Think yourself lucky you aren't buying stuff from the States. For a country where everyone seems to want to sue everyone else at the slightest opportunity, it appears you can put anything you like in an ad for a car or bike. I'm involved, with a couple of friends, in importing cars and the odd bike from the States that are destined for France. As the French are such a pain in the arse (witness Christo if you think I'm joking), they normally get MoT'd and registered here before going to France to be stripped, fully restored and then sold on. We bought an E Type Jag that was described as "mechanically sound but may benefit from some minor cosmetics". I nearly didn't take a trailer to the docks to pick it up, just a can of petrol and a battery pack but thought better of it. Now to me, mechanically sound means that the engine starts, runs and the car can be driven not that it had been hurriedly bolted back together to be sold by someone who had obviously lost interest or ran out of money. Carbs that were seized solid due to having been stored somewhere wet, no fuel lines, engine electrics, brake pipes, battery, clutch lines, water hoses and an engine that appeared to be seized. That one wasn't MoT'd but just sold on as is.
Latest that I picked up a few weeks ago was a 1969 Triumph Bonneville. Again described as running but when I got it the oil tank was attached with a couple of tie wraps, no oil or fuel pipes, all electrics disconnected, no rectifier or Zener, etc. Once I'd got the oil system connected up and pushed it up and down the garden with no plugs in it for ages to get the oil circulated, I tried to get it to start. After about 2 hours of the odd backfire or spit back through the carbs I discovered that the ignition coils were connected arse about face so it never could have run. Eventually got it into a state where it could be tested but came to the conclusion that something described by some as the pinnacle of British motorcycle engineering is probably the reason for the demise of the British motorcycle industry.