SteveSGP

I love the looks of the Camelback Schwinn frames but the whole reason for the design was for shorter riders to be able to ride a bike with larger wheels so there aren't any big frame Camelbacks which does bum me out as I'm 6'6".

The guys with multiple bikes for sale all the time that get reposted every couple days drive me insane as well, I think the most I ever had for sale at once was two bikes.

roccobike

I'll be blunt, flippers don't raise the prices of bikes. The entire industry of bike flippers, even if they were united, which they are not, are not big enough to accomlish this. You want to "blame" someone? Blame Walmart and/or the bicycle manufacturers. Blame the buying public that buy high priced used bikes like there's a shortage, but don't blame the schnook who simply cleans up an old bike, lubes and repairs it then puts it on CL at an asking price and is inundated with offers to buy at asking price.
Blame Walmart who has promised for years to provide quality bikes at reasonable prices but has failed to do so. Even if they did they don't offer a tune-up after 30 days to adjust stretched cables. Blame the bike companies who can't turn out a road bike for less than $700 or any LBS bike for less than $300.
So the bike flipper fills an open niche in the market place. Bikes in good operating condition for less than $200 and road bikes for less than $300. The industry including bike shops and department stores are welcome to fill that niche. They won't.

abarth

I flip so I can pay for organized rides and my collection of vintage bikes and parts. On a few occasions other organizations such as my local food bank and Unicef get a cut from my sale also.

funkflex

I guess I'm guilty of this "sin" too. If I see cheaply priced bike that is worthy of being flipped for substantial profit, I'm all over it. I enjoy riding, and I thoroughly enjoy wrenching, weather that be on one of my bikes or my cars. I recently got an email message from a guy I sold a Trek 520 to thanking me for getting him back in the saddle. He now commutes 3 days a week to work on his bike.

noglider 

I don't call myself a bike flipper. Instead, I say that I collect and restore old bikes, and I sell some of them.

My home is so stuffed and overflowing with bikes that I might soon qualify to be on the Hoarders show.

I worked and paid my way through college as a bike mechanic, so I have skills good enough to say that when I sell a bike, it's in perfect running order. I'm not so good at making them pretty, though. Gotta work on that.

abarth

I had an email recently from a buyer also saying how much he enjoyed the bike he bought from me.

TugaDude

Mr. Embrey, the market in St. Louis is pretty soft right now. I have been listing a nice Bridgestone Kabuki Submariner on Craigslist and it seems I can't give it away. It is a nice bike, the paint is fair, but everything else if fine. Plus, it is a truly unusual bike. I'm probably going to keep it and convert to singlespeed because all of my other bikes are geared bikes.

I have purchased around three bikes in the KC area this year. One I kept, the other two sold.

Take care!

TugaDude

I bought a Miyata 210 earlier in the year with the intent to use it for touring. Turns out that although it felt o.k., it was too small for me. I was bummed because it had cantilever brakes and a nice triple crank and was generally in great shape. I put on new bar tape, lubed everything and used 0000 steel wool on all the bare metal and had it looking like new. Took it into a LBS to have them give me some ideas to make it fit me better and the shop owner, who I know fairly well said, "Dude, it's too small, get over it." So I gave up. I had replaced cables, new bar tape and spent literally hours cleaning it and touching up the paint. Found a match at O'Reilly Auto Parts!

I listed it on Craigslist and it sold in three days. A young woman said that her friends saw the listing and told her to grab the bike because it was perfect for her. I took it to her house and she instantly fell in love with it. She was a mountain biker and this is her first road bike. She got a good deal and I made a couple of bucks. It was a win-win. There is NO way that she could have bought anything comparable in the condition that it was in when I sold it to her.

Mr. Embrey

Getting a good deal in a poor market is easy. Flipping for a profit in a poor market, not so much.

wrk101

+1 While I can sometimes score pretty nice bikes here in Hooterville, the market is soft on resales as well. So if you have something special, ebay becomes the market outlet of choice.

Odin99

Anyone who flips vintage bike also dabble in modern road bike 'flipping'?

I'm talking about grabbing modern bikes that are under priced (say bikes with 9-10 speed shimano 105 or better)? Granted, this involves spending more $$ upfront on a flip (usually $250-600), but the profit margin is also significantly larger ($250-700). (example: paid $200 for a giant OCR w/9spd 105, sold for $550, paid $500 for a giant w/ 9spd DA - sold for $1000). hopefully this isn't too far off topic for C&V, but I've now done this for the two examples above and the profit margin just seems so much larger... am I really now just a used car salesman since these bikes needed nothing to get them running?

Kobe 

The only modern bike I have flipped is a 2006 Motobecane CX that was way even I who knows little about modern bike pricing could tell was under priced. After a was wax and lube I still felt like I needed to do something so I changed the brake shoes. That was a quick way to make $200 but I don't see doing much of it in the future just because people who bought a new bike in the last 10 years have a fair knowledge of what the bike is worth.

redxj

Current? maybe previous flipper here. I say that because this has been the worst year for me. I was working 7 days a week all summer long so I never could go to a garage sale to look for bikes. Since I didn't have any inventory I didn't really sell anything this year. Even the few things I did have for sale never sold. I have had the same Univega MTN bike for sale since the beginning of this year. I have resorted to listed items on Ebay and that has always been my last resort.

Normally, flipping makes me some good money and helps pay for my own bikes, tools, and parts. I had been working at a bike shop as a mechanic so I know what I am doing plus get great discounts on parts I need for myself or flippers.

I don't have a problem with any person flipping bikes. I have problems with "flippers" with no wrenching skills that don't actually fix anything on the bike or put the same bikes up every other day at huge prices. I am sorry even if it was NOS, a Varsity is not a $300 bike.

