kf5nd

I have a road bike that I may want to sell... pretty decent one. Will I get more for it if I sell it intact, or if I bust it up and sell the frame, fork, and components seperately? What is your experience?

same time

If the components are attractive and in good shape, you can certainly get more for your bike if you break it down and sell all the parts seperately. Shipping costs might actually be cheaper, too, if you ship a bunch of small parts rather than one big heavy bicycle. USPS Priority Mail is dirt cheap for small packages.

Do some ebay research and add it up - watch other auctions for the same parts you have, and see what they go for. If you've got 1980's Campagnolo C-Record with Delta brakes, then you definitely want to sell part-by-part. But if it's five year old Shimano Altus or something, you might as well leave it on the bike.

I sold a track bike a number of years ago and got more for the cranks (Sugino 75) than I did for the frameset. And the cranks were a lot cheaper/easier to ship, too.

Little Darwin

Don't forget to figure in your time either...

If I were to hope to make an extra $50 and had to spend an extra 4 or 5 hours between disassembly, listing and shipping I wouldn't bother... but you may want to.

Neither way is going to make you rich.

If the bike is a vintage bike with all original parts, then I think I would lean more toward keeping it together to gather collector interest, otherwise, I would see what I might expect to get for breaking it down and make the decision based on whether it is worth my extra time.

cs1

I prefer to sell in pieces and buy complete. Like was mentioned, older Campy parts can be had reasonable on a complete bike. Sold separatley they can bring a lot of money.

Tim