Following are a few good links with information on buying or selling a bike online:

• BikeRadar – The complete guide to buying a used bike
• Sheldon Brown – Buying and Selling Used Bicycles and Bicycle Equipment 

With my limited experience, I would suggest some of the following tips:

• If at all possible, do the transaction in person.
• If buying or selling be very mindful of scams. There are lots of ways to get scammed. If anything at all starts to sound suspicious, you should probably just stop and not buy or sell to that person.
• If you can’t do the transaction in person, getting a bike shop involved is a really good idea.
  • • If you are the buyer, they can insure that the bike actually exists, can perform an inspection to make sure it’s in the advertised shape, and can pack the bike for shipping. All for a fee, naturally.
    • As a middleman, they can help can be instructed to hold the bike until the buyer actually pays the seller, protecting both parties from a scam.
• Ask for the serial number of the bike and do a google search with the brand and serial number to see if it is a stolen bike.
• Use BikeFlights, ShipBikes or some similar service to ship the bike. These are MUCH less expensive than using FedEx, UPS, etc directly.

 

Have any other tips or great articles that you think should be listed here? Let me know.