[fabsroman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have no idea what that comment refers to. It could be that I have no brains for bidding $2,100 on a bike frame, or it could be for bidding that kind of money on e-bay, or it could be for both. If you know anything about bikes, the Colnago frame is considered the Ferrari of bicycles, and the carbon fiber bikes are made with the help of Ferrari. The Colnago factory is in Cambiago, Italy, which is supposed to be rather close to Ferrari's headquarters. Colnago even offers a couple of limited edition Ferrari labeled bikes that come with the Ferrari prancing horse on them. So, do I think bidding $2,100 on a one year old frame in great condition is insane when the same exact frame, just a 2006 instead of 2005, retails for $4,100, I don't think so. I ended up ordering a similar, brand new, Colnago carbon fiber frame that retails in the US for $3,600 from a Swiss dealer for $2,500, and it is supposed to arrive at the end of September. Before you get your panties in a bunch and think I have less brains than a bat or a fish for spending that kind of money and ordering from a Swiss dealer, let me say that I did a ton of asking around on a bike chatboard about this outfit in Switzerland and all the feedback was positive, and I did a ton of goole searches and nothing bad came back. Nobody had any issues with them, and the owner responded to my e-mails within 24 hours of each one. However, there was one guy that was talking bad about the shop on the board, and the owner went on the board to justify his position. In the end, the guy that was talking bad stated that he got the frame just as promised, he was charged exactly what he was supposed to be charged, and he saved $1,000 by ordering it from this dealer. In fact, he thanked the owner for saving him that much money. See, there is only one Colnago importer/distributor in the US, so it can price fix the frames at will, until people get smart enough to order them from the English shops and this Swiss shop. Of course, one would have to have a little brain power to find a conversion for British pounds to US dollars and Swiss francs to US dollars, before they can be sure they are getting a good deal. Luckily, I had that much brain power.

As far as the possible second meaning of your statement, I did some homework before bidding on it. I checked a ton of feedback on the guy and everything seemed pretty good. Did the same thing for the guy with the wheels. The guy with the wheels had 352 transactions on e-bay and his feedback rating was 99.4% positive over the last three years. If you want to clarify your statement a little, I'll try to explain why I just might have a little bit more brains than God gave a possum, but not much more. By the way, the wheels I bid $560 on, they retail for $1,750 brand new and the ones up for auction were two to three years old.

Yeah, the auctions with the e-mails listed in them are definitely frauds and I have reported a couple to e-bay because I was pissed off about them. Saw another ad wherein the guy was selling the entire Colnago bike, but stated that he forgot to put a reserve price on the auction and that he would not let it go for anything less than $3,500. The reason he conveniently forgot to put a reserve price on the auction is because he would have been charged a higher transaction fee by e-bay.

If I had known any better, I would have reported the cancellation of the frame sale too, but I was a complete novice then.

So, how do you guys bid on stuff on e-bay? There are some smaller items that I would like to buy, like vintage cranks for my old bike. Does anybody on here bid for higher dollar stuff, and if so, how has that gone?

Plenty of people on a bike chatboard I visit have bought wheels, frames, etc. on e-bay. Even noticed one guy from the board selling a frame on e-bay and he had the same screen name and location listed on e-bay and on the chatboard. Plus, he knew a ton about bikes.

What I really love are the descriptions of bikes wherein the components do not even come close to what is on the bike, and then they have the e-mail me for the Buy It Now price. What a crock.

Skeet,

The reason I want to spend this amount of money for a bike is because I used to race competitively before going to undergrad and law school. Still road the bike here and there during the past 15 years, but I am starting to get back into it. Even raced a couple of times against the new Team Discovery leader, George Hincapie, and even though I lost each time, it wasn't by that much. Yeah, I am cheap, but I don't think riding a bike to Court or to meet clients would go over well. My current bike is 20 years old, and the technology is way outdated. Plus, the frame is too big for me which makes it somewhat uncomfortable to ride.

My dad is doing well, and we are planning on taking a ride to Delaware on Sunday to go to a calling contest hosted at the hunting club Rubicon just joined.

As far as shooting is concerned, you know me. With a brain smaller than a possum, there is no way that I could ever refuse an invitation to go shooting with you. LOL Seriously, I would like nothing more than for all of us to get together again and do some shooting. My dad and I had a great time that day.