Friday, May 30, 2008

It all comes out in the wash

Just like leaving pieces of paper in your pocket and putting the pants in the washing machine, you end up with a big ol mess.

What am I talking about you ask? Well, misrepresentation is what. Why would you purposely misrepresent something? Take for instance, oh just off the top of my head, a motorcycle on ebay. It was delivered today and, man that picture must have been the Kawasaki's Glamour shot cuz in person, she wasn't pretty. A big dent in the tank, no working electric, speedo held on with zip ties, oil everywhere, cut seat, not the ready-to-ride machine advertised. Did he think I would see it, swoon and want it anyway? "Oh Kawasaki, I luvs you just the way you are." He did explain that big ass dents just happen when you trail ride em. Ok, fair enough. I guess front ends of cars can get smashed from driving on the street as well, but if I'm selling a smashed car, I'm gonna mention it's been smashed. Or I could just take a picture of the non-smashed side, list it and never say a word about it. Either or. I mean a big ass dent in the tank – with rust – it's worth noting even if it's, uh hem, "normal wear an tear." Sheesh.

This is the second one in a week too. Turpin and I went and looked at a Honda last week that "all it needed was points set to get runnin." Funny how that list grew by about 20 items by the time we arrived. Be honest and stop wating everyones time people. If youre not upfront about the obvious problems, I am not gonna buy whatever youre selling because I will assume there are 10 more things wrong that are not apparent that I wont find until next week, or next month, broken down in BFE.

So Kawasaki man did what any red-blooded 'merican would do in his circumstance and blammed his Dad who listed it for him. I would be more than willing to hang Grandpa out to dry too, but, I spoke to the guy 3 times on the phone after the aution ended and he never said "before I bring it over, ya might wanna know..." When we took it down off the truck, he did come clean that it prolly wasn't properly represented in the auction description. I think the other 46 bidders would agree.

Which brings me to my next question, which is how the bike came to arrive in its craptacular condition in the first place; why do so many people take Enduro and Dual Sport bikes, strip the electric to make em trail bikes? They make bikes that are already stripped down, that cost less and perform better, just for trail riding. It would be like me putting big knobbies on the Subaru and cutting the top off and calling it a truck when I could have just, oh I don't know, bought a truck. But hey, then I wouldn't have a heavy, underperforming retard-o-car worth 1/2 of what it once was.

So he's gonna take it and get it fixed to reflect how it was listed and I may or may not still buy it. In the meantime, the search continues. Oh, by the way, I have a Klein road frame for sale. I'll take a picture from it's good side later.

2 comments:

Rowbear said...

lame! That bike in the photo is in perfect shape. I like the idea about putting knobbies on the subaru and cutting off the top though.

keith said...

Dang! That is lame. My sister has a early 80's Honda express scooter (black) in her Basement, top speed 30mph and no dents.??????? The black will give you a more biker dude look.