The Thin Man 

The weather is showing major signs of spring and everyone is out and about, ready to spend a little cash to pick up a shiny new bike for the upcoming season.
I'm new to the flipping game but I picked up about 7 cycles this winter and slowly am going through, cleaning/degreasing/repairing then releasing them back onto the open market of the maddening world of Craigslist.
The bikes I purchased were all very different. From some plumbers pipe Peugeots to an Ironman Single speed and bone stock Bridgestone 112, to name a few. I haven't gone through all of them yet, but so far, I'm starting to figure out which ones are the most desirable (for whatever reason) and quick to sell. I had a gorgeous Peugeot Grand Sport mixte that sold instantly and the mens version of the same bike went pretty quick too.
I'd say, that in Portland, the hot bikes that turn quick seem to be almost any Peugeot. Since it has a French name, people think that they are all amazing bicycles (as silly as that is). I'm also finding that mixte's seem to be desirable as well. Configurations (drop bars vs other straighter, more relaxed bars) are still yet to be determined, but I'm sure that makes a difference too. I also see that single speeds/fixies go fast, but that's to be expected here in Portland. However, I always make a caveat in my ads that restoring the frame back to its original status would be a great idea!
What I'm actually trying to find out from this thread is, what vintage bikes do you find to be the ones most highly desirable? What configurations? Does color play a factor? Anything else?
Obviously, different parts of the country and different cities (college town vs big city vs rural area) are going to make a difference, but surely there must be some common threads, other than price.
I'd really rather concentrate on only repairing/restoring higher end bikes, but some are just too easy to make a killing off of.

rccardr 

Name brand.
+ Normal color (nothing too offbeat).
+ All maintenance items (e.g. tires, tubes, cables, housing, bar wrap, often saddle) replaced with new or nearly new.
+ Frame and components spotless and shiny.
+ Well written, fully explanatory CL ad with a 'good story'.
+ Priced for the market (they are all a little different).
= a very quick sale to the first person who sees the bike.

Personally, I work with a single brand and over time have developed a following: people who e-mail me and ask when I'm building another one or if I can build one in a certain color/size for them. Never had to dicker on the price, never had a no-show, always deal in cash.

And..have fun. Otherwise, why bother?

wrk101

Condition is everything. Original paint and decals a must. More recognizable names like Trek and Peugeot tend to sell really fast. Anything with the cool vintage look, like 1980s Fujis, sell well. Other than the frame/paint/decals, the bike can be in pretty poor condition. Such poor condition bikes sell at a huge discount (no one wants them).

Anything with cromoly lugged frame, road bike (drop handlebars), alloy crankset and rims, will sell well. I tend to buy midgrade bikes. I avoid entry level bikes. I rarely find high end bikes, so that leaves everything else in the middle.

Any small frame bike sells at a premium. Large frames (25 inch or more) are really hard to sell, and sell at a discount.

It takes just as much $$ in parts and just as much time to rehab a crappy bike as a good one. But only the good ones will return enough to make it worth your time IMHO.

I even dabble in MTBs, a real no-no in flipper-land. But to be profitable, I have to get them really, really cheap, and they have to be one of just a couple of brands: Trek, Gary Fisher and Specialized.

I also seek out donor bikes. I have one posted in the recent finds thread. Bike was in deplorable condition. But lots of good useable parts. I sold the rear wheel for what I paid for the bike. So its like getting a box load of parts free. The bike sat on Craigs List for over a week. I was the only one who called on it. Most buyers can't see past obvious flaws and sniff out a deal. If you are going to try to flip MTBs, you better find some donor bikes. Otherwise, you won't have any margin left on a MTB. A typical $5 donor might provide brakes, wheels, cassette, grips, tires and tubes, seat, pedals,shifters, etc. One donor might not have this entire list, but pick up a few and you will have it.

Its really all about what I am able to find, at a reasonable price. I will buy modern bikes as well at the right price. Bought one yesterday.

The Thin Man 

All really, really good info, especially "Any small frame bike sells at a premium." That was one I was unaware of, although, it makes sense. The larger frames I could see selling at a discount. That's a tough market.
Keep the comments coming for future searchers

michael k

I've had good success with large frames (60 cm+). Comments made from buyers are they are harder to find.Also I stay away from the ladies step-thru type frames. (Except mixte's)

EjustE

Best bang for the buck:

1. Anything with DA or Campy (other than Triomphe) and a 531 or Columbus frame at $200 or lower
2. Anything with 531 or higher end Japanese frames and 600 or Superbe components at $100 or lower
3. Anything with a decent frame and STIs 105 and above at $100 or lower
4. Any bike with a decent frame and a triple at $50 or lower

parted out, of course.

