Upset my day haha. Some people have all the luck.

Not a fan of the guy.
I’m in Southern NJ, & made a deal with another man to buy his Honda XR200.
It was listed on FB, but the owner was unavailable for me to pick it up until the following morning. The deal was made. Asking price of $400 to be paid in the morning, at pickup. When I got there, the man told me that after we had spoken,  “Kaplan America” had offered him $1k, unseen from CT to blow me off and sell it to him on the weekend, when he could  send his crew down from CT.
Good on the previous owner for not selling it to him! A man of his word.
I have never been to that beautiful looking museum as a result and if I can help it, neither will any of my bikes. He’s not as “lucky” as wealthy/ruthless. 
Not my speed, thanks.

Yup. Can't tell ya how many times I've had agreed upon deals that were sold out from under me. Even when being ready & available to pick up at any time for sellers convenience. I don't have issue with the "first come first served - cash in hand" mantra but it burns me up when sellers don't communicate even at a bare minimal level. It's disheartening that informing someone that you sold elsewhere isn't even a standard. I've been ghosted while fueling up the truck & calling to confirm we're still on to meet and that I'm leaving now. Then to get a "sorry it sold" text later that night. 

I watch kaplans youtube videos sometimes about specific bikes for info purposes. But I dislike the org. Before FB marketplace took over, I HATED their craigslist spam ads. They saturated the results page to a point where it made browsing CL for bikes a chore.

Also hello neighbor. philly / south jersey here

Being in sales I’ve thought a lot about the relationship between sellers and buyers. Why private party sales are like they are. I don’t disagree with how sellers can behave but I also come across many who don’t want it to be that way. It’s an eco-system in some ways…there are shady buyers as well, maybe more so than sellers so we all get this way because of the environment. Professional sales people are the way they are because buyers are the way they are and they/we develop tactics to react so that we can be successful. I think sellers often have so many buyers who flake that they just go with whomever shows up first. Modern money transfer tactics such as Zelle can allow you to secure the purchase if you’re truly motivated (not without some risk) to limit those missed opportunities. I don’t know if Kaplan is a questionable person or not. He says “God bless America” then ships our treasures right off to far away lands…no offense NZ and UK. Maybe he’s a solid, honest guy and his buying team has a bad apple or two. I chalk all this up to you win some, you lose some. Good for those of us who got a good deal or secured that rare bike and hit the search button again!

A mans word IS the gentleman agreement... break that and I have more faith in whale poop..
Sneezles61

Many of the Kaplan bikes I've seen for sale have been "lipstick on a pig"...  and "bitsa" bikes with mixed parts from various models sold as "original" in my opinion...  they do get good prices though.  If you're a flipper you probably owe them a thanks for their marketing driving up the sale prices...  they do a great job with marketing.

Now I know why fenders are $800