Error or not?

I appear to have purchased a new (to me) bike, a Ducati 500SL Pantah.

While this in itself is ok there are a couple of things that either
make it a good buy or an "oh ffs why?" moment.

Firstly we'll have the ebay auction I won

200139718649

Then we'll have a look at the sellers earlier attempt to nige it out

270144340063

I'm not worried about the lack of documentation or the need for a bit
of work, I'm just curious as to why the sellers name and location
have changed if it's the same person, which it appears to be.

He's gone from having decent feedback to zero feedback and appears to
have moved from Oxford to London even though the photos show the bike
in the same place.

I'll wait for a return email from him (I've contacted him re
collection and payment) and see what the story is. I'm still confident
I've snagged myself a good buy and it'll be appearing at Chimay next
year.

 

People move, fact of life. He may have lost his original internet
connection and access to his email, hence needing to start another
ebay account, especially if he changed isp. Why bother retaking
photos if you've already got some from the previous auction?

As long as the frame/engine numbers are legit then I wouldn't
worry about it, tbh.

 

Or, it could be a second person Nigeing it out, using the original
photos.

 

I reckon it'll be a good buy. I saw that one and thought about it.
Briefly.

 

Well he does suggest he lives elsewhere from where the bike is stored.
You appear to have got it at an utter bargain price!

TBH I was rather surprised for a moment then recalled you had a 748.

Seller says '79 but I don't think they were sold until '80 but ICBW?

I do remember the OE exhausts got junked and standard practice was freeing
up the inlets and dropping the gearing. Not unlike most other Ducati's that
followed.

Lovely bike with a great fairing and really good brakes. Cam belts nice and
easy to get at!

I wonder if TOG's 750SS engine was the evolution of this power plant? very
similar looking with the sw.arm running on the crankcase.

 

Looks like a scam to me. The auction you've won looks like someone
copied the listing details wholesale. Zero fb, newly registered
seller, short auction....

FFS don't part with any money until you've seen it and got the
paperwork and keys. I'd be surprised if it's a kosher auction, though
stranger things have happened.

 

Changing an ISP won't affect anything on Ebay.

 

It could possibly, if his original email address was
tied into to his isp and then he forgets his password?

I'm not familiar with ebay's password reminder but if
he has no way of accessing his email then I doubt he
would get it.

I know you can change your email address once into your
ebay account, but maybe he didn't, or couldn't get in
to change it?

Not everyone is clued up in these things.

 

The 500 was always overgeared, and early ones had a few gearbox
gremlins (second gear, IIRC). The 600cc version was a great
improvement (I rode both types, way back when), and all the usual mods
were as you describe. And yes, the 600, 750 and 900 engines are direct
descendants of the Pantah. I think quite a few parts (cam belt covers,
maybe), possibly clutch casing) are interchangeable.

 

Feedback of 83 and he forgets his PW? No.

 

Looks like the original bike simply didn't sell, but someone copied the
whole auction listing, photo's et al, and is now attempting to run a scam.
I wouldn't be surprised if he emails back suggesting collection isn't now
available, but he'll deliver for a nominal charge, but wants your money
first.

OTOH, stranger things have happened and you have what looks like a friggin'
bargain.

Lovely bikes.

 

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:21:47 -0700,
TOG@toil,,

snip>

Looks like it could be that way.

I've never heard of ebay square trade but I'll contact ebay and see
what they've got to say for themselves.

Do you fancy having a look at the email I've received from the seller?
It doesn't look good for me getting a new bike but I'll not be handing
over any money yet.

 

Yeah. Send it to neil dot murray at informa dot com

 

LOL, post it here, it's your property after all. Might be an interesting
read.

 

Have you tried to contact the original seller, then you could ask him if it
was the same bike? Or does eBay still stop us from contacting other users?

 

You can contact any seller, using the Ask Seller A Question button

 

Yes but only fools get scammed by it.
Simple rule of thumb isn't it, until you (or your ukrm proxy) are sitting on
the bike listening to it rumble, holding a V5 in the name and address of the
geezer standing slightly to your right, no green folding changes hands.

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

Only during an auction or after the auction if you won the item . If you go
to the original item 270144340063, click on the sellers name, select contact
user, fill in the form and enter the anti spam caption, ebay still blocks
your message because you are not buying from, potentially buying from or
selling to that user. It does when I tried it anyway.

 

It seems random, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't heh.

 

Fairynuff. I blame the pills.