Most WWers are upright cyclists and I have had good experience buying here. That said, some have reported ripoffs. Afterall, this forum is only one registration away from scram artists.

So common sense should always be exercised (for any form of online buying).

As others suggested, frequent posters with substantive content and who have been registered for at least a couple of years should be fine.

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I buy from the forum a lot (and I mean a LOT!) and I've never had a bad experience. I'm sensible and either know them or check them out carefully. I recently bought a pair of U20's (expensive little toys) and they had a part missing. I contacted the gentleman concerned and he looked for the part.....worked out it was his error but realised he couldn't fix it. He fully refunded my money and told me to keep the (part) U20's [the axle had been shortened and the compression caps lost].
I'm not sure what I'll do with them but the seller was an absolute gent......and did his best to make things right. This is my typical experience.....either great parts from people who know what "perfect condition " actually means and at a great price...or in the very rare instance of a foul-up, a truly awesome effort to "make good".

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I could go broke very easy buying from here its that good

I agree, I buy and sell on here, just make sure the seller is a reputable poster, no issue.

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I've bought and sold (bought more than sold) quite a few items from fellow WW and never had an issue. Since buying poses a greater risk than selling (you don't ship until you receive payment), I just do some due diligence on the seller and use Paypal.

+1

Would be great to have a member reputation scoring system just like ebay, audiogon, etc. though.

I frequent f1technical.com and they have a member reputation rating system. Other members basically vote you one up at one down. You know a -3 guy might not be worth listening to. or is argumentative, etc. Others are +75.

They had that on weightlifting forums too, but it ends up just being a battle of who likes who.

Hi Guys,

I'm a relative newbie here but for what its worth, what's attracted me is the quality of some of the stuff for sale in the forum, and that fact that the people on here are genuine and interested in better quality / higher end parts.

One note of caution on the scenario where you place an ad (anywhere) and someone (who's often very keen on the sale) offers to wire you money over and above the sale value and asks you to send the balance by money transfer with the item being picked up by their 'courier'. This is a well known scam involving counterfeit foreign bank transfers; it takes weeks or months for the money in your account to be identified as fraudulent at which point you lose it (because the bank refuses to honour it); if you shipped the item in good faith you lose out doubly.

I listed an as new 2012 S-Works SL4 on another site's forum for £4,950 and was offered £11,000 for it in this way!! It was tempting but I did some searching around and the scam is well documented, and when I challenged the prospective purchaser for thier address and details they stopped responding!!

If it looks too good to be true - it is!!

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S-works 2012 in Red viewtopic.php?f=10&t=111951" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just found this thread, I have a story to tell, you can make up your own minds.

On December 30 "benras30" posted an ad for "FS:LIGHTWEIGHT VENTOUX GEN 3 WHEELSET TUBULARS". He asked GBP 1100.
Sounded like a deal to me, so I immediately replied to his email as he requested (did not want PMs). He had no paypal, and would not give a bank account for wire (for which the banks do background checks), nor any personal info. Wanted Western Union. Since he seemed to know about the wheels, I went for it.

After having been used by many a crook, Western Union now investigates each recipient. My WU wire to him in London was voided by Western Union for security issues. In other words, they rejected him internally, for reasons undisclosed to me other than "security risk". So my bank was instructed, by them, to return my money, which it did. At least I have my funds.

When I immediately emailed him with this news, I never heard from him again.
The ad shows that it was his first post. So I Pm'd the moderator (Florian) several times without reply.
That's all I know.The ad is still up, even today.

You can make your own decision - I am merely telling my story because I am sure other members must have inquired about this GREAT deal.
I've been on here for a couple years and had many a great trading experience. This was my first problem ever.

benras30 memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=56072 , met neither the minimum time since registration nor post count when the ad was posted. As of now, benras30 most recently visited the board at Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:26 am EST.

@UpFromOne,

That was obviously a scam.
As mentioned by HammerTime2, seller has insufficient post count.
If the price is too good to be true, with insufficient post count, avoid at all cost.
Also do a background check on forum members with post count of 150 or less. Never send money thru Western Union, Moneygram etc.

It's either Paypal or nothing.

Cheers!

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I don't disagree. But what gets me is reporting the ad, along with several PMs to 2 different moderators, with no reply or action. Especially when it's his first post! I fully understand mods are busy and may not reply for a few days, but what gives?

I guess that happens occasionally.

Solution is to have an automatic system which prevent members from posting in the Sale forum if he/she doesn't meet a certain post count.

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Colnago Master 55 Anniversary
Colnago C50 STSL
Cipollini RB1000
TIME VXRS Ulteam 2006

Sorry about the lack of response. I did review my PM box so I know I was not the one contacted. Some of us to have heavy work schedules that involve travel and travel out of the country and personal lives that involve families and we even like to ride our bikes.

Usually reporting a post catches our attention and it gets addressed.

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