Early 90's Cro-Mo Specialized Sirrus
 

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/bik/1946007301.html

I thought my price was decent at $275 obo...but I'm not getting any interest?

Does it look dumpy in the pic's? Do people not want a triple? Maybe the size (60cm) is a bit large for the mainstream?

There are a few consignments shops in town that move a lot of similar bikes. Maybe that's my best bet?

Thanks for any advice on pricing, etc...

From what I have seen of Portland, your price seems fine. You have a really nice bike that should sell.

But here are some comments, just one guy's opinion:

#:1 Sorry, but those are really lousy pictures. Use a hosting site of your choice, and imbed FULL SIZE pictures into the text of your ad. Take the pictures outdoors, with good natural light. Use a photo editing tool to zoom in on some features.

In my experience, pictures sell bikes. When in doubt, fewer words, more pictures.

#2: Always list the approximate size rider the bike should fit. Within the first two sentences, I will always put something like: "This bike should fit riders from 5-10 to 6-2." Or whatever it should be.

#3: Buyers always want to know how many speeds the bike has. Although the norm is to describe a bike in terms of rear cogs, for lower to mid grade bikes, I will usually just list the total: 21 speed bike. Yes, it is not the proper way to count gears, but it is the way most newbs count gears. On higher end bikes, I will list them the "proper" way.

#4: Too much detail/bike jargon in the ad. I would delete about half the words. My goal from an ad is to get someone to come to look at the bike. It is not to sell the bike. So I don't put in details that I would put in an ebay listing. For instance, I would not list handlebar width and stem length. Look at your ad from the perspective of "bike jargon". It all makes sense to us here, but to the average novice, would it still make sense? The one piece of bike jargon that I would be tempted to ad: "modern indexed shifting". Novice buyers see DT shifting and they shy away. I wouldn't even mention DT shifting. But I would mention indexed shifting.

#5: If I was starting from scratch (before your recent service), I would consider some different colors. Bike seems to be black with yellow decals. So I would use yellow bar tape and yellow housings. Not sure where the red tires came from, I would probably have gone a different route on that as well. But it is not worth changing all of that stuff.

#6: List the year of the bike. Rather than early to mid 1990s, list the exact year. Don't know the year? Just look up the component codes at vintage Trek and estimate the year. Consider how often around here, the first question we get from a newbie is: "What year is my bike?" or "Help me date my bike." etc. As the seller of a bike at market pricing, a buyer would expect you to know the year of the bike.

Bike looks bigger than a 60cm to me.


Typical flip main picture (notice I was out of yellow housing when I did this one):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/...91e13a1f_b.jpg


And then this one with yellow housings to match (RD housing is too long):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/...7fb6c6e1_b.jpg

Typical drive closeup:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/...47eaf143_z.jpg

Just for kicks I searched this site via google: "help me date my bike", I got over 4700 hits.....

wrk101,

Excellent feedback...just the kind of critique I was looking for. Especially the full size photos (hosting site/embedding) and the level of detail in an ebay ad (aiding a purchase decision) vs. a CL ad (just triggering interest to check out the bike). I've flipped a few bikes here and there...but this is very helpful. Thanks again!

Glad you took it in the spirit I gave it, as the feedback was very direct.

All the best with the sale!!

Follow-up: I sold it today for $250 (for ~$160 profit). Still, I think only 2 e-mails in 4 days (re-newing the ad after 2 days) is a little low for Portland. I'll take the feedback seriously. Thanks again.