Hello, my name is Greg, and I missed an opportunity yesterday to snag a 2000 Jamis Dakar Expert for $100. The owner also had a Trek ZX 8000 they were selling for $75. Please support me during this trying time.

Go back and get the Trek!

Aw shucks, I hate it when that happens. My sincere condolences. To help ease your pain I will tell you how I missed out on bike #7 (we're not counting bare frames, right?)

I responded to an ad on OfferUp for a "Road Bike good condition" about 24 hours after it was posted. A few days later I realized that the words on the seat tube were "Andre Bertin" and started pestering the seller, who was just a few blocks from my office. A week later they changed the listing to "sold" without ever getting back to me. How DARE they tease me with this potential score! I'd already brought home a $25 Montgomery Wards bike that week though, and hadn't yet introduced the pink diamondback to the garage. It was already getting crowded, but I'm still miffed about missing this one.

Same person that snagged the Jamis got the Trek too. The pain is real!

This helps. Thank you for your support in this trying time.

Old missed opportunity - a green (not Celeste green but grass green) Bianchi from the 1950s - $500 on CL. I call a few days later, was told it sold that same day for $500. Another day passes and someone posts another ad on CL, telling whoever bought that old green Bianchi that they'd buy it from them for double the original price, lol.

Recent missed opportunity - old Legnano road bike $150 - one crappy picture - and hour or so away from me - I wait one day and then it's gone. I didn't really want to drive an hour for it though.

Ya can't buy 'em all!!

Herein lies the rub.

Many of us have been there and done that. Here was one big one I missed, wasn't the first, won't be the last: 1963 Bianchi Specialissima????

That Specialissima was selling for $150 on OfferUp and I was hours too late. Sold and showed up on eBay for $700 BIN days later. Then popped up on Craigslist for $1550 not long after that. It lasted on CL for a few weeks and I never saw it again.

some bits of consolation to share:

Edit - First, a few weeks after that "miss" above, a damn nice Behringer showed up. I chatted up the seller just to say, "Damn that's nice! But out of my price range, good luck with the sale, it's a cool piece of history!" We kept chatting, he told me to come check it out anyway, and sent me home with it on the cheap-cheap (considering) and a nice mid-upper end 80s Peugeot for free. Thread.

Then, I had a huge score with these two a few weeks later. Turns out both were worth far more than I expected and I wouldn't have had the $$$ or the space had I bought the Specialissima! Sold both of the other bikes and some NOS parts through a broker, untouched, for over $5k which I sorely needed at the time due to hurricane damage on the house. It was a blessing, to say the least.

Third, I had another big miss recently that left me kicking the ground because someone beat me to the punch. A few days later, someone else who beat me to a listing did something that really pisses a lot of sellers off and it resulted in me getting a killer deal. Smoking deal similar to the Specialissima popped up on CL for $150 (again!). The seller knew damn well it was worth more but wanted to find a good home for it quickly. I was 2nd to reach out to the seller, but 1st person made a sight-unseen offer for $100 w/o any questions or giving a valid reason. "Will you take $100 for it?!". Everyone involved (buyer/seller) knew it was worth 3x the lowball offer whereas I let him know the ask price was "more than fair" in my response. Texted me 15 minutes later, and some hours later it was mine. Sat and chatted for a while on pickup, guy was ex-Army, we swapped some stories and he sent me home with a box of stuff including a cool-looking vintage wheel truing stand that was "taking up space".

Moral of the story: Stay positive, there's always another catch, and don't stop looking just because you missed a big one. Sometimes things fall through for the better.

Oh shoot! Hmm...well, in my other nerdy hobby (vintage woodworking tools), we have a saying...

"Your dream machine will present itself, in better condition, and cheaper, soon after you've obtained its lesser equivalent."

Meaning...it's destiny - soon you will find something incredibly similar - but in better condition, for cheaper. The fact that you missed this one is a bonus, because now you've already still got the cash to purchase your future bike

EDIT: okay, I'll share my 'missed' one as well! Was bidding on a '89 Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Expert...watching it for days and days, and put in a bid early, and every time someone else threw a bid on, would eventually bid again. Well, down to literally the last minute, and someone sniped on it and probably put in a $100 or $120 offer, and I quickly bid up to about $85 or so. I was a little upset but it passed after about a minute. They got a great deal and at $85, it was more than I wanted to pay (yes, I know, still a smoking deal). It up right now on C/L with a $250 price tag. Sometimes I'm tempted to get a little raw at folks who will outbuy someone who would cherish and appreciate it and use it, just for them to flip it, but even if that feeling is totally and completely justified, life is just too short to worry about those negative feelings, and there is much too much out there to be happy about

Yep +1.

