People selling stolen goods on craigslist almost always use a bait and switch scheme. They will list one item, and when they get a response, they'll say, "oh I sold that bike, but I also have this very similar one for sale..."

but I guess you could programatically account for that if you were truly so inclined.

The people selling stolen bikes often don't put much information, so you'd get lots of false positives.

You might get a lot of false positives. I'd go so far as to say it is likely.

However, the point is the algorithm may just surface a pattern that you hadn't considered.

All you need to do is look for bikes that are being sold for far less than their fair value

This doesn't happen. Dealers aren't stupid. They sell stolen bikes for market price.

Did you read the article? The guy gives very specific details about stolen bikes being sold for well below market value.

It can happen if you are willing to buy directly from the meth-head under a bridge at an odd hour of the day. $20 can get you a nice carbon fiber racing bike under the right conditions and if you personally have no morals.

Knowingly buying stolen goods is also a crime. And if you're buying a CF racer for a 20, you sure know it's stolen.

Instant CL TOS violation and would get you C&D'd. There have been stolen-goods-finding sites shut down by CL for less than that ...