I did a search and found some threads about selling via Craigslist. I didn't find any about buying from CL. I'm sure they're there and I just missed them, but I'd like to share my recent experience.

First - I've bought things off Craigslist before including a 4WD truck and had good experiences so maybe that lulled me into a false sense of security. I also tend to think other people are like me and I'm a good judge of character so I probably was a little too trusting. I decided a couple months ago to get a bike just for some weekend rides on the county roads where I live though I might want to take the bike on the Interstate sometimes as well. I'd never owned a Harley before and had been out of bikes for long time, but from what I read and learned I decided the right thing for me would be a 2007-on model with the rubber engine mounts and fuel injection. I grew up with carburetors and just don't like 'em. Also despite being about to turn 60 (ugh) I am the very proud dad of a 5 year old son. I can't spend $10,000 or a lot more on a bike.

After spending a few weeks looking around and on Craigslist I happened across someone selling an 07 Sportster 1200 Custom and the price while not "too good to be true" was still very much at the low end of the range. I told the seller I was also looking at an 883 and he told me 'everyone I know who buys an 883 wants to get rid of it in a few months for a 1200', thus putting me off somewhat the beautiful 883 I was also considering. There were some pictures and Q&A's sent back and forth, it sounded great, he offered to drop the price a little and I said I'd take it. Owing to the distance and my not having a second driver or any other way to get the bike home the seller offered to deliver it in the back of his truck (180 miles round trip) for another $100 and I said OK.

Cutting to the chase - as a newbie I didn't know that the VIN on a HD tells you the exact model and engine size. I found out when I registered the bike that it was originally an 883, not a 1200. And I know a lot of guys put 1200 kits in their 883's, that would have been OK too, but I've since learned that the seller (who is a self-described "Harley guy") only had the bike a couple of weeks and flipped it. He never had his name on the title or anything. The bike is legit, it's not a salvage or stolen or anything, but he got the bike on some kind of deal and flipped it to get the money out of it. He's got a big full dresser of his own, he didn't need the Sportster.

I'm wondering -and what just fooled me outright - is how the guy thought he could just put a 1200 plate on the air cleaner of an 883 and pass the bike off as a 1200. Oh, he did it, and it worked all right, but I can't see just flagrantly advertising an 883 with a different air cleaner plate and not expecting > 50% chance that someone is going to spot that it's BS in a matter of seconds, either by knowing the VIN decoding or by the fact that the 883 engines are (I think) the only ones that usually come in the gray color. No, I didn't know those things, but most people responding to an ad for a bike either will have someone with them who knows, or maybe they themselves will know, but I'd expect a 'Harley guy' to know that just putting a different plate on the air cleaner is very likely to have a potential buyer bust him very quickly. The fact that he had the ***** to tell me an 883 would get boring fast and that's why I should buy his 1200 really leaves me shaking my head. Yeah, it's my fault - for not realizing I was being had.

Add in a few other things and this is what I've learned:
1. Make sure the seller personally owns the bike and that their name is on the title. While I didn't run into problems titling the bike I bought, I had no way to get hold of the person on the title when there was an issue about needing a bill of sale. When that happened the guy who sold it to me said 'Uh, gee, I got it from someone on Craigslist too, I'm not sure I can get hold of him.' Great. I had no idea before the bike got delivered that the person selling to me was not on the paperwork anyplace. A bill of sale from him was not going to do me any good.
2. GET THE VIN number and have it checked out for stolen or rebuilt title - and to verify the model number. And check to make sure the engine serial number matches the frame. If something doesn't match, you'd better find it out now or else when you go to sell the bike later someone else is bound to notice and ask. (My bike's numbers all match at least.)
3. Don't get all friendly with the seller and start believing everything he tells you. In my case he was able to just slide the 883 past me. I've since tracked down the actual prior owner of the bike on Facebook since his name was on the title I got, and he got back to me and confirmed it was an 883, period. I really wasn't expecting to hear anything from him.

