. Come across it quite a lot, and I've actually kind of grown to like it a bit. Tracie picks me up on it everytime I do a boff shrug myself, and I do it more and more often...Richard Simpson Mark II wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 2:44 pm Snot nose sound
"Pah!"
Gallic shrug...walks off
But there is also a french bike seller called 'le maniaque' - who is manically obsessed with service schedules, toothbrush cleaning of components, optimates and heated garages. Obviously you really want to buy from that guy.
What is almost universally true is that almost nobody knows how to photograph their bike. They take pics from above, from the front, from the rear. from a distance, in a group with their mates.... What I want to see above all is a good sharp large pic of each side, before anything else. If people pick out a scratch/dent in their description and then include a close up pic of it too, I love them and want to have their babies.
Re: Crappiest adverts
Got to be the ones where the seller states that the item doesn’t fit. May quote the actual size ( but often not) but They then forget to say what size they are in respect to the fit so you are left to buy something that probably won’t fit you. Knobbers