Yesterday, I loaded up 20 or so bikes plus a bunch of spare wheels and parts into my dad's old beat up F250 and delivered them to a flipper outside of Boston. My parents will be happy to have a stall in their barn emptied out and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders by getting rid of them.

I could have sold most of them in the $80 - $175 range on craigslist with minimal effort / parts but I just don't have the desire, time or space to work on low end bikes any longer. Most of the bikes shown were picked up at flea markets and yard sales or given to me over the last few years. I still have 10 or so bikes left, but they were the real turds and will be heading to the scrap yard.

I will still buy and sell stuff, I'm sure. But now only upper mid level to high end and in my size (unless it's too good to pass up). My life has gotten busy and I since I have limited free time, I would rather spend it riding / wrenching / upgrading my own bikes.

Life is too short to ride, or wok on, bikes like that. Flipping that kind of thing is work to me, I hate the bikes, I can't really speak well of them, or sell them effectively and I don't do this for a living. I flip the occassional bike, ALWAYS high end, and sell from my existing fleet when I HAVE to have something. Good decision!

There is negative margin on low-end bikes after you buy all the parts you need to rehab them - and low-end bikes take just as much effort to sell as the better ones (and oftimes more).

Rehabbing better bikes is more fun, so flipping is a way to have more fun - That is, IF you can find good flip fodder at (at least) a guaranteed break-even price.

I'll be doing the same some time soon. I collected low end bikes because I can see the possibilities but I can't see the amount of time required. Lessons learned.

Did the same couple years ago. Life's too short.

It's tough flipping low-end anything, there is always the same or more work required, and the margin isn't there to justify it.

-Used to flip houses

lat year i flipped over 2000 worth of bikes, prices ranged from 25-300.

some of the cheap bikes I just listed locally for 35 B.I.N. and some chaps just need transport.
yea this is finland and we are filled with bikes.
everybody rides and they are everywhere.

point made is if a cheap bike is at least roadworthy with rust then sell it on the cheap as is.
some people just need transport cheap!

I recall when i was stateside last we were given a el-cheapo 20" from the neighbor.
the chrome bars were so badly chromed they were solid orange with rust-yes the usa cheapos are just that.

+1

Had my wife's nice Centurion Lemans RS listed on CL and what a joke.

I heard more scams in 24 hours, than I had heard in the previous five years put together.

I pulled the ad, as I couldn't deal with it.

The Centurion is still sitting there, looking all nice and pretty.

I've learned that lesson and I guess am learning it incrementally. For years I have flipped anything I can put a tag on and it seems that the hardest ones to sell are the ones that are the 'nicest'(most expensive). The fine line is selling the as-is or making it a little better. Since my current income job is working in a recondition/service facility for fitnesss equipment and it has been educational in what the fine line between as is and good enough can be, rather than making sweet perfection.

There is also a distinction between the hobby side and making a profit. In my landscape/mowing hobby I make a profit since the work using the restored tractors(a pricey hobby too) yeilds almost $25-30 per hour of labor worked. Bikes on the other hand barely yield anything per hour but they can be done in the living room while watching tv, compared to sweating and being dirty. For that reason I call bikes a hobby that can recover costs, not a profit.

Same here...I 'retired' from low end awhile back.

I actually called it a profitable hobby for a while, but stopped updating my spreadsheet when I started buying carbon and ti frames and converting my bikes all to 10 speed Campy Record/Chorus....

That's where I'm at. The bikes I get are usually low end but I'm looking at buyers who are looking for a "low end cheap get me around" sort of bike that might see maybe 20 miles a season.

As mtbikerinpa mentioned, as long as you look at as a hobby and not a business and work it around when you can, it works out well. I'll polish a wheel or fender while my wife or kids are doing things in the house. Then the only time I need to do "bike" work is reassembly and tuning.

I'm finding a lot of people like bicycles but hate to work on them. Stock pile enough good used parts and you can pretty much fix anything cheap.

I'm still in it at the $150-$200 level. Acquiring bikes to refurbish is getting harder & harder. If I can't make $100, I don't do it. The last bike I sold was a Micargi cruiser that someone had thrown away by my dumpster. Made $55 on it, but cut every corner possible. Basically replaced tires, greased the bearings, and sprayed it with a quick flat black rattlecan job complete with drips. What a crappy roach, sold to a guy who's going to ride it a few time and leave it at a bar. It's what the bike deserves. Crap on wheels.

