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@Fixed&Broken
GA2G - I can see what you are saying. I'm fairly new to the bay but the chancer with a quarter shipping container of stock are quite apparent. Your criteria is interesting given that Wiggle does not have a store I can call in at but do have a warehouse. To that end what's the difference with a sole trader selling from his garage? I appreciate the reputation is part of it but they all started somewhere. The eBay criteria of trusted seller seems to be their answer to the trust issue of fly by night small operators so perhaps this is something that could be taken into account? If a trader has 60k+ sales and 98%+ feedback and no shop would you still consider them a flight risk?
Personally I think it's a bit of a case by case issue. High on Bikes has there own site and a registered office on a trading estate so I would guess qualify under the criteria you set out. But then given that the whole on-line thing is to get away from the overhead of having a shop and passing on the savings it's a real minefield in terms of a hard definition.
I'll still be using my LBS for parts of this build (I can't justify the tools to fit headsets or face a BB) but at the same time I'm on a tight budget so have to make use of the offers when I see them, be they on ebay or a well known site.