I've used a seller named cyclekeysonline thru ebay my last 3 times with no issues

Here in the UK I use either my local dealer (who order it from their suppliers) or a master locksmith. Cost is just under £10.

Well, Master locksmith has charged me £13 for it and dealer is also charging the same.

Other folks go online/ebay for their replacement keys.

I've occasionally seen blank originals on ebay. I guess it would be nice to get one or two of these and have your master locksmith cut them for you.

My local dealer is closed for retail sales, although the workshop and MoT side is open.

In the above post, there is a link to a locksmith. It was reported to the mods as a possible spammer or hacker.
In actuality, it is the forum's built in automatic ad inserter.

So it's not an external spammer, it is the internal spammer.

It is only there to generate revenue. You would be wise NOT to take the bait. Don't click on it.
These are random and no one on the forum knows who they are or will vouch for them (at least, I won't).

I personally dislike this because it annoying and it might give the impression the advertiser is endorsed by the site.


Click at your own risk and if you get ripped off, tell the admin.

Thanks for the explanation DEET! The "internal spammer" explanation is appreciated.

There is no internal spamming going on. The site uses a service that does insert some links to advertisers who use their services. These are known retail businesses and include a fair amount of links to eBay. Part of the reason the site remains free is the generous donations of many individuals on the site. However, in order to keep the site free, we have minimal google ads (one banner on the bottom of pages) and income generated via the links referenced.

The decision was made to use the links over having a lot of banner ads which many sites use. Your admin personally hates having an advertising heavy site, though it would be in the site's best interest to do so. So to keep things as uncluttered as possible, and to keep the site humming along, we have links. They are not spam.

The site does have hosting costs, software costs, domain registration, and a few others. We have considered making some parts of the site as paid membership only - pretty minimal cost with prior supporters grandfathered in at some level - but have not gone there as of yet.

Thanks for listening.

Mako

Well, this got me to thinking.... what is 'spamming'?

Here is the Wiki definition...

"Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam), especially advertising, as well as sending messages repeatedly on the same website.
While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social spam, spam mobile apps,[1] television advertising and file sharing spam.
It is named after Spam, a luncheon meat, by way of a Monty Python sketch about a restaurant that has Spam in every dish and where patrons annoyingly chant "Spam" over and over again.[2]

Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, servers, infrastructures, IP ranges, and domain names, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings.

The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the volume. Spamming has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.[3]"