I love good 10 speeds, hybrids, and mid-level mountain bikes. Some folk appreciate good solid transport. Sold a Centurion Lemans last summer that I really liked, just a bit too small.

The problem with dealing with people like this though, is that they have no appreciation for quality bikes like we do.
I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to try and stoop to that level.

Dealing with flaky, rude, ignorant and downright annoying craigslist buyers was also a big part of why I stopped selling. Don't get me wrong, I had dozens of smooth transactions and met some great people...but it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the bushel (or something like that).

If, and only if, you live near a major city or college town, the flips are consistent profit.

Figure an hour per bike "finding", plus 3-4 hrs "wrenching", with parts (cables, tires, bar tape and hard parts) supplied mostly from bikeshop dumpsters, and all the 20-70 dollar buys can be sold readily for 125-275 dollars.

That's a living wage in my book.

And, if you do bike repair on the side, people will sometimes bring you bikes, mostly for free, and some may even provide indoor storage of "overstock", if in less-than-ideal conditions, for cheapies and "carcasses".

well I see it as a hobby business, I flip bikes to make money to buy the nice bikes and parts for myself.

Plus you cant wrench your own bikes all the time- I wrench a flipper to get it out of the yard- its like cleaning in a way!
sometimes I enjoy it.
I got a nice girls red bike w 7 nexus IGH-I painted the fenders to match and know it will very pretty when done and get a good bid.
then there are the Alloy MTB's
and boy I got some cleaning to do....(God I hate MTB's-always broken)

I learned my lesson quick about flipping cheaper bikes

I bought five, they were pretty rough, as in I wouldn't even touch them now, and I was only able to make 4 of them ridable. They sold pretty easy, since I didn't get really ambitious on my prices, but jeez. after all the rust removal and re-greasing, I didn't want to touch a bike for a while.

I still do buy underpriced bikes, but it is mainly so I can ride them for a bit and see how I like them, then eventually sell them... or keep them. Trying to keep that last part in check.

I'm getting so I'd rather ride than wrench . Of course, I've flipped my way to a Giant Cypress, a 85 Scwinn Passage Tourer , and a Bob Jackson Reynolds 753 frame I'm building up with some French stuff for now . I would never have gotten to this without mid level flipping , but now it's time to move up. CL and eBay are just too much to deal with for the profitlevels out there.

The fixed cost to rahab any low-end bike is the same as any keeper, assuming you buy better tires. (IME, the quality of the new cheap tires has eroded so badly that they are not safe.)
Add new ss Cables, housings, brake pads, bearings, rim tape, chain & FW, bar-tape, S&H and (usually) a "new" eBay saddle to replace that buggered-up original or (worse) gel "seat", and you're over $120 into a $120 bike that you may have difficulty selling.

Start with a good mid-level bike like a Trek 600 or Fuji TS., and you can make $100 clear profit ( provided your initial purchase price was $100 or less). The only problem is that it is hard to snag those sub-$100 projects around here these days.

I still flip a few but not many. There is a college town near e, & bikes sell well. BUT, I have a harder time finding something I can make anything on. People are asking $100+ for Schwinn Varsities, etc., that are in need of a lot of repair.

I'm thinking its harder to snag sub 100.00 project bikes anywhere these days , Auchen .

Flipping low end bikes is too time consuming and low profit margin, along with storage space which must be considered as overhead. I like the mid to upper range road bikes classic or modern in my size so I can ride and sell with personal experience when selling to someone.

I was in the same boat a few years back. I had "amassed" a total of 8 bikes. I found it was a lot easier to aquire bikes than find the time and desire to flip them. I took me about 6 weeks of spare time to get rid of everything. Not including my time, I spent 375 on the bikes and sold everyting for $1850. It was a nice chunk of change, but also too time consuming. I too felt a great sense of relief when everything was cleared out.

Flipping anything is a lot of work. These days, I'll only mess with mid-range or better bikes that are attractively priced and in good condition.

I guess it depends on your local market. I see a few bikes in that pile that would go for MUCH more than that in my local area and wouldn't call them "low-end bikes."

Then again I've sort of made a reputation around here for solid restorations and can get a bit more for my bikes than others selling the same exact bike might be able to.

That said, I've begun to transition more towards working on bikes that customers bring in rather than selling -although I still will source bikes for those who are looking for something special. The "Lady Sports" is quite popular around here and can go for a pretty penny when shined up and made into a reliable runner. Again, it wasn't a "low-end" bike when it was new and today is still every bit as reliable as an everyday commuter as it was 40 years ago.