I am no longer a bike swap meet virgin. I attended the Madison meet this morning. I was very surprised by how heavily attended it was. The show opened at 8:30 and I arrived at 9:45. There was a line of people waiting to get in. When I got it, it was wall to wall people. There were over 50 booths and a bike corral, where indivduals were selling bikes.

You name it, it was there. There were bikes for sale ranging from old Schwinn Collegiates in rusty condition to top of the line Trek Madones and many other pricey European road bikes. There were racks of cycling clothes, helmets, tires & wheels, hundreds of saddles, stacks of shoes many new bike frames, and more used parts than I've ever seen before. Nearly all were lower priced than what you see in cycling shops, although some were about the same. For example, one LBS brought a couple dozen brand new Brooks saddles and was selling them at 20%-25% off their normal price, a new B17 was $50 even.

I was told that there was a mad rush at 8:30 with eBay resellers coming in with multiple shopping carts. One booth had a sign up for them, giving an extra 10% discount with $1000 of purchases and 15% with $2000 of purchases. They told me that two resellers bought $2000+ from them. Other booths put together boxes of parts, marked with prices for the entire box. They sold a lot of these.

I was looking a couple of bikes, but was primarily bottom-feeding. There was good condition Trek 1000 road bike that I might have popped for when they lowered the price to $150, but it was too big for me. I could have picked up a well-used but perfectly functional Specialized Rockhopper MTB for $20, but passed. Had no use for it. Good bikes were being sold for reasonable prices, not flea market prices. There were a lot of bikes with price tags of $2000+ on them.

Here's what I walked out with:

Adjustable stem (new)
Handlebar bell with floating compass (new)
Handlebar bell (new)
Topeak Mountain Morph frame/floor pump (store demo in very good condition)
Velo exercise bike saddle (used in good condition)
Trek platform pedals (new)
Shimano 520 SPD pedals (used)
Trek front LED light (used in good working condition w/batteries)
Trek rear LED light (used in good working condition w/batteries)
pencil tire guage (new)
Trek seat bag - 120ci (new with $25 tag on it)
Serfas full finger gloves with leather padding (new with $35 tag)
Wrench Force CO2 inflator w/cartridge (new - still in package)

Total cost $50