Answering this question only forces you to then justify your asking price.

Too much!

I have used that or said that I bought it as part of a collection.

When someone asks me what I paid for a bike, I typically tell them that I paid what it was worth. Most of my flip bikes need considerable work and cleaning. I then tell them that they are paying for the work that I did to the bike after I bought it. To restore a flip bike would cost much more if they took it to a bike shop. I sometimes tell them that I'm selling it for $100 over my cost. For my labor, I need to make a $100 a bike over my cost to make it beneficial.

"What did YOU pay for it?"

"I shanked a guy down on the corner of Cherry and Galena. Got $3 and this bike. What you got on you?"

When I get asked that question, I always say I got it free. Then they ask "what will you really take for it?"
I always say "I won't take anything, but I'll probably exchange (my asking price) for it, that's sort of how it works."

Generally, it takes, the buyer kind of laughs, and we get on with it.

Cherry & Galena run parallel - Geez you suburban guys : )

+1, Been there, done that. Made it clear, the bike is for sale, take it or leave it.

Good answers. I learned a few good ones.

I have told people that I located it, purchased it at some risk, transported it, stored it, worked on it, am taking the time to show it to you and wouldn't do any of this unless I expected to make an appropriate amount of money.

That kind of dispels the hope that I am unlikely to know what it might be worth.

I had a woman recently say "it looks kind of old and I think you're charging too much". She left in a hurry without making an offer, but there was something very strange about this person and I'm glad there was no sale. The bike was actually in un-ridden new condition and had an also-mint Manitou4 fork on it, I was asking $275, and iir I payed $80 several years ago at a garage sale. I may sell the fork separately and let the bike go for $200 with a more-common fork.

I don't mind answering those types of questions but not in the first moments of a potential transaction.

I listed a piece of industrial machinery that weighs 3000 lbs and is about the size of a car. A guy sends me a email saying " I don't want to waste my time or yours, I will show up with money and a truck, so whats the bottom line?"

"the asking price is still $1200"

No questions about capacity, power requirements or it's condition and ya, a truck and money would be a requirement.

Usually I tell them that I bought it to ride but then I found something better, so now it's surplus. Or, I though my son, wife or daughter might have liked it but they didn't so I need to get rid of it. In my case, these are truthful answers, since I'm usually overly optimistic about how much I will like my thrift store or garage sale finds.

No one wants anyone else to make money.

Been that way since cavemen built fixies.

Especially now with the internet it is easy to check prices and see what everyone else claims to have paid for something. Even if it brings them the most joy in the world, if they overpaid by $1, they will fell they were taken.

You want to tell them you paid more for the bike than what you are selling it for. And you added parts and cables and tires. "I'm into this bike for at least $400, but I rode it a few times, and I really have to get rid of it to make room for a snowblower, so I'm selling it for $125". Buyer thinks he's getting a deal that way.

What I don't understand is why some people volunteer information and tell me what they paid. This has happened to me twice now in very recent transactions. I had agreed to buy the bike a fair price and when I went to pick it up the seller(s) come out with something like, "yeah, I picked that up at a yard sale for $75.00, in that condition."

I guess that would be okay if I was paying $100.00 for the bike, but if I'm paying $350.00 I'd really rather not know. What point are they trying to make . . . sheesh.

I think you are generally right, but value minded people don't mind paying the price if you earn it. In the Detroit area, most flippers have no mechanical skills. For most of them, "restored" means powerwashing the bike. Resentment sets in when flippers mark up the bike without having done any real work. In my craigslist postings, I give a limited description on the bike, but I give big pictures from multiple angles. People see the work I've done, and most consider it a bargain as compared to all the other overpriced garbage on Craigslist. Also, salemanship is an important ability that is greatly needed to make the sale. How a person responds to the question "How much did you pay?" will make or break the deal. Honest questions never offend me, and honest answers build trust.

On a related thought, I don't mind buying bikes from flippers even if they have done very little to the bike. A good deal is a good deal whether or not they did any work. I consider the difference a finders fee. After I pay for the bike, I like to ask flippers what they paid for the bike. Most answer honestly. Often their margin is not that great.

The whole point of selling things and making it worthwhile is buying them for a low price. The buyers who want to know this feel bad because they're too lazy to do the research, searching, showing up at yard sales and flea markets at 5-6 am, etc etc.. Then once they found said bike, they would have to pay $300+ at a bike shop to get everything done and make it completely functional. They think they deserve a lower price because you can actually save money working on it yourself.,,,,BD

It was well known around the bike shop I work at, that I got my Fuji Ace for ONE dollar, and I was still able to get $300 for it. Weird!

thing is, when I hear that (bought for $400, selling for $125....which I have heard with all sorts of stuff...even at used car lots) I think "what an idiot...did he really do that or does he really think I'm dumb enough to believe it"...but who knows. and FWIW, i'm fine with you making a profit on saving a bike from a wasteland of being left out in the rain or just trashed

If someone asks that I look at them in Shock and say "how much money is in your bank?" "what business they own?" and "how much money is on your person?" Rude questions quid pro quo that usually stops the interaction. If they were conversational and nice I usually ask them how much they paid for either their watch shoes or car if I can see it then I tell them I would have paid a lot more for such a nice watch shoes car....
If that doesn't work I ask them for their business license and their ein number for tax purposes... at that point I am hoping they go away. The art of the deal is get them to have emotional response to the bicycle if they are not excited about it I wont sell it anyway I can wait til someone really either needs the bike or they really want the bike when the emotion goes out of the deal as a seller I wont let them have it...

Then there is the I can get it on ebay remark I usually say and I notice your not on ebay today

Google "cherry and galena"


It just makes it funnier knowing THEY knew...

A friend of mine has a fantastic cottage on a lake an hour's drive north of Toronto that sits on land that is well worth a million dollars and her grandfather won it in a poker game back in the '40s.

"I won it in a poker game" is my go-to answer for pretty much any question regarding prices I have paid, and that is not limited to bicycles.

Why are you guys so afraid to give them an honest answer? Are you ripping them off?

^ It's not that people are ripping other people off (in most cases), it's that a lot of us spend considerable amount of time looking for bargains. All the time spent chasing CL deals and driving miles to pointless garage sales instead of spending time with friends or family--not to mention the actual wrenching/cleaning/tuning/polishing time, and hidden costs (lube, polish, wire brushes, etc.)--is worth something. Most buyers won't care that you spent 10 hours chasing a deal in order to save $100 in your purchase price, but that's part of what they are buying.

I was taught that it is rude. Just as it would be for me to ask a co-worker how much their shirt cost.