It's very typical of prices here in Australia to be double the average of the UK and U.S. Seems that everything here is about double what you can get a bike part (television/stereo/ipod/computer part/etc/etc) for on ebay.co.uk or ebay.com.

I recently purchased a super record group set, and was ripped off by the seller. He sent me a bar of chocolate instead. The last laugh was on him though, Paypal refunded the entire amount including the postage. I feel pretty sure that he would have been left with a large debit in his bank account. Climbed back on the horse...bought another from a more reputable seller (ebay again) and am very happy riding around on a really nice bike :-)

As an aside, I really feel for the bike shops, having to pay for retail space when the ebay merchants don't. How can they compete?

Ebay is also great for fencing stolen bikes and also advertising that your bike has been stolen

I had my Cannondale F4000 stolen within the last 48hrs. I've placed an ad on ebay which describes the bike in order to stop the thieves doing the same. Search Ebay for Cannondale F4000 to find it, and then help me find it....

I cannot complain about ebay, most of the componentry on my bikes originated there at some point, and will probably find its way back there again when I'm done with it!

Where else can you pick up brand new unboxed RockShox Lyriks (inch and an 1/8) for £415!

so and bought on the 'bay.

great market place

top marks

I bought a decent aluminium frame on ebay for, 99p! amazing!

£1600 of Titanium frame, brand new, never ridden, ex trade show, even datatagged and transferred into my name - ebay £800

All the XTR, Rockshox SID and DT Swiss 240, Stans tubeless wheels to go on said bike - all off ebay all at way less than half price and all like new

Total 'if new' build price - around £3500

Price I paid £1300

Also made some good money selling old stuff on ebay - old Marin bike, owned (second hand) for 3 years, sold for only £50 less than I bought it for

HOWEVER I have now drastically reduced my ebay buying and stopped all selling because of silly levels of fees and Paypal problems (what banking code??)

Ebay used to be great, now its only good for smaller low value items

Bad experience with selling a bike on ebay. Never again.

"What's the most popular bike make sold?"

A stolen one.

Ebay is a nest of vipers. Not on your life.......

I bought a pair of 2006 Marzocchi AM1's for 114euro and a pair of immaculate shiver sc's for 100e. How can you go wrong?

I think if you've got your head on the right way and know what to look out for and the questions to ask you've a good chance of being very satisfied. You've a much bigger chance of getting fleeced by a store because they are trying to offload stock if they're that way inclined whereas at least on ebay you browse without being approached or hassled.

I'm not by any means saying bike shops rip you off, not at all, but for those of us who know what to look out for and whats a bargain 99% of the time your onto a winner

I've found ebay to be a place of great bargains though you have to be patient for items to coe up at the right price, just like that 99p frame mentioned, jammy bugger!

You do have to be careful though. I built a bike mostly from 2nd hand and new Ebay bits when I came back to cycling and had to Google many components that I was unfamiliar with. Some sellers exaggerate the value and quality of bikes to such an extent that I'd sometimes classify that as fraud! So I'd say ALWAYS research items that you're interested in buying. In the past I've emailed Ebay concerning two sellers descriptions: the first time, as a new Ebayer I had assumed that there would be some kind of moderators employed doing spot checks on the apparant validity/value of items and was informed by them that they were not responsible, and the item remained on sale; in the other case I had to email them twice before getting a reply, was told that the seller had been informed about my complaint and had agreed to amend the advert...the advert remained unchanged. after that I gave up but did once email a bidder directly to tell them what I thought of a product (very nasty imported eastern bike advertised as a 'pro level' racing bike with a ridiculous starting price). I didn't bother after that, you could spend all day as a self proclaimed internet copper shooting off 'helpful' warning emails and probably just end up getting banned from the site for your troubles.

Feedback helps keep sellers honest. Emailing the seller usually sorts out any problems.

I have found sellers willing to give a full refund when an item has not been correctly described.

The biggest problem comes from new Ebayers who sometimes leave inappropriate negative feedback...like it's been 2 days and i haven't received my item...or postage was 30p and got charged double!

i have sold 3 bikes on e-bay with no problems, just be careful thats all

No wonder eBay are still going strong - have you actually checked how much big a cut they take from everything you sell? It's a shame there's no real competition to force them to set their pricing at a more reasonable level.

Ebay used to be good. Now, for the casual seller, it's horrendous.

You must accept Paypal, if a buyer pays with paypal and doesn't leave positive feedback, paypal holds your money for around a month (the length of time that they're allowed to make a complaint).

If you don't use a tracked postage service, (quite expensive if the item you're selling is only a couple of quid) and the buyer complains they didn't receive it, ebay automatically reverses all payments back to the buyer without investiagation (so make sure you get proof of postage and adequate insurance because you'll be claiming it back from Royal mail).

Also, if an online shop accepts Paypal, think carefully before using it, should you need a refund for ANY reason, (ie, you order it but shop has run out of stock so cancels order) Paypal hold onto your money for around a month, which personally i think is disgraceful.

I can't afford shop prices for quality bikes. Over the last five years or so I've bought from reputable sellers on ebay a bianchi, a hewitt, a chas roberts audax, my orbea starship framed racer and an ambrosio racer to start my son off. The most I've ever paid was £550 (Hewitt) and I bought & collected them all from decent cyclists who were pleased to see their preciouses go to a good home.

I've found that if I take the trouble to do my research and then check out the seller I've had no problems, with the bikes I've bought or the bikes I've sold. And it's allowed me & the family to get into cycling, riding really good bikes we couldn't otherwise afford.

And the people who took my hard earned cash in a fair exchange seemed pretty pleased too!

I have found that if im going to resort to ebay ill check how much it costs on other sites...for example, shimano saint m810 ss derailleur ... "for buy it now" they were around £100 (cheap?) well on a few sites whose names will remain unknown (just kidding - CRC / merlin) they were £85...£15 I can spend on travel or maintenance

so i recommend always checking as some greedier sellers have a habit of saying they're worth alot more.

but you all seem like ebay veterans so would probably know that already...