wrk101

Where do I start? Well, first, pictures sell bikes. The action is on the drive side (the side with the chain). All of your pictures are the wrong side, so buyers can't see details. Cromoly frame is a good sign, nutted rear axle is not. Specs don't really matter, its what's on there now that counts. A bike like this one is not going to go to a collector, its going to be bought by a rider. A new rider will mainly be concerned about appearance: cleanliness, tires, and so on. Simple things like that rear inner tube valve being at a severe angle will hurt sales. An experienced buyer will want to know a lot more, the model (not the brand) of parts on the bike, the tire size and the wheel (rim) size, number of speeds. Unless you are in a red hot market, that bike would not usually sell for $260. Around here, it would be about $150 in pristine, ready to ride condition.

Need to use a hosting site like photobucket or flickr, and take some really sharp pictures.

Also need to measure frame size, and put that in your ad. " Fine for my height" will work OK with newb buyers, not work at all with experienced buyers. Why eliminate a whole group of potential buyers? Frame size? 10 second job with a tape measure. Google how to measure a frame size if you aren't sure.

Lots of variance in what bikes sell for. Its very hard to get full value out of a bike. And this time of year, its even harder. You want your ad to stand out compared to the average C/L ad.

Some buyers would consider your handlebar change an improvement, I would not sweat it for sure.

There's also a thread on how to decipher serial numbers on Nishikis. Realize Nishiki did not build bikes, they were a marketing company that had others build bikes for them. Nishiki made a full product line, from top end great stuff, to good stuff, to bottom end entry level bikes. I would put your bike a notch up from entry level, as it has some features that don't show up on many entry level bikes. But the nutted rear axle means it is probably real close to entry level (or the wheels are not original and someone put cheaper wheels on it).

Now I see the model name is right on the top tube: "Olympic". The quality of the Olympic changed year to year, but it was a low end bike. Are those rims aluminum, or steel (chrome)? I can't really tell for sure.

Also google bicycle component codes, almost all of the parts on your bike have such codes, so you can quickly find out what year the bike was made.