How to NOT purchase a stolen bicycle?

August 13, 2011 8:15 PM

Tips on purchasing a legitimate and not stolen used bike on Craigslist?

I want to buy a used bike off of Craigslist, partly to be green and partly to get a decent bike for less money.

I'm in NYC; a city rampant for bike theft. What questions should I ask a seller to make sure the sale is legit? Lots of the ads mention cash only, but it may be only because the seller doesn't want the hassle of bouncing checks.

Is there a database of stolen bike serial numbers?

posted by ayc200 to Shopping (13 answers total)

Cash only is pretty standard outside of CL. There's nothing that stops anyone from writing a crap check.

The best thing to do is bring someone that Knows Bikes. Check the bike out together, if they give the thumbs up and you like it, get it! The person that Knows Bikes will look at all sorts of things, like bike fit, or if it's a pile of shit - or even if it's stolen. It's pretty easy to spot a stolen bike, if you Know Bikes - it's being sold for way less than it's probably worth, it's been repainted rather slapdashly.

But, bike thieves can be pretty tricky, stealing many different bikes, breaking them down into components and then rebuilding bikes from various sources. Ever see the film, The Bicycle Thief?

If you're still worried about some awesome bike you got a great deal on, put up another CL ad saying, "Is this your bike?!" and give some - but not all the description needed to ID the thing and say, "Bought this, but may be stolen, is it yours?!". If you get no reply, you've done really all that any reasonable citizen can do.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:22 PM on August 13, 2011

Sorry, "Outside of NYC"
posted by alex_skazat at 8:23 PM on August 13, 2011

1. Where did you get it?
2. How much did it cost?
3. How long have you had it?
4. Why are you getting rid of it?

These are all questions the responsible bike purchaser asked me when I sold my bike on craigslist last year. (I accepted cash only because, come on, it's craigslist.) I had immediate and uncomplicated answers for all of the questions asked. Anyone legitimately selling a bike should have immediate and uncomplicated answers for all of them. (When asking #2, be clear that you aren't asking so you can quibble on the price.)

Good answers for #1: name of bike store, second-hand from craigslist/a friend.
Good answers for #2: an actual number.
Good answers for #3: an actual length of time.
Good answers for #4: moving to different city, hate biking, upgrading to new bike.

Bad answers for #1: "bike store" or "a friend gave it to me"
Bad answers for #2: "it was expensive!"
Bad answers for #3: "a long time, I don't really remember"
Bad answers for #4: "just don't want it any more"

Try to ask these questions in person or over the phone so you can gauge reaction time. Be wary of hesitation, long "uhhhhh"s, or declarations that "I'm just selling it for a friend, I don't know," because someone who actually owns the bike (or is actually selling it for a friend) would either have that information immediately available or would get it for you immediately and without any grief.
posted by phunniemee at 8:27 PM on August 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

I've bought and sold several bikes, and quite a few bike components via NYC Craigslist over the last few years. If you're patient and careful, you can get a fantastic deal. For the most part, not nearly as many stolen bikes as you'd think end up on Craigslist. When someone gets their bike stolen the first place they look is CL.

If you are buying a bike from the original owner, as to the see paperwork, manuals and warranty cards. Most people save these things insurance and warranty reasons. If they have the paperwork, you can be certain the bike legit.

Before you actually meetup in person, as for as many photos of the bike as possible, and ask if they have any "action shots". If they send you photos that show them with the bike, photos that are more than a few months old or taken over a range of time, or photos of the bike in various locations, this would establish that A.)They aren't afraid of being seen with the bike B.) They have owned the bike for a while.

Look up the model of the bike on the manufacturers website and compare the components. Someone who has owned the bike will be able to tell you what parts have been changed or replaced and why.

Ask the owner for their height and weight, as well as the size of the bike. If the seller is a huge person, selling a tiny bike, that could be a red flag. You likely wouldn't own a bike that was the incorrect size for you to ride comfortably.

In general, I've had pretty positive experiences withe Bikes on NYC Craigslist, the people have all been great. I don't think there is any fool proof way to be certain the bike you buy isn't stolen, but just use your judgement and trust your gut.

I've never heard of a CL deal going down any other way than cash i hand, it's standard procedure, nothing shady about this at all. Good Luck!
posted by EvilPRGuy at 9:18 PM on August 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know, maybe a bill of sale prepared when you show up with your fistful of cash? At least that way, if things do go south and someone says "Hey, that's my bike, gimme!" you can go to the cops and show the bill of sale.

?? Not sure.

I got a bill of sale on the pickup I just bought, asked for it just to show any cops as I drove it before registering it into my name and getting it inspected, too. My signature and the previous owner, no problem, the guy was super-cool about it.

And I like the previous answers, too, great stuff, and esp the bit from EvilPRGuy about asking for manuals and other paperwork that they got with the bike -- maybe not everyone keeps everything but I do, if I were to sell my bike tonight (bought 11 years ago) I could give the buyer all the paperwork received at purchase and also at least some of the receipts from work I've had done over the years. I'm fairly anal about that stuff and I know everybody isn't but it couldn't hurt to ask, and if they had the stuff it's pretty much a lock that the bike is legit.

