Maybe I'm too cheap, but the prices I see at co-ops are too high. They get all this for free. If it is around for more than a month or two, it's too expensive. A co-op near me has had the same Colnago for like 2 years now. Obviously it is priced too high, but the price is never adjusted. It's not the only bike hanging out for that long, either. At this same co-op, I recently tried to buy a seatpost, picked from their seatpost bin, and when I got to the counter, I was asked to pay more because it was a nicer than average seatpost. When I asked what were they expecting someone to pay for it, they said eBay has these all the time for about $70-$80, so in that range. Bin says $15. I handed it back to them so they could put a $75 tag on it and let it hang out in their glass case indefinitely. Co-ops are the thrift stores of the bike world. Nobody goes to a thrift store and expects to pay retail, and a local co-op trying to compete with eBay on prices seems like a losing strategy.

About the only good prices I see are on the complete bikes that they don't have the time to go through and garner zero interest from anyone except nerdy people like you and me. Once it goes through the hands of the co-op volunteer mechanic, it is a 500%-1000% increase in price (i.e. price btw $500-$700, regardless of the tier of the bike).


EDIT: Its worth reiterating that I'm too cheap