So this douche found a way to flip a bike and make extra on it by changing the plate on the air cleaner. Okay, it's all my fault, I'm a newbie, I should have some 'expert assistance', let the buyer beware, trust nobody, I get all that. I do like the bike but if I'd known it was just an 883 I could have bought one two years newer, one owner with some accessories and in a color I liked better, for another $300. I passed on that one because the guy who sold me the "1200" told me I'd get tired of an 883 pretty quick, knowing the whole time that's just what he was selling me.

I did send him a text before I heard back from the real previous owner asking him if he had anything concrete to say that the bike might have had a 1200 kit installed on it. Of course I heard nothing back. I'm tempted to text him one more time and tell him 'if those guys who buy 883's get bored of them so fast why don't they just put a 1200 plate on the air cleaner?'

Since buying my 1200-labeled 883 I've decided I'd like to have a windshield and a small sissybar / sixpack rack, both things that were on the 883 I didn't buy, and which has now had the price dropped within $100 of what I spent. We won't even mention the cast wheels I'd prefer, which that bike has. I'm glad I resisted the temptation I had to give my seller extra $20 to buy himself a case of beer for going to the trouble to bring the bike so far for me. Actually when he found himself with a sucker on the line he was willing to reel me in from a long ways away. Who did who a favor?

I guess I have too much conscience to figure that if I can screw someone out of several hundred dollars and get away with it then it's OK. Live and learn. I'm sure there are guys here who bought bikes that turned out to have major problems that were hidden or other things that make my problem look like nothing at all.

 

Have you checked the jugs to see if it's a 1200? If indeed the dude knowingly misled that does taint the overall satisfaction with the bike but so far I can't tell if you were defrauded or were too excited. Maybe the flipper is sophisticated enough to identify the actual displacement? I've come across some incredible liars in my day as sellers but the worst deals were always due to being overzealous.

 

I tried to not be overzealous, I contacted a lot of sellers and drove hours to look at a different bike which I passed on, but I guess this time I blew it. Yeah, I checked the jugs and they had the 883 casting marks on them (this was after I found out it was originally an 883). I hoped maybe it had a 1200 kit where the original jugs got bored out but I'm sure that's not the case or the seller would have told me he'd done that. It wouldn't make sense to put a 1200 kit in a bike he was just flipping, and the guy who had actually owned the bike said it was an 883 when he let it go a few weeks earlier. Thanks for bringing that up though, if I hadn't checked the jugs it would have been a very good thing to do.

I think the 883 picked up a handful of HP when it went to F.I. so that's at least a small consolation even though it's not a 1200.

 

Sounds like a craigslist experience. Its sad to come to grips that the cross section of the American public has this going on all the timeeeeee. It will come back on him, the money has probably all ready been pissed away before the other people he owes money to got paid back.

 

Sad Story Indead....
I'd say try to sell it..See if by chance you can get your money back?
Just tell whoever is interested that the bike is an 883 with a 1200 plate on it...
Don't tell anyone the story how you bought it and it was misrepresented...Blah.Blah.Blah....
Move on....Major lesson learned...
It could of been worse...I do a lot of Craigslist dealings...Mostly good..Few not so good...
Never out a lot of money...
Don't beat yourself up over it....It happens.....

 

Call the police and the DMV. First, the whole flip transaction was illegal because he never registered the bike before reselling. Second he committed fraud. I'd call the seller and give him ONE opportunity to buy it back to make things right, but after that, I would take legal action.

 

Absolutely. But first I would have been on the phone with the seller to let him decide how this ends.....take the bike back, give me some money back, I make a visit to his house or the "above". NEVER let this kind of **** go.

 

While the lack of return contact is not a good sign, isn't it possible that the original cylinders were bored out to 1200 with appropriate parts swapped out?

Might want to have it checked out.

 

The only way to know if the 883 has been converted to 1200 is to remove the heads and measure the piston/cylinders diameter.

Many people will take the existing cylinders and have them bored out to accept bigger pistons.

 

I'm missing the part where you know this isn't a 1200. And if it isn't, I'm missing the part where you know the seller wasn't just as fooled as you were.