Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

1931 250 sloper on fleabay. Looks original and unmolested.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125735295466

Dear fellow enthusiasts,

I don’t intend to offend anyone but this most likely is a scam. The photos of same bike were uploaded on another website in December 2012. If you look carefully at Ebay listing, the first two photos have copyright information inscribed in faint font (devo4kaskerco). When you do a search for devo4kaskerco, you get this link:

http://databikes.com/infophoto/other/ariel_lb-1931.html

Here is screenshot of the above link:
You can see that the photos on Ebay listing are exactly same as photos on the above website. But the Ebay photos are obviously unclear and grainy because they were ripped off the above website.

I would also like to discuss a trend I have been seeing recently. Several of Ebay accounts which have been dormant for several months (or years) are being hijacked by hackers. The obvious advantage of hacking an older established account is the positive reviews left for the account holder. But you can and should look for how old were the most recent feedbacks. The older the feedbacks, the more likely this account has been dormant for a while. For this particular Ebay listing also has an account with last review posted more 6 months ago. Rest of the reviews are even older. It is very likely the most recent review is a fake review left by scammer himself using a different account. I also get cautious when I read wild descriptions such as “Chance of a lifetime to aquire a bike this original.”

As always, be careful out there and demand to see photo with seller in picture. I always try find a local friend or acquaintance who can actually visit the seller and see the bike in reality.

the sellers name says it all : Lighter Thief !

Well spotted Vincent

Hi Kumar,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. It is interesting to learn how those cruds operate.
Regards, Chris

I don't see anything wrong.

It is currently listed as SORN'd on the DVLA. Last V5C issued 11th January 2017. Maybe the seller is just using old pictures.

Looks like the ebay pictures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 were taken here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.68349 ... 6?hl=en-GB

8 is a give away.

I take Kumar's point about dormant ebay accounts, but I suspect my feedback records would look much the same - I just don't sell much stuff.