On a side note. Several people have mentioned that I paid too much for the bike.
Just out of interest, what do you think it's worth? (If it had of been in good condition that is).
I sold a set of Reba forks on there own just a few days ago for about £150 (I think?) and an xt groupset, which is the equivalent of x9 on this bike for £120.
Nice one on getting the refund
Stuff on
ebay does not sell cheap, and I think - and YMMV - on most transactions you will pay at least a 10% premium on the "real" value of the product. This is driven by people who don't know the the real value of what they are bidding for or people who get pulled in to the "excitement" of bidding.
Case in point: I was bidding on a "as new" camera, boxed, that retails at £280 online. I limited my bid to £200, which in retrospective looks excessive. A chump ended up paying £240 for it - a camera he's never seen, with no warranty, that could be had brand new for only £40 more. If it breaks now he has a very expensive paper weight and no come back.
That bike would retail around £800. It's a decathlon though, so I'd expect it's second hand value to be less than that of a "big brand" bike, because in all likelihood it would have been bought by someone who knows little about bikes and not maintained properly and possibly abused. If it worked, and by that I mean the frame wasn't cracked and the drive train wasn't mashed, I may have valued it at £200 - you just don't know where it's been, or what has been done to it, or what's going to fall to bits on the ride home with it (like the TR7 stories), for which you have no real come-back.
Out of interest, I sold my 2003 Specialised Rockhopper Comp Disc for £260 last year through gumtree - but it was immaculate, XT/LX, well cared for and with brand new tires. The buyer spent thirty minutes testing it out to make sure he was getting what he was paying for.
