[CR]ebay outing: merckx de rosa

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

From: "c. andrews" <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:55:09 -0800
Subject: [CR]ebay outing: merckx de rosa

see interesting bike here..

http://ebay.com/<blah>

this is an interesting example of an auction featuring an item about which it is almost impossible to tell much of anything. Potentially, it's a very cool bike. Or, it's just an average cool bike. Without better pics and a much more detailed description, who would know??

I'm assuming the seller doesn't understand how important the details are. On the other hand, maybe he's leaving the details obscure on purpose.

The reason I say this is that I bought a bike, a long time ago, when I was just getting back into all this stuff, for way too much money, that was deliberately mis-represented, or under-represented, by the seller (a well-known personality in the vintage-bike world, but not on this list). It was a total rip-off, as it turned out..to this day I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him... and I still wonder, to this day, if he really meant to be deceptive, or if he really thought he was being honest, or what.

And that is why auctions like this one bug the hell out of me.

It'd be worth asking some questions about that bike, if it's your size, though. it might be a keeper.

Charles Andrews SoCal

"our brains are wired to see connections and correlations, not coincidences and happenstance. Moreover, our brains are wired to believe that a correlation is also a cause. The same part of the brain that lets us learn what we need to know and find the things we need to stay alive is also the part of the brain that produces delusional thinking and conspiracy theories

-- Temple Grandin