davey67

I am having trouble getting the proper sales price for some of the bikes I am selling.

1) Is there any kind of alternative to bicyclebluebook? It seems like it is fairly inaccurate in both directions. It gave me a value of $64 when I already know I can get at least $125. Then of course it goes in the other direction too. It said $200 and I was lucky to have gotten $125. What is the deal?

2) Are there any accurate ways to get a bikes date of manufacture? In some cases on bicyclebluebook the date of the bike makes a huge difference. In one case a bike that was just a few years older than another was $75 less. $75 dollars seems like a huge drop for only 2 years older.

3) Is there any specific way to give a bike a grade? On Craigs list they have like new, excellent, fair, good and salvage. Other than like new and salvage I really do not understand this grading system. Is there a web site or some such that offers some kind of guide lines to this type of grading? I know that for cars you are given the specifics as to what characteristics get what grade. Is there something similar for bicycles?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

oddjob2

You have to do your part with big, clear photos, drive side pics, and as much info as possible. Location and seasons factor into value as well.

There are experts among bikeforum members for the very rarified bikes of Italian, American, and Japanese handicrafted bikes and vintage classics. There are also several experts who are brand specialists, for Schwinn, Trek, Raleigh, Bianchi, etc., some having been actual LBS owners or personnel and several factory personnel.

I contribute to FMV opinions for the less rarified world of LBS bike boom bikes, from the late 1970's to the millenium. I deal in the Metro NYC and southeastern Michigan markets. I have consummated several hundred individual buy and sell transactions.

In the last month or so I have sold bikes ranging from $60 to $399, and I think my pricing is on the mark as follows:

Raleigh Horizon - listed price
Trek 1200 1989 - listed price
1983 Trek 520 - 90%
Raleigh Technium 440 - listed price
Motobecane Nomade - 90%
Cannondale H300 hybrid - listed price

So on $1500 in sales, the discount was $55 total. Based on this experience, which is similar to a few other active refurbishing BF flippers, FMV opinions expressed here are the best you are going to get. A few members have brand bias so you have to learn to weed them out.

daf1009

You can also do a pretty good assessment using eBay sold listings, but ONLY sold listings, not offerings. You also should probably discount bikes by $100 and frames by $50 for shipping...if the shipping is not called out separately. But, even on eBay, you need to consider what oddjob said...some markets are hotter, time of year...and condition of bike, of course, which can be hard to determine via pictures...but...I have found that, with a bit of work, you can get pretty good ideas on pricing from the auctions.

oddjob2

Ebay prices may or may not be locally attainable due to market size variation. Also, no local buyer wants to pay the 12% fee premium unnecessarily.
Also, even though a bike shows a shipping charge, it may not be the case. Lately, I've been buying locally listed bikes on ebay and avoiding the shipping charges.