I almost never haggle on a good deal. There is no faster way than to give a phone number, offer cash, full price, and be ready to pick up. Anytime I sell something on C/L, I always get those crazy 'will you take $50 for your $300 item?? LMK!!' emails, but those guys are just hoping you are desperate. I don't want to ever be one of those guys either.

I've always wanted an early 50's La Perle team frame, like the one Anquetil would have ridden in his early pro days. I had recently completed a build and was taking a break from eBay, and a team used frame set was sold during that time. I contacted the seller with hopes of somehow getting ahold of the buyer, but no luck.

I can relate.....Missing the opportunity is really the worst of it, never mind the possible bargains.
A crankset I was really looking for, that I was sure I already got dibs on, was sold away from me just recently....
First real sour experience I had in our classified forum...
Really stung cause I thought we sort of take care of each other here in this C&V forum....
Anyway, something just came up that will make up for the loss in a big way so all is happy again in my camp!

Ah, the one that got away. Pics or it didn't happen somehow seems incredibly important in this thread. Does anyone - anyone - have at least one pic of a bike missed by "that much"..?

The one that comes to mind, for me, was a near mint bright pink Miyata 1000 Touring bike. I viewed it on the way home from work, one day. Talked to the lady, agreed on $60.00 CND, rode home as fast as I could, changed, grabbed the truck, went back to her house, cash in hand, only to see her nephew fussing with the Miyata, a bike he did not even know existed until that day. The lady apologized to me, saying that her nephew had happened by, saw the bike in her back porch and wanted it. What did I learn..?

Always have a hundred bucks, cash in my back pack and never ever again, leave a bike once found (assuming, of course, that you want the bike). That said and fifteen years later, I almost missed this one by ten minutes...

Every year one of the more affluent suburbs near D.C. has a "spring cleaning" bulk pickup where residents clean out their garage and put things out on the curb for the city to pick up. It's a well-known thing, and we drive around in our minivan with all the other "pickers" looking for valuables. I have to say, it's the best place I've ever found to look for bikes. I usually end up donating them. This year I picked up an '88 Haro Sport freestyle bmx (traded straight across for the Alpine with full campy NR), a Specialized hybrid, and a GT hybrid. The specialized brought $70 untouched, and the GT was donated. I usually come back with at least an old Trek mtb or two. Two years ago I brought home the '85 Peugeot PGN-10, plus a couple of donate bikes. Eight years ago I brought home the '81 Soma Competition (now sold).

So, be inventive when you're looking, be persistent, and post pictures when you do get it!

It's not a bike thing...

Several years ago, my folks were downsizing- wanting to get out of their (BIG) house and into a much more manageable place - They had a big shed with a big motorhome. It was a REALLY sweet motor home. I could have totally lived in there. They asked if I wanted it- and at that time (during the recession and while gas was $4 a gallon, and my wife HATES camping/campers, and we had nowhere to put it) it was a good idea to say no... They sold it for a FRACTION of what it was worth.

Now 10 years later, every time I see an RV- even remotely close to the luxury that was their unit... I'm filled with anger. Real, veins popping out of my head, anger.

The one that got away. I'm trying to convince myself that the suspension was not built to handle my weight and that there was a hairline crack somewhere on the frame.

I'm trying to follow up on another $35 offer up ad... this time Austro Diamler, model unknown, frame too small, maybe I can convince my wife to try a road bike - it's her size. We'll see. This will be less disappointing than the andre bertin if it turns up bust, because it'll never be "mine" even if I complete the deal for the thrill of the chase.

Well, the AD is $100... maybe. We'll see. Not quite the screaming deal at that price.

[MENTION=84826]randyjawa[/MENTION]

Those aren't friction shifters built into the levers, are they?

Last year I saw a red Centurion Turbo with Sugino Superbe groupset, hanging in a local bike shop for $175. I had a Raleigh build in process, so I mentioned it to a bike club buddy, who was looking for an Eroica bike. The Turbo had aero brake levers and cables which at the time were verboten by the Eroica police. He ran down and grabbed it. After a little research, I found out what a nice bike the Turbo actually was. Now the aero brake levers are allowed in Eroica. I keep dropping hints, "If you ever want to get rid of that bike . . ."

Nope, near mint Campagnolo Ten Speed brifter on right and triple on left...

I feel your pain. You are not alone. Mine was a Mercian King of Mercia with racks in my size for $50!

The truth is some missed opportunies May haunt you for years . And welcome to the club, you are not Alone.
The good news is something better Will come along. And btw, this applies to guitars, houses, girlfriends, everything.

That's hot.

"Dear Penthouse Letters, I never thought it would happen to me..."

Sadly I missed out on a 85 Trek 720 in the even harder to find 19" (my size) last year. It was up on ebay and I was prepared to bid to the moon but completely spaced out on it. It sold for just over starting bid IIRC.