I'm annoyed to no end... I miss buying used parts cheep. It's like Goodwill searching online to check values of items to mark them up i was in one a couple weeks back and they had the VHS of Trainspotting in the glass case and 4x as much as other VHS in the store. In the LBS's if its something even remotely trendy its a huge mark up... I was in a LBS today and watched them put $40 on a saddle that was pretty well used, only because it was popular... I understand shops making money and the need to do so but there is a limit, in my mind, where you end up alienating your customers. I know I frequent the LBS's way less these days. This makes me sad as I would rather support the LBS in my city but if its not high prices, its ****ty service.

I often wonder if the bike boom of the 70s was like this price wise and all the other BS going on right now... I'm glad bikes are blowing up but ill be more glad when we come back to an equilibrium. We need more people on bike and we need those people getting their bikes from LBS's but we also need for there not to be a 200% mark up on things. Sometimes (and god knows many people have lost sight of this) it is better to sell more of an item at a lower price than fewer at a high price. Why does BD do so well? that exact concept...