I thought it would be fun to compare notes on different cities.

Here's my rough estimate of the Columbus, Ohio craigslist bike market:

90% crap--tons of chain store mountain and kids bikes ranging from the awful to the hideous and unsafe (gotta love those stamped steel single pivot sidepulls). Prices from $10-$75.

10% decent bikes. Of that, about half are contemporary, with sellers aiming to recoup half or two thirds of what they spent, with the remaining 5% of the total being decent vintage bikes.

Of the 5% decent vintage bikes, probably three-quarters are 1980s vintage lightweights made in Japan or Taiwan--Schwinns, Fujis, Panasonics, etc. The vast majority of these are low to mid-range. The asking price ranges from $40 to $250.

The remaining portion is a smattering of everything else: British 3-speeds, Chicago Schwinn Varsities, Suburbans, Collegiates, low to mid range 70s European bikes with lots of Ralieghs, some Peugeot, Gitane, etc. Asking prices for this whole group range from about $25 to $250.

Not sure how to figure it in, but there's always 2-3 hipster single speeds posted. I feel they're generally way overpriced. Someone takes a beat up old Raleigh Gran Prix and sticks colored rim wheels on it and wants hundreds of dollars.

In terms of true high-end vintage lightweights from the 1960s to 1980s, bikes with high end components and tubing from respected brands, I'm thinking .1% or less of what gets offered in Columbus. Prices range from $150 to over $1000.

Other observations. We have several dedicated bike flippers in the area. One is particularly prevalent--he's retired and makes extra money, and has a half dozen posted at any given time. I've referred friends and co-workers to him and he's always given them a fair deal.

Also, scant few here have any idea how to measure the size of a bike. A majority seem to pick a number at random, who knows whether they're talking about the frame or the wheels.

Lastly, unlike some of your communities, central Ohio is not a hotbed of vintage lightweight bicycle enthusiasts. Very little interest in the local cycling community.

All I know is, as long as CL has been around you would think they would be able to refine their search options.

Minneapolis/St.Paul

Mostly populated with guys posting the same overpriced crap every day and usually multiple times a day, apparently flagging means nothing because it just goes on and on and on.

Some Wal-mart junk, the occasional really nice bike at a fair price and very rarely a few real bargains.

I don't get it, we're well past prime biking season here and there are still over 100 posts a day and it seems that they all still want full prime season prices for their bikes, it's just insane.

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Kansas City: mostly crap with occasional glimmers of nice stuff. I got my Paramount on the local CL, but I paid for it too.

Massive # of flippers here (knock off dirt-leave the rust) at ridiculous prices. Drives up the price of anything decent. Lately there have been $1500 bikes being advertised-(and not just one)-so I guess businesses are getting in on cl. One flipper has hundreds of postings/too many to even flag. I'd call that a business as well. No more deals to feed the hobby here in okc

chicago has been crappy lately. i just look for fun and most of the stuff has been so boring that i dont look as much.

Seattle - high volume and overpriced. Hard to find cheap stuff, but easy to sell stuff and come out with profit.

People have an appreciation for steel here. An equal amount of people want "fast bikes" and "lifestyle bikes".

A decent condition CV DT shifter bike will hover around $300.

Lots of people are disillusioned about the worth of their bikes. Lots of BSOs and old barnyard junk.

Lots of people constantly checking CL. If you don't get it within 5 minutes, you have lost it.

But I still love Seattle and its CL.

I'd add that a majority of the folks who sell the few high-end vintage that shoe up here know they have something valuable, and I surmise they're giving CL a shot before heading off to fleabay. But once in a while, maybe every 2-3 months, I get tempted by a good bike someone is simply unloading at a low price to get rid of it. Of course, most of these are not my size. Thqat doesn't stop me from checking it daily, hoping to win the lottery, so to speak.

I've acquired the following from CS the past year:

Bob Jackson Super Tourist--$950, which I consider a fair price, especially considering a local deal avoids the added cost of shipping.

Two RB-2s, both in excellent condition, one for $250, which I consider fair, and one for $150, which I consider a bargain.

Raleigh Gran Prix--rough but complete, including some nice steel fenders-$35.

Gitane Gran Sport mixte, excellent condition and complete-$25.

Also traded away my too-small DL-1 for a Lotus Eclair.

Mostly all overpriced junk. Once in a great while something decent will come along but that is not often.

About what everybody else said. Some nice bikes come up from time to time, almost all overpriced - and lots of crap, too, and a number of flippers. NY Craigslist is kind of a Rorschach test of what NYC hipsters are into; a few years back it was DJ equipment, at any given time there were 4 or 5 Technics 1200 turntables posted as the trust fund babies realized DJ-ing wasn't their calling in life. Now it's fixies, and as Mercian Rider noted, a fair number of decent old bikes subjected to conversions and being offered for what seems like exorbitant amounts of money. I did score my Grand Jubilee on CL for a reasonable price, but most of the C&V bikes I see on NY CL are low/mid range. I still look every day, though...

I just spent some time searching across the country. Seems like the folks in Austin TX were offering up some pretty good stuff cheap (although I was looking at only one brand).

Boston is a hodgepodge...I scored a very clean Raleigh Pro a couple of years ago, am working on another great flip opportunity right now, if only the seller would get back to me. <g>.

Lee

I'm also in Ohio and I agree with you. I'm always looking at Craigslist, hoping there will be something decent, but that's almost never the case. All I want are some quality vintage bikes at reasonable prices. I rarely find them at ANY price around here. Sometimes I'll look at other city's Craigslists but that just makes me depressed. I'm so envious of all the bikes people post on this forum.

