Originally Posted by wrk101

The points fetts makes above are definitely true in my market.

#2. Buyers are looking for bargains. Most of my vintage bike sales do not go to buyers looking for vintage bikes. Instead, most go to buyers that got sticker shock at the LBS, and are looking for an affordable alternative to the seemingly expensive new bikes. Sold one last night that way. Buyer went to the LBS first, saw that a new road bike was going to cost him about $1000. At that point, he started looking at used.

#4. Panasonic gets ZERO recognition around here. Sell a Schwinn, a Trek, a Peugeot or a Cannondale, and you get swarmed with buyers. I sold a wonderful Panasonic mtb earlier this year. It took me a freakin year to sell it for $125. Meanwhile, I had a very basic Trek mtb, sold it in a couple of hours for more, the same exact week (same size). I sold a nice Panasonic mixte for X, took me several weeks to sell it. Sold a 1974 Peugeot mixte for 2X, took me a day to sell. This is really sad to me, as I love my Panasonic built bikes.

Here's a test. Put two Panasonic built bikes side by side, and attempt to sell them. One has a Schwinn label on it (made by Panasonic), the other a Panasonic label. In my market, the Schwinn will bring 2X.

#5. Every market is different. Around here, on an older bike (with some rare exceptions), even a wonderful one, there is a cap of about $250 max. There are 100 buyers looking for a low cost, decent bike for every one buyer looking for a higher cost, but 10X nicer, vintage ride. Hence, I have a hefty backlog right now of bikes to go on ebay, where there are a lot more sophisticated buyers.

Hopefully your market is better.