Originally Posted by
Metaluna
I *think* what bobotech is asking is, does selling a bike through Walmart cheapen the image of the entire brand, such that it affects resale value across the line, even for higher end models that are not available at Walmart.
Edit: The above quote makes more sense than my OP.
The title is a bit confusing. I'm more relating to the fact that there still are some crossover brands. Mongoose, Schwinn, and probably others that distribute both to LBS and xmarts.
Sure you can go to Walmart and buy a 80 dollar Mongoose bike but on the other hand, you can find rather high priced LBS based Mongoose bikes as well. Same for Schwinn. You can get the cheapo Walmart Schwinn but you can also go to your LBS and buy a Schwinn Signature series bike for quite a bit more money.
So think about this, if you go to an LBS and buy a 800 dollar Mongoose bike and then ride it for a year and sell it used, will you take a much worse hit on resale due to the brand being diluted by Pacific ownership/hate from general biking community? Or can you still sell that 800 dollar used Mongoose for around the same depreciated price as you could with an equivalent Specialized that you paid 800 for and have to sell used?
I'm just wondering if buying a crossover brand is a bad idea when new and on the other hand, is buying a used crossover brand a good idea because you can buy a super cheap LBS bike diluted by the xmart brand crossover?