Originally Posted by
mkeller234
It is not news to anyone that old bikes are trendy. I wanted to earn some money to paint another frame that I have, so I decided to sell a Schwinn Suburban that I have had for a few years. It was a nice bike, clean new grease, nice paint etc, so i decided to list it at $125.00 and wait for a while if I had to. 1 hour after I posted it...1 tiny hour I had 3 emails and 2 phone calls... holy crap! I knew they were trendy, but I am from Canton, OH and there are not many people on bicycles around here. The bike was gone in 1 hour and 20 minutes, wow. I think being a mens frame worked wonders, I have been trying to sell a womens Norman forever, and I personally think the Norman is cooler. Go figure, I feel shell shocked, but I guess in a good way.
There is an ebay seller in Canton who has been getting really top dollar for some older not so special bikes. He has them nicely cleaned up and all, but $200-300 for bikes that should be maybe $100-150.
You might need to expand the net in trying to sell the Norman. Have you posted it on thecabe.com and the Schwinn forums? I just shipped a bike to someone in Florida (who saw my Huffy Aerowind on the Schwinn Forums) and discovered that getting the right bike box makes all the difference in trying to ship a bike. I was lucky enough to acquire a box from a mountain bike 29er -- a little shorter but a bit wider than a road bike box. With both wheels off, the handlebars out of the stem and zip tied to the top tube and the fork flipped around it was surprisingly easy to securely pack it. The shipping cost was also pretty darn reasonable
First time packing a shipping a bike did not feel like a pain in the @$$.
Even though men's bikes are more popular, there is a sub-set of folks who really like the step through frames. If may just be too late in the biking season for you to find the buyer for the Western Flyer.