Good luck! And have fun riding!
posted by dancestoblue at 9:59 PM on August 13, 2011

Craigslist is the last place I'd try to sell a bike that I stole (other than the location of the theft itself).
posted by foraneagle2 at 11:06 PM on August 13, 2011

After thinking about this some more, the only reasonable way to sell a stolen bike on craigslist would be to sell it with a vague description and absolutely no photographs. If the craigslisting includes photos I would assume it was not stolen.
posted by foraneagle2 at 11:17 PM on August 13, 2011

A friend of mine buys and sells bikes off Craigslist from all over (he buys them in areas where they go for less and sells 'em where they are worth more), and found both Craigslist posts mentioned in this story.

Me and a friend bought a tandem recumbent off Craigslist from the person who was very definitely the original owner (and maker), and got a great deal. It took a day trip to get from Davis (CA) all the way to the South Bay to buy it. We still have the blueprints for the seat design.

In Davis, it got stolen shortly thereafter (locked only to itself, sitting in an area which temporarily had no eyeballs).

Two months later, it turned up on a Sacramento Craigslist ad for twice the price that we paid for it. It was funny to read the ad because it came complete with a story (we bought this to ride with our handicapped daughter and it didn't work out) which probably wasn't true. It's pretty common for bikes to be stolen in one town and shipped to another (though that isn't always the case). ( I didn't feel like dealing with police, and it was out of the range of convenient travel anyway. We tried contacting the person once, but made the mistake of mentioning that we were from Davis and never heard back. Incidentally, it got noticed by the online recumbent community, too.)

As a potential purchaser of that very unique bicycle, you would have no way to know that it was stolen. They were careful with their story and the ad and bike would have seemed legitimate. The parts hadn't even been switched out.

Take what you will from this story, but I think it contradicts some of the advice you're getting above. I don't personally know what questions you should be asking a seller, because many good bike thieves will have a solid story to back up their stolen bikes.

I still buy from Craigslist.
posted by aniola at 12:09 AM on August 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I've still got documentation from bikes I've bought new, and copies of ads and receipts from bikes I've bought second hand.

If you're not up to flat out asking whether it's stolen, and where it came from and so on - when you first get in touch, politely and diplomatically explain that for tax and insurance purposes you're going to need to sight and record the details off some ID, and receive a signed bill of sale or receipt. If they won't go for it, it's not a good sign.

On the other hand, if they do go for it, it's not an absolute guarantee the bike isn't stolen, but it will help you cover your arse if anyone later claims it's theirs.
posted by Ahab at 12:58 AM on August 14, 2011

All this also goes to show why it's a good idea to hold on to the original paperwork that comes with your bike. In college, I was once accused of stealing my own bike by some bored campus police over a long holiday weekend when I lost the key to my lock. Personally, I've always liked to think that it was Bill Nye (yes, the Science Guy) who called the cops on me, as he was in town visiting and walked by me a few minutes earlier, but the cops only would say that someone told them there was a "suspicious person." Anyway, I attempted to explain that it was my own bike, it was registered with the university in my name (they couldn't find the registration), I was a fully registered student of the university sitting in front of my own dorm, and that if I were actually a bike thief, I might just grab the unlocked bike right next to me instead of sitting on the ground painstakingly destroying a cable lock with a Leatherman multi-tool (I was too lazy to go grab the boltcutters from the theater shop up the hill).

The police didn't find this argument very compelling. They were, however, quite quickly satisfied when I popped upstairs, flipped through my files, and produced the original receipt, manual, and warranty card for the bike.

Morals of the story: save your bike paperwork; if you're going to steal your own bike, don't act like the worst bike thief in history; and if Bill Nye is around, you'd best stay on the straight and narrow.
posted by zachlipton at 1:15 AM on August 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

On the other hand, I spent an hour breaking my U-lock when I was 18 with a cop parked right across the street who never came to say "hi." I didn't have the paperwork for it because that bike had been a gift for graduating high school. I can think of lots of legitimate reasons a person might not have paperwork for a bike. What if, for instance, the bike is decades old? For this reason, I would not reasonably expect all Craigslist bikes to have paperwork.
posted by aniola at 8:53 AM on August 14, 2011

Just ask for a story in person. If it seems like they are lying, then you can assume that the bike is stolen. Other than that, welcome to Craigslist.
posted by oceanjesse at 9:24 AM on August 14, 2011

My husband and I are bike flippers kind of like someone mentioned above (buy in suburbs at yard sales on on CL, sell in city or at farmer's market, after tune-up and repairs), and deal a lot with Craigslist buying and selling bikes, and mostly people are on the up and up. We know where every bike we get in came from (and we have, seriously, 75ish in our shed and garage). We avoid anything that is even a tiny bit shady (spray painted? no thanks.) We have addresses for every bike we got, and if we met the person in a public spot, their email address at least. So, any bike you bought should at least have a believable story, if it's a flipper you're buying from. If I was asked that question, I would be glad you were aware enough to want to know you weren't being stuck with a stolen bike.

If the bike was stolen, it's probably not from NYC. I've heard stories of people who load vans up in Boston bound for NYC and vice versa. It's so hard to tell, but I go with gut instinct and demeanor when I meet the person.
posted by kpht at 9:57 AM on August 14, 2011