robertorolfo

The Italian government is currently offering up to a 500 Euro incentive on bike and scooter (electric standup only, I think) purchases, to encourage alternative forms of transportation.

Yep. Was commuting just about every day on something vintage, back in the days of commuting to work...

Sandstrom

It seems you are correct. Reading this thread inspired me to post 3 bikes on CL I had done but hadn't ridden in awhile. I needed to regain some space and it seems with the pandemic and burgeoning Spring, there are a lot of buyers looking.

I posted 3 bikes on Thursday and had all three sold and gone in about 24 hours. If you are in need of moving anything along or needing the space, it is an excellent time to do so.

jdawginsc 

Unfortunately I am BUYING and fixing. I am not a bright bulb...

robertorolfo

I have a Bianchi Campione D'Italia that is a little too big for me and never really inspired me (that I only really bought for the Mirage groupset) that I'm tempted to throw on Craigslist for pretty penny. All the hipsters seem to know the Bianchi name, and even if it isn't celeste maybe someone would take the bait...

Since we are all stuck at home most of the day, why not? I went from finally assembling a frame and parts I had already acquired to buying another (old) frame, and now I'm looking for the appropriate parts to build it up.

marius.suiram 

I am home for 6 weeks now.
I am buying, fixing and reselling bikes, for the last 8 years. The money from the bikes were not a lot but were helping in paying different expenses, like college apartment rental or so.
But it is funny to fix bikes and a quite time also.
Over winter I buy cheap bikes and fix them, so in spring I have maybe 20...25 ready to go.
This year was different.
After March 20th was a explossion of sales.
I sold more than 60 bikes in 6 weeks, with prices over 120$ to 600$. Maybe 3...4 were sold for around 100. Many bikes, maybe 25% were sold in the first day of posting online.
Less than 10 were shipped, the rest were sold local.
The worst was to buy a bike. If a good bike at a decent price was for sale, it was sold in the next 10 minutes.
I was travelling 2 hours to buy 2...3 better bikes.
Two times, when I arrived at the seller, the bike was sold. But was close to my house.
Probably the mechanics from bike shops were out of job too, because a lot of new "dealers" showed on the market.
Now it looks to be calm. No good bikes on the market, at resonable prices.
I am calm too. I have left 5...6 bikes, good quality, not in a hurry to sell, not too much money invested in them
The garage is emty too.
And the coming week, probably Monday i will be back to work.
BUT, I will keep my eyes open for any opportunities to buy a cheap, quality bike.

sonatageek

About 8-10 years ago I was pretty active but started winding down about 5 years ago. Got to the point where I might help a coworker, friend or neighbor find something or would finish up something that has been in the garage/basement for a time waiting for the right rider to come along. Cheap garage sale and CL bikes sort of dried up and hd reached my goal of paying for the bike items wanted by myself and my family. TIme is better spent riding than wrenching.

Had a lot of fun while I was doing it. The searching and conversations at garage sales, bringing a bike back from the dead. Great memories of high quality rides and some low quality junk that was just fun or fit a specific cycling need.

Trying to go through and organize the parts and bikes that are left to start getting the it moved along in the next 12-18 months. Have mostly better quality stuff left. 4 pickup truck loads of the cheaper and run of the mill items were donated about 4 years ago to the local bike coop.

r0ckh0und 

Sold 2 bikes through Marketplace today. Both buyers handed me the cash and loaded up without even looking the bikes over. Big Box stores are completely sold out so people are looking for cheap bikes.

Chris_in_Miami

Your situation parallels my own history pretty closely. I had given up on my low volume flipping a number of years ago, and was having a hard time unloading anything at a break-even price until covid struck. Now I’m seeing dozens of new cyclists every time I leave the house, and the last few bikes I’ve sold were gone within hours.

I’m taking advantage of the situation to reclaim some space in the garage, and won’t be flipping after I’ve unloaded the last 4 or 5 that I have. Unfortunately I’m not seeing the same enthusiasm for more expensive bikes, and that’s the bulk of my stock right now. Seems like almost anything under $500 is a quick sale in my neighborhood.

Chris_in_Miami

Now that I think about it, I’ve also had a lot of luck selling ANYTHING second hand lately. Maybe because the few folks who are still earning money have fewer places to spend it? I gotta hurry up and get a few guitars listed...

alexihnen 

For better or worse, I started doing just this only this past fall. I have a few more bikes than I need and would like to sell, but they're higher-end stuff and always take longer. Except for running out of space, I'm happy to keep them all. What I need to do is stop buying, but that's easier said than done. I just picked up a solid Vitus with full Dura Ace 7400 for $200 and an early 90s Davidson with 10spd Ultegra, an extra wheelset and a carbon fork for $600. I'd be crazy to say no to that, right? Right?! This is more a note on collecting, but what I have found is that the bikes I swear I'll never sell keep changing. I have a couple things I'd like to track down, but for the most part I need to move on to the tweak and refine part of having bikes!

robertorolfo

This was the scene outside my LBS just a few hours ago. Pretty crazy...

rjhammett

I have 3-4 that I will eventually get around to selling. One is a tandem that I can't get anyone to join me in riding. A couple are bikes that are my daughter's that aren't getting ridden because she is riding higher quality bikes. I have given away more in the last year than I have sold.

alexihnen 

I could use a bike box. Willing to facilitate?

robertorolfo

I might be moving soon, so I'm thinking it could actually be a good idea to grab a few when they are empty (if you look closely, those boxes appear to be full).

alexihnen 

Always handy to have a couple around, if you have space. I'm still on the importer side of things and so always seem to have a box handy. Some shops here will save you a box and the packing supplies, some charge $15 for a box.

hwheel72 

I've been doing very well buying, repairing, and reselling. i've just been patient on the types of bikes worth getting and that has paid off significantly. Since the shops are getting slammed it's pretty much an open market. I'm here to help!!Stay safe all!