Classic & Vintage - interesting bike-eoeconomics

here:http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/bicycle-inflation-in-paradise/

not sure how well he scanned craigslist though, I saw several reasonable-ish bikes on portland's craigslist today.

I don't find this that surprising... Our local use bike shop doesn't have anything at $100. It's got some bikes that are between $100 and$300, but a lot of those are like free spirits and stuff that they've fixed up.
They do occasionally have clunker sales of really crappy bikes with a problem here or there for $20-100, but this isn't Portland.

Stupid article. The guy is going from shop to shop. Most shops around here don't even bother with used bikes. If I had the overhead and expenses of a brick and mortar bike shop, I would have to charge high prices as well.

but he made a chart!

Heh, well at least I live in Phoenix!

That said, I notice a lot of "Sledgehammers" on CL...

In general, Goldstein is pretty clever. My main issue here, however, is that he is referring to prices, but has no data on transactions, just what people are asking. There is only so much we can infer from the latter.

Hmmm, arbitrageurs...is that the new term for flippers? I only know of one shop here in town that keeps a nice supply of used bicycles, mostly decent stuff but not usually anything fancy. I think they ask less than $100 for most of them. Then again I don't see a lot of people on vintage bikes around here.

The local bike shop tells me he is doing more business than he has for the 13 years he has worked it. No used bikes here either. Mostly Schwinns but some Treks and Cannondales. I think he seldom sells a road bike.

Liberati with donero.
Spending money to ease their collective conscience.
Irrational self-deprivation as a badge of courage.
Reality changed to become a different basis for life.

I'm inspired to advertise on CL and ship like crazy.

Ride your bike.
to the ocean and club a seal.
Ride your bike.
to Starbucks and buy bottled water.
Ride your bike.
with no brakes and be an organ donor.
Ride your bike.
to vote for free health care for the organ recipient.
Ride your bike.
and put your car in a landfill.
Ride your bike.
and let a UAW worker stay home and still get paid.
Ride your bike.
past the stack of Prius batteries.
Ride your bike.
to the political correctness store.
Ride your bike.
home and take a shower, man!
Ride your bike.
naked. I think they have one of those rides in Portland...

If I can get shipping down to $45/bike, I can sell 10 bikes for $395 each, make the shipping, and $75-$100 more than I get here.
That's $750 to $1000. Hmmm...

If we can simply borrow their seller's prices and that naked ride thing....

His list does follow we what see here in C&V so there may be something to it. In some South Florida counties its against the law/zoning for bike stores to sell used bikes.

dit, that's interesting! This spring, my LBS said business was at the same level as last year, which was pretty good, considering the state of the economy. I suppose if I went in there now, they might tell me that this has been a better year than last year.

In some South Florida counties its against the law/zoning for bike stores to sell used bikes.

That's bizarre!

Glad I purchased my current bikes when I did (3 of them costing me under $20, plus another $30 for new tires and accessories). By the way, the Nashbar AL-1 road bike

http://www.nashbar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10053&mpe_id=10058&productId=172815&intv_id=12008&evtype=CpgnClick&langId=-1&catalogId=10052&ddkey=http:ClickInfo

with a double-butted aluminum frame and graphite forks, 27-speeds (triple crank), +++ ($899 M.S.R.P.) can be had before August 28th (or until they raise it from the $599 sale price) for $419 + S&H ($35 to $40) if you have one of their 30% "sorry about the credit card scandal" discount codes. On any day, I think I would take the AL-1 over an old scratched up Sears ten-speed needing tires, brake pads, alignments, etc. ($75 more for $275 total). That's my own "commonsenzanomics". "Ride on!"

Major failure on the part of the author is to compare the bike shop prices to CL prices with no warranty and you don't know the condition of the bike. If the shop is charging $450 for a bike it's because they believe they can get that price or close to it. Whatever the traffic bears is the price a shop will and should charge.
That entire rant is similiar to a rant on CL in the Raleigh area where a guy had the nerve to tell all of the posters on CL that they were all charging too much for their bikes and should lower the prices because all of the bikes weren't worth the price. He also complained that the few he tried to buy were already sold when he contacted the owners.
Someone's unhappy with the price of a used bike, they need to deal with it.