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As in any industry there are always one or two disreputable dealers. These types of dealers usually die off after time due to their shoddy business practices.

The world of pocketbikes is different however.

How many times have we heard of someone buying a bike and telling us it only cost him $99.00? I can count at least 3 times. Ask that user how much he paid for shipping and he won't tell you. Odds are the shipping was more than $150US, which is an amazing five times more than it really costs.

There are a few websites that charge these types of shipping fees. And they usually don't show you these fees until the payment confirmation page.

They don't want you to know that you are being suckered into paying a lot more than what you are being shown up front.

The worst place the shipping scam is seen on is ebay. I have seen bikes for sale for $69US and $249US for shipping. To compare, I can ship a bike across Canada for around $30 Canadian. I can ship a bike to anywhere in the US for about $70 canadian.

So why do dealers do this? They are trying to pull in the price conscious buyer. Shoppers always want the best price. And that's the first thing they look for. When they see the price for the shipping many users simply assume that because of the size and weight of the box that the shipping price is pretty much the same for most dealers.

Buyers need to be educated. That's the job of the dealer. So what do we do when the dealer doesn't educate the buyer? That's why this forum, other forums like this and articles like this are for. Riders need to help the newbies understand what their options are.

There was a case of a dealer in Ontario who would only ship bikes for $199 shipping. Since he had good prices I offered to buy 40 bikes from him but wanted to pick them up and save the cost of shipping. He countered and offered me a special shipping price of $189.

As you can see this shipping scam not only extends to end buyers but to dealers as well. This "dealer" was probably dropshipping from a wholesaler or was simply trying to make his profit back because he offered ridiculously low prices.

Dropshipping and ebay do not have to be bad. In fact they can both be good in the right circumstances. Just watch for the shipping prices and try and educate yourself on the sellers reputation. Search for their name on forums and on search engines. Ask others if they have any experience with a dealer.

This article was written by Bruce Peresky for pocketbikeforum.com. Copying is permitted provided you give credit to http://www.pocketbikeforum.com

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