ohjonnybegoode

Philadelphia has a huge college student population – all of whom want bikes. Probably more than half of my sales are to women, and they want something on the cheaper side and dependable…I could flip ladies (or smaller men’s frames) Continentals/Varsities/low end Panasonics and Raleighs all day…they are hugely popular. More expensive bikes will move, but it takes longer…as do larger frame bikes…I don’t normally have to discount them, but they take longer to find the right buyer. I’ve sold a few mixtes over the last few months…very popular. The right mountain bike can be flipped as well, if it’s a Trek/Specialized/Schwinn, etc, and it has to be in immaculate condition.

sailorbenjamin

I liked to focus on one kind of bike. I chose Raleigh 3 speeds, just cause I'm that kind of guy. Then I went out and bought any Raleigh 3 speed that I could find for under $40. I'd go higher if the paint and chrome were nice or it had a Brooks leather saddle. Even a dead Raleigh 3 speed has $40 in parts on it.
Then I took the shiniest one and did it up. I used the ugliest one for parts. Then I took the next shiniest one and so on. I always had the part I needed, it was worth while investing in a couple of specific tools (cotter press for the cranks, for example) and I could take advantage of bulk deals like crank cotters or whatever came up. I wish I'd kept track, I think I sold 20 of them last summer and Ebayed the leftovers.
Our new house doesn't have much of a basement and no garage so I spent the proceeds on a couple of decent Treks that are just my size.

sailorbenjamin

It also helped that I was living in southern Maine, about halfway between Portland and Boston. I'd buy bikes cheap from farmers who were cleaning out the barn or whatever and sell them to college girls or the Cambridge set.
It was important for me, since I was selling to that crowd, to have a reliable product. I checked every bearing and spoke and cable. Focusing on one kind of bike helps there, too. I knew just where to look for problems and I got good and quick with them.

jet sanchEz

Fenders and baskets on any mixte increases the value by about $60 or so.

The Thin Man 

I'm finding that once you sell just a couple of bikes, you start gaining a reputation and deemed someone whose name is worthy of passing around. I've had some ask if I'll do tune ups on their bikes and even some have been interested in having me find them a killer deal (they pay an up front "finders fee" of course) on CL which I just pass along. The latter has yet to pan out, but I'd be open to it.

Jet... where do you find your fenders/basket deals at? Online, I'm guessing?

r0ckh0und 

If you live in or near a city area there is usually a good market for lower end Schwinns, Raleighs, Panasonics, etc. with steel wheels, bars, cranksets, claw derailluers, etc..........there is a demand for these frames by "professional" SS/fixie builders. These bikes can usually be picked up for $5-$10 each and resold as frame and fork for $60-$100 depending on condition.

EjustE

not any city, though Major metropolitan areas that are fairly flat. In my outlined metro area (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton) that is a good 500,000 people with several college campuses, there is zero fixie demand. Reason? Hills

illwafer

plain and simple: peugeot.

i am not a big fan, but all women want to ride peugeots. most guys do too. they generally look cool and sell for waaay more than they are worth (imo).

The Thin Man 

+1 illwafer!

bigbossman 

I could sell turds to the knobs, if they had Peugeot decals on them.

sykerocker 

Be it 10-speed or fixie, any well built bike presented attractively, shifts perfectly, brakes work fine, little to no cosmetic damage will sell very quickly. I normally sell a 10-speed for $125.00, a fixie built from the same bike for $250.00 (Richmond, VA market). I cannot believe the people who will actually try to sell an old bike without at least cleaning it up, first.

The absolute bottom line for putting a bike up for sale: If I'd be happy, nay proud, to be seen riding this bike; it'll sell for decent bucks. Build it like you're going to keep it.

Customer service has a lot to do with the sale. As I live in a small rural town 30 miles northeast of Richmond, one of my prime selling points is that the Honda dealership where I work has no problem with my selling my bikes on the company property (as long as I'm not taking too much time away from company business, of course). I'm blessed with a big enough parking lot/fenced in storage area that when a customer comes to look at a bike he/she can actually get a feel of how the bike is going to fit without leaving the property.

Anything I sell is adjusted to the rider on the spot, and if he/she isn't planning on tossing it into a car, the buyer can count on riding it right back home. I also offer to do any needed adjustments for a couple of weeks after the purchase right at the shop. A service that's been called on very rarely.

Once again I have to admit that a lot of my success at flipping has been due to the tolerance of my employer. Then again, I've built bikes for four of my co-workers in the past two years.

Prime candidate for a flipper? Anything Japanese from the 80's. I'll take every one I can get.

roccobike

It's really bad here in Raleigh. There are so many flippers and the prices are CRAZY. Some guys buy a bike at a yard sale, then flip it the same day with the phraze "needs minor repair". They give flipping a bad name.
Good bikes are so hard to come by that I've even done the dreaded, buy a department store bike. If I can find them for under $10 and they need no parts or major repairs, I've gambled I can tune them, and flip them. So far so good, but it's not fun.
As for what do I look for? ANY LBS sold bike. I don't care if its a MTB, Road, BMX or Hybrid. Around here, it doesn't matter.
"If you've got a bike at a decent price they will come" is the voice that we hear in flipper land.

