Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Pro Miyata

I have an older Pro Miyata gathering dust in my garage and would like to sell it. Just trying to figure out a reasonable price. It has Dura Ace components and is in good shape. What factors do I need to look at to arrive at a fair price. I have limited bike knowledge...

Thanks.

You need to look at posting pictures.

Dura Ace is a big plus, and Miyata made great stuff. It would be absolutely worth your time to detail the bike, have it lubed and adjusted. I'd not worry about tires, as long as they hold air.

When listing it, note the frame size and type first, paying attention to what it says on the decals. Then list the components individually and include good pictures.

Or, you can leave it vague and one of us will likely try to buy it as cheaply as possible. It all depends on whether you "just want to get rid of it" or you want to wait on the market to get you a top price. Of course, I go for the former when I can.

Good luck, but pictures and information are the keys.

I agree with everything that Robbie said. I come at this as someone who has spent a lot of time in the past 2 months on Craigslist and Ebay looking for a bike like yours. That bike is rare, at least on the West coast. And prices for high-end Japanese steel bikes have got to be at an all time high. It is definently a sellers market. If that bike came up for sale in the SF Bay Area or LA, I wouldn't be surprised to see it sell for $400-$500 if it's in good shape. I'm sure that some of the Bike Forum crowd would pooh-pooh that price, but that's because they are buying and selling bikes. They would rather see diamond-in-the-rough that they could buy cheap and sell high.

If I had a nice bike like that that I wanted to sell for top dollar, I'd put in on Ebay with a $400 minimum. I'd clean it up the best I could and have it professionally tuned and take lots of photos with descriptions of everything. Lots of work and there's the shipping you have to deal with unless you opt for pick-up only which really limits your buyer pool unless you live in a major area.

Craigslist is the easiest. If you just want to get rid of it quickly, I'd do a superficial cleaning, take 1 photo of the crank side of the entire bike against a plain light colored background and title the post as Vintage Miyata Pro. Then in the ad say "Dura Ace components-$350 Firm". IMO from the Left Coast.

They don't show up too often, you have quite a rare bike there. There was one on eBay recently and it was just the frame/fork and it ended at $177.50: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=260440257529

Use this website as a resource, it has all of the North American Miyata catalogs on it.: http://www.miyatacatalogs.com/

Take some good close-up photos of the components and the frame and you will probably be able to get $500 for it, more if the bike is in good shape. From the site above, list as much information in your ad as possible to get the most value for your bike....as Robbie and rothenfield say, it is a sought-after bike, more so than ever as people are starving for good vintage steel bikes.

Buy the way, you might try posting your photos to this thread as a test case for evaluation.
Pretty please!:)

I have a miyata that I was told was a triathlon bike and was purchased at The Triathlete in Columbus, OH. It has a nine 16 sticker on the bar and has a chromolly STB Spined triple butted fork. It has Shimano 600 and the wheel has a sticker that says Wolber 6TX (2) 700C. Does this give enough info to find the value?

It is very clean has been used so little even though it is older. I added the bars and pedals.

Thanks!

Here's a broad shot of the bike. My computer won't let me upload more than one photo at a time. More to follow.

More photos.

I have a miyata that I was told was a triathlon bike and was purchased at The Triathlete in Columbus, OH. It has a nine 16 sticker on the bar and has a chromolly STB Spined triple butted fork. It has Shimano 600 and the wheel has a sticker that says Wolber 6TX (2) 700C. Does this give enough info to find the value?

It is very clean has been used so little even though it is older. I added the bars and pedals.

Thanks!$300 cleaned, lubed, adjusted for the 916. Hold and you'll get it. You may get more, so I'd start at $350 and work from there. It's a good bike in a crowded market at that price point.

Plus: The 600 tricolor group is excellent stuff, and Wolber GTX are great rims. So the group and the wheelset, alone, could bring $250 of that total.

PS. It's my size, and if I was in the market, I'd pay $300, grab those $65 carbonLORD bars on eBay, upgrade to STI shifting for another $65-$80, and have a light, agile, high-quality bike for any century I felt like riding. However, at $465, there are lots of great bikes in this area. At $300-$350, you're in better position to compete with the mid-90's aluminum brifter bikes with Tiagra and Sora, etc.

Minus: some folks don't like black bikes, and when you put "triathlon" in front of the word "bike," it needs to be one. This is a road bike.

More photos.

The age of the bike may work against you a bit, as I'm pretty sure it's 27" and the shifters are 600 arabesque. Very clean, lubed, and polished, you're looking at $350.

Again, I'm going to agree for the most part. It's an 84 according to the catalog, but I don't think being a 27" wheel would matter that much to the type of buyer who would be very interested in this bike. After seeing the photos, I'd be asking $400-450 to start with on the West Coast which seems to be a more expensive market then many. It's pretty common here to see even a low-end Miyata or Fuji from the 80's in rough shape being sold for $350 on CL. Now whether they get that much for them, I don't know.

Very nice bike. Looks like a 59cm in great shape and very collectible. Good Luck:thumb:

I could get $350-ish for the 916 in the Tampa. That particular year in that particular color is one of my favorites. If it were a 54cm I'd consider it for myself.

The blue Pro has 700c wheels and will bring less money dues to its age. Although the arabesque components have some collectibilty they're not overly vlauable. $250-300 for the blue Pro in Tampa.