I habitually rummage through the motorcycle parts listings on Craigslist, and I ran across two different links to an auction closing in about a month. There was quite a variety of parts listed with considerably low starting bids - low enough that I was somewhat suspicious. Among the various items were headlights, gas tanks, tools, exhaust parts, and one mostly-complete motorcycle. These parts were being auctioned as a part of liquidating the assets of a motorcycle shop in Pompano, Florida.
I saw quite a few things I was interested in. I liked a few of the tanks - though the ones I liked weren't Sportster tanks, I thought I might could make them work. I saw a set of turn signals that looked nice. I plan on making some, but at an initial bid of $10, I thought they might be good to use in the short term. If they were nice OEM turn signals, I figured I could eventually sell them for much more. I saw speedometers and tachometers that looked interesting, but there was no indication of whether they worked.
One thing that really caught my attention was a "mint condition" four-speed transmission for a late-model Sportster. At a glance, I was certain it would work for my bike. Now I couldn't tell if it had a late '84-'86 gear ratio or a '87-'90 gear ratio, but that's ok. There's only two gears that actually differ between the two. For an initial bid price of $50 - about the low-end cost for a single gear - there was a complete transmission. With a few of the gears and the shifter forks in my transmission being beat up a bit, I'm sure a spare transmission will eventually come in handy.
So during the week leading up to the auction, I narrowed down the list of things I might bid on. I saw a couple of welders at a bid prices that almost amounted to theft - except who knows if they work? I decided that while a nicer tank would be good, there were more practical things to bid on. I decided to bid on the transmission and the set of turn signals. I figured that if I were outbid on the transmission - and I wouldn't go much beyond the initial $50 due to my low budget - I'd bid on some other things like the large rack with spools of electrical wire or maybe the heavy-duty looking bench vices.
So I followed a link to register as a bidder. This felt a little spooky. I had never heard of the auction site before, and had no idea whether to trust it. I did a little research to see if it was listed in relation to any scams, and decided to take a chance. I bravely entered my information and credit card number, and ... jumped through a few hoops, the details of which I don't remember ... and I was registered.
So I placed my bid on the transmission, and then had trouble finding the listings for the initial auction. "No problem", I thought! I went back to Craigslist to find the link and ..... and.... hmmmm, this site said I wasn't registered!!! WTF! So I registered again, and the site seemed unfamiliar. I felt like maybe I was a fool, but I then bid on the turn signals. Turns out that two different sites posted two different links to the same auction. That's kinda weird. So I ended up registering for both sites, and bid on each item on a different site.
So on the day of the auction, I checked and checked and NO ONE AT ALL bid on the transmission or turn signals! While I didn't see anything explicitly saying so, I got the impression that this was some sort of hybrid internet-live auction. Maybe there were bids on site? If these were on auction on Ebay, there's no way in hell I would be without competition. But sure enough, I got emails declaring me the winner for both the transmission and for the set of turn signals. I looked at the other listings, and so many very good items had no bids at all. I don't think I saw any listings with more than one bid.
So was this a scam? I got an email from yet another guy working for another business. He didn't seem to be affiliated with either of the two auction sites, and based on his name seemed to be the owner of his own business. Despite having provided credit card information, he emailed a form for me to fill out giving authorization to use my card as payment. He also said "for some reason you have 2 invoices." He had a very pretentious sounding name, which made me wonder even more if this was bogus.
But I did some research on him and his company. There was nothing negative about the guy. I got the impression that he specialized in auctions where businesses or estates are being liquidated. There was a YouTube clip with a segment of "60 Minutes" showing him conducting an auction of some crooked lawyers assets in that lawyer's former office. I guess he was actually conducting the auction and simply used the two sites as a means for allowing online bidding. Then the two sites posted the redundant listings on craigslist.
There was a lot of going back and forth with this guy regarding payment and shipping. I totally missed this, but after the auction I saw clearly in the information about the auction that neither the seller or auctioneer would be responsible for shipping, and that buyers would have to make their own arrangements. So it looked like I needed to take a day off for a road trip to get the items in the time available.
After my initial email exchange with him, he told me that he was going to ship the items as a favor. How cool! It still seemed kinda confusing. Through out our exchanges, his responses where quite brief, and I wondered if he actually read my emails close enough to know all that I said. And you know what - that totally makes sense. I got the impression that he was juggling arrangements with many different buyers. He was no doubt quite busy. Going ahead and shipping despite the original plan to have buyers make their own arrangements no doubt made him that much busier. All things considered, he was providing good service.
So he sent another form asking to either be sure my card info would clear or to please give authorization for another form of payment. Granted, I told him to wait until the last pickup day to run my card. I kinda bid knowing that my paycheck would be direct deposited before the deadline for payment. So maybe telling him to wait spooked him a bit.
Much of my concern about this being a scam would have been alleviated had PayPal been an option for payment. It seems to me that it would likely have been much simpler for him as well. But then again, I don't know much about these kinds of auctions. He might just not be tech savvy enough to setup PayPal payments, or maybe there are very good business reasons not to use PayPal for these kinds of auctions? It's hard to imagine what those reasons might be, but who knows?
So on the last day of the pickup window arrived, everything went to plan. He confirmed that he took everything to the UPS store, they sent me their invoices, and I paid them online. I got tracking numbers for both shipments..... both shipments? What? I asked for everything to be shipped as a single shipment! I paid about $40 for shipping in total. That's what I would have paid for gas to ride my bike down there to pick up the items myself!
Still, I know the guy was really busy. Everything to be shipped was probably grouped by invoice, and I had two. And I had to keep in mind that originally, the deal was for buyers to pick up the parts on their own or to make their own shipping arrangements. And while I kinda half-way looked forward to the ride, I also kinda worried about my 30 year old motorcycle breaking down on the side of the road.
I was very happy when on the very next day, the transmission and turn signals arrived. They were as good as I expected! I had nice turn signals with metal housings for less than the cost of plastic Chinese ones that one can find on Ebay.
The transmission wasn't quite mint, but very close to it. I could see just the slightest indication that it was once in a motorcycle. The part of the mainshaft that sticks out of the housing showed the surface rust you'd expect from a used transmission. The inner bearing race showed just the faintest indication that it took a few turns inside the mainshaft case roller bearing. If they had said that the gears themselves were brand new, I would maybe have believed them. It wasn't mint, but it was damn good, especially for the $50 plus fees, plus sales tax, plus shipping, etc. which was still only about $80. I bet it would have sold for at least a few hundred on Ebay. I doubt that if it were a never-installed, NOS transmission that it would be any more reliable.
So moral of the story - look for these kinds of auctions! They're not quite as convenient as an Ebay auction, but if you do your research on the folks conducting the auction and they seem to be legit, you can get some insane deals! You can not only get parts you need for your bike, but parts you can sell on Ebay for much more! Actually, I really wish I had enough to do just that!
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