Originally Posted by
peripatetic
Here in NYC, another factor I've found more important over time is the season, and I rarely plan on selling anytime during the winter months. Those are the months to buy.
I live in Lawrence, KS, which is very much a college town. Right now is a great time to find deals—all the leases are up and people are looking to clean stuff out. If you go out at the right time, you'll find brand new TVs and stuff in the trash.
I figure prime bike selling season is either at the beginning of summer or right in the middle of August—twenty thousand students move back into the city and a good portion of them are gonna be hipster freshmen.
Originally Posted by
bigbossman
I find that not to be true here - I've sold many overhauled low-end Centurions, Univegas, etc and made my $100 and then some. Demand is demand, and a clean, pretty, well-presented bike will get sold for a good profit.
I do avoid dept store bikes - unless I get them for next to nothing AND I can use the tires/tubes, grips, etc. I'll never overhaul one and resell it, but I will strip it for usable parts and toss out what I don't need - if the price is right.
I figured I could have probably made a little money on the dept. store bike, but not enough to be worth it. The raleigh is low-end, but at least its a name brand.
Originally Posted by
RobbieTunes
I don't flip, but I buy and sell a few bikes, mostly to pay for my addiction and get people into the sport. I've had two Rapide's pass through here, and I think yours is about an '83. Taiwan steel frame, I think.
...
If I had yours, I'd do pretty much the same, look for the single speed girls who hang out with the hipsters. Mixte single speeds right now are the "in" bike on campus, especially if the boyfriend is riding around on a fixie... Same price, you can get $150, but you'd need to get upright bars.
Yeah, for some reason it just screams "early 80s" to me. I figured about '83.
But yeah, the students here eat up vintage bikes—you should see some of the stuff that gets ridden. We have hipsters, but not the rich ones toting track bikes that you might see on the coast. All the fixies here are conversions and most people seem to just ride old ten-speeds around.
I'm pretty sure that, given a good cleaning and rebuilding, I could clear $150. Ten dollars on tires, ten dollars on a cute basket, this bike could look very nice.