My first choice is to keep a bike complete, but if it has to many expenses to make it a good functional complete bike, it will be parted out.

In the past I have sold a lot of framesets as fixie/SS fodder and done quite well with that. The fixie/SS craze has subsided somewhat so I tend to look for better quality frames that have some versatility and can be geared or SS.

When I do sell a complete bike, idealy I put about $25 into it. When I sell it, it has been well cleaned, the wheels are true, brakes work and the shifting has been properly adjusted. I like to shoot for that $100 profit margin, but honestly, it does'nt always happen.

My family runs a resale and collectibles shop where I sell alot of lower end and single geared bikes. I had a young gal, a very short young gal, come in looking for a bike. She was about 19 or 20 years old and had a newborn, was living on a very limited budget and walking about ten miles several times a week to the local community college. I did'nt have anything available that would work for her so I told her to come back the next day and I would have something for her. As promised the next day I had a bike waiting. I had a small Schwinn World. I replaced the drops with some upright bars, new cables, new brake pads, new tires and tubes, new hand grips, nice clean saddle, new grease in the bearings and ready to ride. She never returned.........I locked the bike up out front and customer after customer after customer inquired about the bike. "Not for sale" they were told. After a month went by I decided to go ahead and sell it. I paid $20 for it and invested about $30 plus my time. I figured I'd be lucky to get $75 for it so I started there. It sat for awhile longer and I marked it down to $55. I ended up selling it for $50. I intended to give it to the girl in need and I really wish it had worked out that way.......but I digress.

I have done well selling complete bikes and framesets on CL and parts on ebay, but I do get bitten now and again.