My point was that I have seen many similar posts on this forum. The OP says ‘I have a budget of $X’. Then the responses are typically:

“Save your money, buy something nicer.” – But that doesn’t respect the budget of the poster. It might be exactly what they can afford. It implies they are too cheap or too impulsive to wait.

“Buy Used” – Sound advice. I agree as I have said myself at times. Why not benefit from the depreciation that the first buyer suffered.

Here are some reasons:

· Not every city has a choice selection of bikes, particularly folders. I check nearly daily cities I can or would travel to for various reasons. My list is DC, Baltimore, Philly, Detroit and sometimes others when I have special travel planned. It can be slim pickin’s. You would think the mixed mode commuter towns would have a big selection, but they can get snatched up quick. I’m not afraid to travel. I drove 200 miles RT for the last non-folder I got from Craigslist.

· All lot of sellers want nearly what they paid. Not all but quite a few. Saving $50 off of retail probably isn’t worth the trip and lack of assurance.

· Some buyers just don’t want the hassle. I called on a few used folding bikes before I bought mine. No response from some sellers. It’s a low priority for a lot of sellers. They have lives.

· A newby doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable assessing whether a bike is in good repair or a good value.

· Just like a new bike can be out of adjustment, so could a used bike. The difference is that the older bike could have some miles on it in that condition and be worse for wear. Again a newby might not feel comfortable buying an unknown quantity.

· No warranty. None. Even if the seller was dishonest and said it ran great. A new bike is at least a known quantity.

· Discomfort with face to face personal trades. Again, I have purchased items from Craigslist sellers but I always have that in the back of my mind. It may be infrequent but people do get robbed even in public spaces.

· There seem to be a fair number of stolen bikes on line. Again for another purchase I started seeing posts from other buyers that a seller was shady. I put that buyer out of consideration but I didn’t notice the other feedback until I was nearly ready to pick it up.

A new folder will likely not suffer from the typical big box ‘out of adjustment’ problem because it would be adjusted and put in the box at the factory. Not hauled out of the box by someone in the back room doing a multitude of different bikes with little knowledge of any of them and then stocking the milk.

The Used bike choices pulled as examples look really nice. Too bad I never seem to see those. But maybe like other folder newbys I don’t know the brands and models well enough to make a good selection. By the way 2 of the 8 bikes listed were within the OP’s stated budget. 2 others were within $50. The others were a bit over implying ‘save more money before you buy’.

It would be nice if the responders put themselves in the situation of purchasing something about which they knew very little. Seeing it from another’s perspective is always beneficial to both parties.