I moved this from Blaine's thread to it's own thread, as it's not really related to his experience. Anyways, this is just a story from the past about why one should be careful about buying used wheels / tires on eBay.
Here's my experience:
Back when I had my BMW M3, I was looking for a set of competition package wheels for it. I found a set for $3500 with tires already mounted on them, but they appeared to be in flawless condition, and the tires also appeared brand new. Technically this price wasn't too far out of line, as a new set of wheels would have been $2200, and a set of tires for them would have been around $1500.
Anyways, I message the seller and ask him what the production date is on the tires. He promptly replies to me and says, "The production date is 1004.".
That means the fucking tires were produced in the 10th week of 2004. So in other words, they were the OEM tires that had never been driven on, they were just take offs since the vehicle was brand new.
Keep in mind that I was inquiring about these wheels probably in 2013 or so.
So yeah... this asshole was trying to ask a premium price for tires that are 9 fucking years old! Not only are they unsafe to drive on at that point, but they are basically throw away tires with zero value, yet the asshole is asking full price.
The guy doesn't disclose the production date once in the ad (I had to ask him). Someone who doesn't know any better gets on there and buys a set of wheels and tires, not even knowing that the tires are way past their production date.
I see this continue to happen to this day with wheels and tires and it blows my mind. Just go look for used wheel and tire takeoff packages and you'll see what I mean. What blows my mind is that the sellers are referring to the tires as brand new, 100% tread (or close to it), and never once mentioning how old the tires are. In addition to that, they're asking almost the same price the tires would cost brand new.
Anyways, rant over.
Here's my experience:
Back when I had my BMW M3, I was looking for a set of competition package wheels for it. I found a set for $3500 with tires already mounted on them, but they appeared to be in flawless condition, and the tires also appeared brand new. Technically this price wasn't too far out of line, as a new set of wheels would have been $2200, and a set of tires for them would have been around $1500.
Anyways, I message the seller and ask him what the production date is on the tires. He promptly replies to me and says, "The production date is 1004.".
That means the fucking tires were produced in the 10th week of 2004. So in other words, they were the OEM tires that had never been driven on, they were just take offs since the vehicle was brand new.
Keep in mind that I was inquiring about these wheels probably in 2013 or so.
So yeah... this asshole was trying to ask a premium price for tires that are 9 fucking years old! Not only are they unsafe to drive on at that point, but they are basically throw away tires with zero value, yet the asshole is asking full price.
The guy doesn't disclose the production date once in the ad (I had to ask him). Someone who doesn't know any better gets on there and buys a set of wheels and tires, not even knowing that the tires are way past their production date.
I see this continue to happen to this day with wheels and tires and it blows my mind. Just go look for used wheel and tire takeoff packages and you'll see what I mean. What blows my mind is that the sellers are referring to the tires as brand new, 100% tread (or close to it), and never once mentioning how old the tires are. In addition to that, they're asking almost the same price the tires would cost brand new.
Anyways, rant over.