I only ever search for "Lotus" under the bicycles category and I use SearchTempest so I can check all over the country. Not only do I search for bikes but I look for people with interesting bikes that I can contact for information or photos. So far writing a note and asking questions about the bike hasn't pissed anyone off that I know of, and one out of ten people actually respond with some useful information or photos.

I've purchased three bikes off of craigslist that had to be shipped, all the bikes were expensive but they were all what I would consider "rare" models that I haven't seen up until then or since. So far all of the transactions have gone well.

The local scene is mostly over-priced common models and anything good that shows up under-priced is usually gone quickly. 50% of the time the same bike shows up a few days or weeks later at an inflated price. I don't mind stepping up and paying market value for the right bike, so I often get a shot at those bikes ($200.00 and up). If the $300.00 bike lists at $300.00 it sits forever, if it lists at $200.00 it may go in a week or so and if it lists at $95.00 the flippers are on it like vultures in minutes. I'd almost prefer the $200.00 level over the $95.00 level so at least I get a chance to buy them.

It's kind of funny, but anytime I see a sudden spike in views on any model page of the website I almost always find that particular model has recently listed on eBay or craigslist. The wonders of the internet . . . .

Chock full of ladies willing to do all manner of nasty things just for roses. I might need to put some more rose plants in next spring. ummm you meant the bike section didn't you..

The Seattle description pretty much cover the San Diego market. Occasionally good deals pop up but you need to hustle if you want to grab them.

you can do complex search queries at least.. search for: univega | nishiki | centurion | bridgestone | miyata

Oh wow, advanced search

I wish they had prefix searching like eBay, e.g. camp* for campy/campagnolo/etc

So if I post my Lotus up I'll expect to hear from you. Put "bikeforums" in for a better reply.

The local Milwaukee WI site has been variable, but mostly down. And with CL now having the repost option I'm seeing it used a lot. Offerings seem to be all over the place, high priced junk, low priced gems, fair priced nice/decent stuff, lots of good deals if you have the funds handy and can move quick - and if you can get the seller to reply to you. I've been in purge mode for several months now and from my angle the local market is in the ditch for the most part. If this is a sign of the economy then it's no wonder I'm having trouble finding a job.

DETROIT:

Many bikes are posted daily, but 50 percent or more are children's/BMX bikes.

The rest are MTB's of every description, along with various cruiser and comfort bikes, and over-priced DKO-flipper bikes (many with the dirt still on them).

...Did I leave anything out?
Oh YEAH!
C&V road bikes!

Less than 2%.

Many days can elapse with nothing worthwhile, and then a few "reasonably" priced deals may pop up.

Actual flip prices are rare of late, but they still happen, and every once in a while - there is still that one killer deal.

Southwest Virginia: not much to speak of. Sooooo, I watch other ones.
Roanoke, VA: The occasional nice bike. The nice ones are usually mid-higher end road bikes. 2 or 3 per month
Blacksburg, VA: Former students bikes. They run the full length of what one can find. 1 or 2 good mountain bikes per month. 1 or 2 good road bikes per month.
Winston-Salem NC: Full range. Occasional nice bikes, lots of over-priced 'RARE SWINNN CONTINENTALS!'. Larger population = more bikes.
Tri-Cities, TN: the occasional decent MTN bike or Road Bike. 1 per month maybe.
Asheville, NC: Near the mtn bike Mecca for the mid atlantic. Lots of good mountain bikes. Thrifty Bill probably snags all the good road bikes before I see them listed. I see some of his bikes on there occasionally.

SF Bay area.. the prices get out of hand constantly but there's ALWAYS a huge variety of beautiful bikes, tons of good steals daily, and of course the flood of other bikes.

Cape Cod is so bad I don't even consider it my CL section. I go for Boston, South Shore. Every time. Boston rulez.

For 90s MTBs : AMAZING! All kindsa goodies for $50.

For Road bikes : generally pretty pricey. Must be tough to flip roadies off CL in this town.

The only road bike ads that last for more than a couple of hours are the $400 Centurions, $125 Varsinentals, etc.

Occasionally something almost reasonably priced (like this $100 Diamond Back that's sat outside for a long time) sticks around for a couple of days.



This nice lugged Bianchi has been sitting up for like 3 weeks @ $40 OBO. Apparently some front brake issues, but still...

That pretty much descibes Chicago in a nutshell. The only things I would add to that are repeat posters with ads sometimes running a few times a week in excess of a year. Chicago CL is very competitive, good deals don't linger very long.

I'm between DC and Baltimore. DC has a lot of expensive and nice recent road bikes. The market seems pretty full of knowledgeable buyers and sellers. You do occasionally see a cheap classic in northern VA, but that's generally too far for me to get there in time.

Baltimore has mostly crap, but when there is something good, it often is priced low, and/or described poorly. I've gotten quite a few great $20 bikes by responding to ads that just say "Bike $20, must go", with no pic. If a classic is listed by someone who knows what it is, it is still reasonably priced. I got an all original '72 SuperCourse for $130, and a couple pairs of vintage Campy wheelsets and RD for $50 (from a guy who sold the two Paramounts they came off of to a fixie-fixated young man for $150) Just missed that one - at least I got the wheels.

I also check Philly CL and am astounded just by the volume of ads.

And for the multi-listing search tools (I use crazedlist), don't forget to search for "Raliegh". Many many people can't spell.

I just noticed I botched that in the OP!

At least I got it right the second time.