Mr. Embrey

Amen. We have a guy around here that keeps relisting his NOS bottom of the line Schwinns at crazy prices.

wrk101

I don't care for the "dirt knocker-offers" either, although I recently bought five bikes from one of these guys. As long as they are not selling damaged bikes, or asking insane pricing, there is room for them. But we have one around here with ridiculous prices, and he keeps reposting the same over priced beaters. At least it makes my bikes and prices look really good.

+1 If you don't have the time to chase after garage sales, thrift stores and other lower priced sources, then flipping will dry up. I ran out of road bikes by June in 2009, so I really loaded up last winter, big time. Then of course, sales were quite a bit softer in 2010, so I am still working off that inventory. I am not going to go crazy chasing deals this winter, and I am going to be more selective.

Veloria

Re emails from buyers thanking you for the bikes - I think that is a great point. When I was buying my first vintage bike and neither I or my husband knew how to as much as change a tire on our own, I would have loved to buy a bike at a mark-up that someone with wrenching skills had refurbished.

I don't think there is anything wrong with picking up bikes with intent to refurbish and sell for a profit - when done right, it is a win-win situation. The only reason I myself don't do it, is that it is not the best way for me to earn an income given my skill set.

abarth

+1. We got a few of those in Seattle area and they bug the hell out of me.

KonAaron Snake 

I don't flip a whole lot and tend to be very picky about what I buy and sell. I've flipped for one reason...to fund as much of my fleet as possible, and the vast majority of my expenditures are covered by sales. I've also found that it was a fantastic way to meet people and that I really enjoy BSing both with the folks I'm buying from and selling to.

curbtender

There are some good deals on 9speed right now. I've picked up a few.

wrk101

A third of my road bike flips this year have been modern bikes. And yes, the margin on the modern stuff tends to be higher, along with the acquisition price. And they usually require a lot less work. And they sell faster (at least around here). So even though I personally prefer vintage bikes, the market around here prefers the modern stuff.

noglider 

Where?

My LBS manager likes 9-speed because he considers it good, old, and reliable. Funny, because I consider 9-speed to be new. It certainly has pah-lenty of gears for me! I'm still used to 6-speed!

Flying Merkel

The prices & interest for used bikes has fallen lately. I have a nice lady's 3 speed Schwinn/Giant and a Univega Via Carisma hybrid to sell. Both are going back into the garage until spring. Not even insulting offers. I keep seeing the same bikes on C-list for weeks on end. Got no room to store anything, so I'm not buying. If some thing decent comes along for free or is an obscene deal, I'll consider.

I buy & sell bikes for project money. My Nashbar mountain bike frame is gathering dust waiting for stuff.

southpawboston

i'm pretty late coming into this thread. i once had "aspirations" to become a flipper, based soley on amazing initial success at it. my first two flips netted me some major cash for very little work. however, those were by chance, and i hadn't even bought the bikes with the intent to flip. i bought them for myself, and when they didn't fit right, i tried to sell them to simply recoup my costs. when i more than tripled my initial investment on those two bikes, i thought "hey, this is easy". with that thought, i tried, unsuccessfully, to continue on that path of easy flipping. it didn't work out, and i was never again able to flip a bike for enough profit to justify the time spent on the flips.

since then, the only bikes i've "flipped" are bikes that i had kept for myself, used for a bit, and decided i didn't want to keep. in almost all of those cases, i barely profited. one of those bikes was my wife's raleigh sports. she decided she didn't want it anymore (deciding to keep a dutch bike instead). we had a total of about $200 into the bike, and sold it for $270. the owner was ecstatic, and wrote me a wonderful thank-you email, complete with pictures of the bike, which she had personalized with her own special touches, and had given a name. she was so happy to have found a bike that had been the bike of the wife of a bike geek who is fanatical about the care and maintenance of his bike fleet. she knew the bike would need nothing and would be reliable for years to come. that transaction made me so happy.

55/Rad

I am a "flipper" - professional and full time. I buy whole and part everything out.

I've been doing it a year since I found myself out of work and still owing my ex a substantial amount of money and with a family to feed. Initially, I had to liquidate my personal collection and in doing so, I discovered I enjoyed the process....and the freedom. 25 years in advertising/marketing and photography certainly doesn't hurt.

Nowadays, I average 6-8 bikes a month. All roadies. Most are "bread and butter" Cannondales, Treks, Specialized, Lemonds - etc. Some are really cool and test my willingness to let go - like the early Lemond TSX Maillot Jaune with mint C-Rec components I let go last week.

I sell on Ebay and (mostly) let the buyers set the prices. This way, I don't feel guilty for what things sell for. For I am always fighting with my need to make money and my desire to help out fellow cyclists. Anybody who comes to my shop in person will always leave with far more than they came for as I have an abundance of things I don't normally sell - tires, chains, alu bars, seat posts, stems etc. - things that aren't worth putting through the "system".

My "system" is very detailed and professional and I offer a no-questions asked money back/satisfaction guarantee on every purchase. It is a ton of work to do it right - I average 60 hours a week. I'm not afraid of competition and actually go out of my way to help others do what I am doing. I offer consignment services as well.

Hardest part is sourcing bikes...naturally. But I find the chase to be a ton of fun. What is enjoyable is cleaning and restoring every single part, frame and wheel to its maximum potential. And taking photos. I don't buy bikes that need a ton of work - this is not profitable. But I am always on the lookout for restoration projects for my personal collection.

Most enjoyable is the freedom doing something I enjoy while I ponder the next phase of my life. And being around for my kids.

I'm not getting rich but I'm able to pay the bills and far more important - I am a much happier person.

jerry grant
55/Rad

Mr. Embrey

Don't you love the CL police?