You're in Kansas. You have a lot more normal folks out there than we do here in SF. Our flake/earnest ratio is off the charts.

I have noticed a very strong correlation between a person being a flake and a person responding to CL ads by iPhone.

I frame no hypothesis about why.

j

Some CL buyers/sellers must live in a world that moves at a snails pace, even in SoCal.
I list an item for sale. E mail says, can I come look at it a week from Tuesday? ummmm, If I have any idea what I am doing this bike it will be sold by tomorrow.
As mentioned by bigbossman it is difficult sometimes to give your money to someone that is selling what you want. I guess you can't expect too much since humans with a low IQ are not excluded from free classifieds.

It is refreshing when you get someone on the phone, you tell them the BB on this steel lugged frame has been overhauled and they know what it means.

CL is an odd one for bikes, but having been a 'fair' seller setting 'fair' prices for my bikes I want to unload at a good price to the next owner,

have sold every bike, i think just about everything I'v ever listed, not just bikes, to the first person to look at it.

always a great deal.

Some of the other honest bicyclists in america use Craigslist too.

Is this true Bioflamingo?

If so, I will happily send you $500 (or whatever you feel is needed) to ship a few dozen refurbished 10 speeds to L.A. for me to resell, and then send you a cut of the profits.

(Thanks to the fixie craze, and a general new interest in cycling, a generic 10 speed goes for $80-100+ even needing a tuneup and tires, refurbished bikes go for $150+ easily, and if you take off the gears and one of the chainrings and throw on a BMX freewheel and a brightly colored chain, you can get $200+ for a singlespeed.)

Let me know if you're interested. It'd cover your Taco Bell, and maybe even let you upgrade to Chipotle.

The worst people on CL are people like me who actually know the value of what they're selling and want fair market value. The best people are the ones who just want to clear out their garage and price their stuff accordingly. Sometimes the flakes are the best because they're more likely to fall into the latter category. My last CL purchase was from a guy who I had to email twice before he finally responded half a day after the second email. Turned out to be a really nice guy and I got a set of Mavic Elites at a killer price and enough extra goodies thrown in to almost justify the purchase price on their own. The front wheel I'm currently using was another CL purchase from someone in the latter category, racer type who knew what he was selling but just wanted to clean house and sold a 2 year old silver Mavic Elite for $50.

ebay is much harder to get bargains on because even if the seller doesn't know what he's selling "Shinamo Ultra 6600 Breaks" :-) the buyers will figure it out for him. Shimano road shoes are a good example, I've seen R075s listed as everything from RD75 to RO75 and more.

It's mainly the low end bikes that go that cheap. People have the choice of buying an old scratched Roadmaster/Schwinn/etc or a nice shiny Next. To compensate for this I have to keep prices low.

CrMo frames tend to bring quite a bit more. Just a frame/fork/headset combo brings $40+, leaving me with decent quality derailleurs and such to put on my personal collection. Single Speeds are starting to catch on around here, so I'm hoping this spring will see a huge increase in sales. We have only one LBS here that sells nothing but Trek Hybrids/Competition bikes, so when people want a quality frame to build or mid-quality components for a reasonable price they come to me.

Because of this, as tempting as your offer is, I have to decline. I love dealing with the customers, and I make enough off of each bike to buy a new bike to refurbish as well as a burrito.

Just as a side note, the main reason I like Taco Bell is because they are the only restaurant in town that has a bike rack, plus I know the owners so I sometimes get free food.

Fair enough. Good luck!

Bioflamingo, I think we have it good here in Kansas !

I checked the market in Arkansas to be informed on answering another thread, and the prices were crazy. LA has got to be worse. You cherry pick the Wichita area and I get the Kansas City area, With bigvegan buying and marketing. We could do well, on mid-level bikes depening on shipping. I have about 18 bikes I am preping for spring sales.

Good point sir. I was just stood up by an iPhone user about 30 minutes ago. Hmm. Wonder what the connection is?

j

How do you know its an I phone? I inquired about a "Schwinn Mt bike- $30" on local craigslist. He must be an iPhone zombie. Because he followed up his picture sent with this response "k". I guess it was too much to write out -"OK". The photo was a bad picture with sun glint, so I asked for the Model and size if he knew. His respond with "i don't know" So untill I know how to tell wheter its an I phone, I will assume "flake using a phone" is using an iPhone.
BTW I am not bieng sarcastic, I am a luddite that has forstalled entering the computer era with the determination of a mule.

They travel in a universe quite different from your own. They regard individuals like yourself -- no iPhone !-- with utter disdain.

I can tell someone is on an iPhone because my Yahoo email account makes a note of that fact at the bottom of the email they send.

j

Nope, no iPhone signature, He must be just a flake. Thanks for the answer.

Just picked up a "bike with speeds" from an ad. Just what I was looking for, size and everything. Unknowingly, I paid a quarter of the going rate for these bikes. I wanted something different to ride. The fellow wanted it out of his garage.