Originally Posted by paul_in_toronto
Regarding the sale...
I got there, no line up. ****ing very confusing, useless staff. I had spied a gianni Motti. Priced at $250. To me that was really the one the deals of the day. A confused guy was mulling it over he told me he was thinking about I said well if you dont take I will, he looked like he would give a good home so that was fine.
I did get one treasure out of there, a steel frame xt, judy equipped thin blue line w clipless. Which I paid an undisclosed price for.
Paying for it turned out to be a real treat, now get this everyone as you all noticed the bikes were all locked.
And I was informed that no one bothered to label the keys, which all identical. Luckily the key that unlocked my bike was seperate from the pile.
Things I liked about the sale :
1) getting to test the bike
2) paying cash no tax and getting a reciept
Things I didnt like completely disorganized and lousy merchandising as well as a cramped display area.
Confusing tags. Lack of sales help.
Cheeky comment from fat guy with beard to me about some unrelated bike week matter.
Having to wait forever to pay. Them wanting to take down the info on the bike which they should have done before hand
Lack of concern that I didnt have time to be delayed etc..
Im sure they sold stuff, but let me tell you. Im going to post this on TBN, if they ask me extremely nicely and fat boy apologizes for comment. Id run the swap for them.
I have no idea what the line up down to parking garage was for.. clothing???
Im sure they are all patting them selves on the back for a great sale, meanwhile as a customer I was
unimpressed.
Im surprised I wasnt noticed by any of you folk, its funny how I can travel around unnoticed.
Highlight of sale: seeing someone get a deal on a bike that will actually use it, its been a while since I have seen someone really appreciatte a bike and I could see that by the way he looked it over. I mean not like the way some vintage freak does, but more like someone who has just discovered the workmanship of something or the fine lines of a painting.
Staff? CBN is volunteer. I volunteered for five hours in the rain. Very few people actually volunteered. I was only supposed to be there for two hours at the start.
The documentation and item management could have been much better handled. CBN had no idea if this was even going to fly and its the first time they've done it. I talked with the organizer about some ideas like a preprinted tag system and shorter sale time. We had a lot of people bring gear right at 10 (when the sale started) so we ended up signing stuff in as people were trying to buy other stuff. The second tent that was apparently promised by MEC would also have helped, but they couldn't find it. I also think it would have been fine on it's own and we wouldn't need MEC to do it. Lots of people showed up only for the bike swap (kudos to the TOBF crew - the orange track frame was still there when I left at 1:00, still crying your name operator. That botecchia went for $75 I believe.)
Question of the day from guy looking at the double straps I tried to sell: "Can you cut these in half?"
Paul, I'm sure CBN would be very happy if you volunteered to help. Given the interest (it was nuts around 11), another one in late May or early June might fly.
Some people left haggle room, some underpriced gems were there (and gone very early) and some people wanted way too much, but it's their stuff - what are you going to do? You'd be suprised how many people were going over that Miyata.