yeah, right

My trusty old bike needs replacing - the gears have given up and mostly gone. So I'm down to three or four, when it ought to have 21. So I've been keeping an eye out on eBay to see if anything might come along that could replace it. But I've not got anywhere. Mostly because second-hand bikes seem to go for an awful lot of money. And you can never be totally convinced that you're not dealing with some dodgy dealer, can you?

Anyway, here's one that popped up this morning which just goes to illustrate my point - his description:

Hi this is my nearly new bike, it comes with the helmet, tyre repair kit, lights and milo metre.   im 65 and the bike is to much to handle.

So, a nearly-new bike at a 'Buy it Now' price of £120. Sounds OK. But wait a minute. Look at the picture:

Taken on 17 January 2007. And it's still nearly new you say?

Doh.

Comments

[Joshua]

Many unsophisticated cameras forget what day it is when the batteries run dry, and revert to a historic New Year's Day. Maybe that's what happened in this case, 16 days before the picture was taken. If someone doesn't know how to disable the unpretty date-stamp (is it ever deliberate?), then it could follow that they wouldn't correct the clock either.

(£120 does smell like an unreasonable price for what appears to be a cheap Halfords bicycle, even if it is a bit new.)

[David Airey]

If you've yet to try it, David, www.gumtree.com is worth a shot, too. A decent free classifieds site for the UK.