clshark

Hello - I have two mint bicycles that I bought new and am looking to sell as I'd like to get a newer bike. Both bikes have 23inch frames and I have all the original paper work from when purchased. The first bike is a 1978 Schwinn "chrome finish" Super LeTour and the 2nd is a 1984 Cannondale ST400 (red). I can send photos if needed, but don't have them with me at the moment. I'm located near Charlotte, NC. If you can give any advise on the best places to try to sell and if you can advise re. how to establish a fair value that is appreciate. clshark

wrk101

Starts with condition (pictures), then your marketing ability. At least half of what a bike sells for is the result of your efforts preparing and marketing the bike. Buyers have no imagination, and simple stuff like small pics, dirt, flat tires, dirty bar tape, etc., can cost you A LOT of money on the sale.

Without seeing high quality pics, I would not want to guess price. High quality pics tend to answer two questions: overall condition, and your marketing skill.

As a bike market, I would rate Charlotte as kind of average. I have bought a lot of nice bikes off Charlotte's C/L, including from flippers, despite Charlotte being about 150 miles away (one way). Not exactly convenient, so at least I thought the deals were that good. And it also meant I couldn't rush there in ten minutes to scoop up a deal.

On a chrome bike its all about rust (hopefully the lack of). And owners that use steel wool or similar to clean off rust end up scratching the crap out of the bike as a minimum, and removing some of the chrome at a maximum, which degrades value quite a bit. 15 minutes with steel wool, and the bike can lose 50% or more of its value!

Third issue is time of year. This is a lousy time of year to sell a bike, and bikes might sell for 50% more come May. I am pretty familiar with the Charlotte market and have bought a lot of bikes there, several in the last month or two.

1984 Cannondales tended to have crappy paint, I've had several, and they all had significant chips and peeling. It took Cannondale a decade or so before they figured out how to paint aluminum.

Two places to sell are C/L and ebay. Ebay is best suited for someone with a stellar seller rating, lots of positive feedback, and the ability to carefully pack and ship a bike at a reasonable cost. Ebay is the land of fees, and the land of variance (what sells high today can sell low tomorrow). I have been selling on ebay for over ten years, sell there every week, and most everyone I talk to grossly underestimates the effort and time it takes to sell on ebay. There is nothing automatic about it at all. Local pickup only on ebay = seller loses, buyer wins. Few people bid on local pickup only and those that do, tend to score deals (I've gotten some nice bikes for $20 or less that were local pickup only).

I bought a Japanese all chrome racing bike off Charlotte's C/L last year. It sat on there for several days. It had a very light coating of rust all over the frame, so I had a fairly involved process to go through to restore it. I won't post the price I paid for it, but it was not much. It was very poorly marketed.

If your SLT is pristine, it should do pretty well. I would consider it a pretty desirable bike. Now if it has rust, buyers shy away quickly.

Somewhat misleading, but this is my chrome bike after restoration:




bill

clshark

Hi Bill - thanks for the information. I will get some photos and maybe try CL, but may hold off until the spring. There is absolutely no rust and I have never put any steel wool to the bike. Again thanks! Chris

FastJake

+1 we really need to see good pictures to establish a value. I cannot even begin to tell you the POSs I've seen described as "mint" so for me it's a "see it to believe it" sort of deal.