Wisco

Here in Wisconsin, small frames don't seem to be as prized as elsewhere (although apparently they're rare in Chicago...I've had several people drive up for that reason). Prices are only now starting to get insane. The fixie craze is levelling off a bit. Any lugged road frame with decent paint is worth $50 at least. I generally strip them down, repack BB and HS, and throw em up there. Ready-built single-speeds make a nice profit, but the re-dishing etc is a bit more work than tuning up a derailleur bike. Mountain bikes? Dead. Hardly worth my time, mostly use them as parts donors. Mixtes, Raleigh 3-speeds, and anything vintage Schwinn can go for crazy money and I see no signs of that craze abating. BMX, even nice ones, also dead as a doornail. I save the vintage ones and sell them as-is for about $50 a pop.

Since I live in a big college town (and yes, a mostly flat one) there's a pretty good selection of raw material out there...but I admit to having browsed CL elsewhere and dreamed of moving to PDX or NYC...

redxj

I live in a college town with 2 big universities in adjoining cities so there are a lot of people always looking for bikes. Things that sell: road bikes $100-200 easily, small bikes, mixtes/ladies crusiers/road bikes, and frames/parts for someone building their own geared or SS/FG bike. The nicer slightly higher priced bikes ($200-300) do sell, but generally take a little longer. The nicest vintage stuff usually doesn't sell locally ($200+ framesets and $500+ bikes). Most of those get sold on various for sale forums, Craigslist, and sometimes Ebay (my last resort). Almost all of them end up getting shipped to a new home somewhere.

Things that don't sell are mountain bikes. I am done buying mountain bikes. The only way I will buy one is if it is dirt cheap and has Deore LX or better parts then I am going to sell it in pieces. My last three MTN bikes took months to sell and I have never dealt with more CL flakes than with the MTN bikes. I am not asking tons of money either as they have been in the $100-140 range fully overhauled with a lot of new parts put on them. I tend not to make the golden rule $100 profit and with the extra hassle of selling them no more MTN bikes.

The biggest problem I have is finding bikes as there is a large student population looking for used bikes, and way to many so called "flippers" in the area. I have no problem with flipping as I have been doing it for years, but so many of them overcharge and don't do a single thing to the bike.

wrk101

Funny thing around here in NC, there is a pretty good market for SS/FG. I am talking the Asheville, NC area, which is very hilly. I don't understand it myself. I talked to a guy today in Asheville, who removed the FD on his Schwinn, and just uses three speeds in the rear. His quote: "Its all I need." Oh, to be young again....

Flying Merkel

I've had the best luck in the lower end of the market. New tires are important. I have sold many low-end but decent quality MTB's and hybrids in the $120-$140 range. Got a beautiful Univega Gran Rally on C-list right now for $385.00. This bike is worth it. The folks actually paying out munny seem to disagree.

gaucho777 

I've thought a bit about this conundrum, and I'm convinced the market for SS/FG is most directly correlated to the number of hipsters in a given community. I have zero experience flipping bikes. But I do live in the San Francisco area where both hills and hipsters are abundant. Fashion over function (unless perhaps some accounting for bike theft risk prevention is considered).

P.s. wrk101, I've never been to the Asheville area (though I'd love to!), but I notice it was named as the "new freak capital" by Rolling Stone and also "most vegetarian-friendly small cities" in America by PETA, and I do know something of Black Mountain poetry movement, so I'm guessing there are a disproportionate number of hipsters in your area as well.

wrk101

+1 IMHO, its all about hipsters, and Asheville is full of them. My favorite Asheville, NC TShirt says: "Asheville, where weird is normal". Some consider it the Key West of the mountains. I actually live about 30 miles west of Asheville, in Waynesville. It is pretty normal.

I hit the Asheville garage sales pretty hard, as there always seem to be a lot of people tossing road components from their geared road bike to FG conversions.

epicurean

That surprises me. In Philly, I can sell certain MTBs for 200 no problem, mostly to college kids looking for good campus bikes. I'll look to buy mid-range Treks (model 830 and above) and Specializeds (Hardrock/Rockhoppers) in flippable condition (i.e. frame, wheels, major components intact) for under 100. Cleaned and tuned, they go quickly here for twice that. Some examples:






I'm not in it for profit, so I find it most enjoyable to work on bikes that I would enjoy riding--sometimes they end up as keepers. I'll flip bikes I know I won't keep, but they still have to be something I wouldn't mind being seen on (I know this sentiment has been expressed already--I just wanted to second it).