A few days ago, a fairly interesting item popped up on eBay. The item is listed as an “Unreleased Sram Rockshox Boxxer Ultimate 52mm Offset 200mm Travel 29″ Wheel.” As of the writing of this piece, the seller apparently has five unreleased Boxxers available, with one already sold.
The eBay seller’s account is listed as Thejeffs Store, where they have sold nearly 3,000 items and have 99.6% positive feedback.
Pretty dang good.
According to the shipping location on the eBay ad, the seller is in Georgia and, if I were so inclined, could have my own unreleased RockShox as early as Monday.
Hell, they’ll even pick up the shipping! If I only had an extra $2,400 laying around. The seller is also open to offers.
Assuming RockShox isn’t Stoked…
Being on the media side of the bike industry, we are often privy to products before the general public is. When we receive information about these products, we agree not to publicly share it before the specific date the brand has set for releasing its new offering.
Yes, sometimes you get a sneak peek at unreleased products at a bike show or race. However, these are usually calculated moves by the brand to generate buzz around something fresh and new in its lineup.
Or, they are products on a professional athlete’s bike. Sometimes they are covered, and sometimes they aren’t.
But I doubt unreleased Boxxers on eBay is how RockShox’s marketing team hoped to garner some product attention. So, curiosity got the best of me, and I reached out to the seller. My initial question was how they came across something like this.
“Through legal means,” was the response I received from Thejeffs Store. I followed up, asking if they had a connection to RockShox?
“Through legal means” was their response again, and I haven’t received a response to any follow-ups.
Use at Your Own Risk
If you’re interested in a one-of-a-kind (well, I guess one of six) DH fork, Thejeffs Store is the place for you. Thejeffs describes the RockShox Boxxers they’re selling as:
“These come straight from the manufacture in taiwan [sic], so they do not come in the original box.
These are prototypes not intended for consumer sale, they are currently under testing. Please purchase and use at own risk.”
From the pictures, the fork appears to look like a relatively normal RockShox Boxxer. However, one picture shows a “Linear XL” appendage at the bottom of the left lower, right next to the brake mount.
RockShox introduced the Linear XL air can for their shocks last year. The additional air volume provides a more supple feel off the top and bridges the gap between more progressive shocks like the Super Deluxe and more linear shocks like the Vivid or a coil offering.
So, the assumption is that this is a similar product for the Boxxer? One thing is for sure, Thejeffs isn’t saying.
So far, we haven’t seen any response from SRAM/RockShox. We’ll keep you updated if they address the issue.
