evictionsurplus

A very recent thread noted the frustration of selling on CL. I have had a 99.8% success rate selling on CL. I sell full bikes on CL, components go on ebay due to the whole matter of shipping things. Here is a post to point out what makes for successful sales. I will post what has worked for me. These may seem very dumb and self-explanatory, but hey, why not.

1. A reasonable price. You aren't going to sell a Masi on CL for eBay prices. If what you have is average, sell it at an average price. I sold a 1980s POS cruiser frame within 30 minutes of posting last week because I priced it at what seemed like a steal. It was probably an early 90s dept. store frame but I got 30 emails and it went fast.

2. Buy into peoples' thinking that they are getting a bargain. I don't rip people off, but point out the good things. When you say it has an Ashtabula crank, oooh, that sounds exotic.

3.When people reply, say you will meet them at a landmark close to your locale. Whenever I roll up to the sell location actually riding the bike for sale, it is almost a 100% sale. Seeing it actually roll is a big selling point. Yeah, it is a ten minute walk home, but take in the air while you enjoy that cash in your wallet.

4. This is most obvious. Be ready to haggle. Price your stuff such that if somebody offers you 20% below your asking price you take it in a hurry. That way both parties leave happy and thinking they got a deal.

If anybody wants to amend this please feel free. As the CV people we basically fund our hobbies by resurrecting what could be garbage, keeping the good stuff for ourselves and passing along the rest to live another life.

keejrh

Good points for selling! I would add to that to list the size of the frame and wheels and take some nice photos. There are so many ads up on CL that do not list the frame size When I list bikes I even list what heights the frame will accommodate so it's one less thing the buyer has to think about.

StephenH

5. Tell what the brand of the bike is! Argggh. Like seeing an ad that says "Green car for sale", but people do it with bicycles all the time.
6. Tell what size the thing is!
7. The meeting-them-somewhere sounds like a bad idea to me, actually- I'd just as soon not buy my stuff from somebody that's selling out of the back of a pickup, with the motor running.
8. Don't assume that everyone reading your ad knows everything you do. Calling out the components of the bike by name may be great to a gearhead like yourself, but the potential buyer may not know one bike from another. If it's high-class expensive stuff, tell 'em what it is, and that it's high class expensive stuff. If it's from Walmart and at half their new price, tell 'em that.

evictionsurplus

I used to sell stuff out of my house. I either heard some stories, or somebody made me imagine that I heard some stories, of bad things happening from selling out of your house. I rather some bike person that I don't know not know that I have a Colnago frame in my living room. As such, I always make a close Starbucks my meeting place.
And a +1 to #s 5 and 6. Information, information, information. Size for those that know what they ride and a general approximation for those that don't ride. i.e. I am 5'11" and it fits me well so it will probably fit those who are 5'10 to 6'1". That is always a good thing to weed out the no shows.

McDave

I have mixed feelings about letting people come to my home. One day a nice young couple came to look at a bike and while they were there another customer came to look at some of the others I had for sale. He took a quick look and left without saying much... after driving 65 miles! This really made me nervous for a couple weeks afterwards. As a consolation the couple surprised me by buying two bikes, so it was worth having them come to the house in that instance.

Since then I often meet people at a nearby grocery store lot or halfway to the big city. I try to get a feel for the customer on the phone and if I'm going to allow them to come to my home to say, look at more than one bike, I don't give them the address until they're actually ready to leave. I hate it when no-shows have my address.

Rabid Koala

Here is another suggestion:

Instead of just the cruddy CL pictures, host some larger pictures on Photobucket or other similar site and paste the HTML link into the ad body.

I sold a Cannondale that way for a very good price on CL, because potential buyers could actually see that it was in good condition like the ad said it was.

stringbreaker

I always post pictures and give pretty detailed descriptions. When selling a high dollar item like a Gibson acoustic J-45 anybody that knows guitars will have a good idea what its worth. I post what I think is a fair price and usually I'm pretty spot on. My biggest beef is staying home for people that say they are going to show up then don't show and never call to say they will be late or can't make it.

sykerocker 

If your job will allow it, do your selling from there. I'm very lucky that the Honda dealership I work at (west end of Richmond, less than 5 miles from the local colleges) has no problem with me keeping my latest for sale items in the back with my own bike. And they're not too *****y about 'lunch breaks' at odd times when a customer arrives. It helps on the security concerns, and I've got my co-workers to cover for me on the odd occasion when I'm off the property and the customer arrives.

The alternative is selling out of my house - 32 miles from downtown Richmond.