auchencrow

I was wondering when someone would pick up on that, Wulf!


Where have all the good bikes gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the good bikes gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the good bikes gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?



(^ Bike pic by rootboy)

wrk101

Step 1: Be agnostic on size. The profits from bikes that don't fit can allow you to pay full price on a bike that does fit. My finds would be cut by at least 90% if I limited myself to just my size, and 99% if I limited myself to just keepers (as your fleet is upgraded, it gets even harder to find a deal on a bike that is "better" than what you already own).

Step 2: Ads with the least amount of information tend to be the best deals. Get in the car and drive, while others are quizzing the lazy seller for more information.

Step 3: Look past C/L and ebay, everyone is looking there.

Step 4: Treat every road trip (by car) to be a bike buying trip as well. It has been years since I didn't bring back at least one or two bikes from a road trip.

Step 5: While I have seen a marked increase in the price of entry level bikes (even the department store junk), I have not seen much of an increase in the higher end stuff. Most of the scoopers around here are the DKO variety, they are looking for something really cheap ($50 or less) that they can quickly flip for a $25 to $50 profit.

Step 6: Read Randy's guide below, lots of good ideas there.

auchencrow

It's like Thrifty Bill says - If you really want to score, you need to adjust your M.O.
E.g., Some guys have had good luck at estate sales.

PS- Do you think it's too tacky to pop-in on funeral homes to ask the widow if she has any bikes to sell?

WMcCready

-wolf , Put more cops on the beat. Have friends and, family members be on the look out on your behalf.

randyjawa 

You have to work at it. This is How To Find Vintage Bikes.

That does not mean they are gone. They are still in play. The ones that went to The Dump are gone. The ones still tucked away are the ones we have to get off of our butts and go find. If you wait for them to show up on some "click and hope for the best hunting ground", expect keen competition and high prices.

Going out and actually hunting, instead of clicking, really does work. But it does take work. Take a single day, deliver a couple of hundred Flyers, and see what happens.

retyred

No, not at all. While you're there open up the deceased's mouth and check for gold fillings.

noglider 

You mean what are we going to blow, I mean use, our time and money on? Maybe we'll follow in the footsteps of my colleague who has been building himself old-fashioned personal-size steamboats, all by hand.

https://aldunlop.com/

Italuminium

Excellent plan. But seriously, high on my list are :

-get an old machinist' shop set up from the 1600-1800 era and recreate all kinds of cool brass astrolabes, planetaria and quadrants. I worked in a museum for those once and got hooked. I love shiny brass.
-Boat. My significant other loves sailing and I like wrenching. Getting us a boat will probably save us both from these horrible hobbies.
-Search for the perpetuum mobile. Impossible is nothing.

Flying Merkel

I am known as the wierd guy who works on bikes. This afternoon I was handed a KHS Montana MTB. It's crap, but it's crap that'll bring $80-$100 after a set of tires. The guy runs a security patrol He comes across all kinds of bikes that get left behind in moves. I can handle turning bikes making a $60 profit.

shoota 

We seem to be doing ok over here.
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/bik/3573439688.html
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/bik/3547037954.html
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/bik/3573858325.html

Or are all those too overpriced?

auchencrow

Well no, the one-dollar Rossin is a smokin' hot deal !

shoota 

Haha! Guess I should jump on that!
(Too bad it says $525 at the bottom of the ad)

fiataccompli

like anything, the larger mass is going to move from one location or market to another. I'd expect there'd be a point when for the most part if you are interested in buying the kind of bikes we like/own/etc. your only viable choice will be to buy one of ours (in a general, general sense).

3alarmer 

This is exactly the sort of no nonsense, visionary approach that is gonna net
some guy a gold mine when I croak. My wife has already told me she wants
to park in the garage, and they're all going at 50 bucks a pop to the first guy
that says he wants them....................

auchencrow

CrankyFranky

Aside from the attrition to the scrap yard (already mentioned), #5 has got to be a biggie. Heck, I don't consider myself a collector, (maybe more of an ordinary accumulator - haven't bought a bike in a decade) yet I have two nice butted steel road bikes, two English three speeds, an English small wheel IGH folder, and a steel hybrid bike. Sometimes, three of these bikes are in use at once when the family sets out together.

But many others that caught the n+1 virus have lots more than this, and they maybe processed hundreds of bikes to part out or flip to arrive at their current stable - which often numbers 20 or more. This surely comprises a very large number of the best bikes... and the virus is contagious...
So it's really not a huge wonder to me.

redneckwes

I console myself with the fact that I do rotate through them pretty aggressively and 5 or 6 of them will be in service over a season. My brother also rides, and rides them same frame size as I do, so I maintain a bike for him.

But there are also 5-6 bikes that are too rare, difficult to find parts for or simply too fragile for regular use.

Savagewolf

Interesting......on a completely unrelated note, can I have your wife's phone number? Also, might I suggest smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day and maybe more fast food in your diet?

3alarmer 

Don't worry........I've gone out of my way to live a dissolute lifestyle. But you're on your own in figuring out when I kick the bucket.

DavidW56

Auchen, I think the pivotal word in your question is "good", as in what is the definition of a "good" bike? I check the same Craigslist postings that you do, and I have to admit I have noticed fewer low-priced gems and more high-priced low-end items. But I don't believe I have ever seen one of the bikes you named for sale in the three or four years I've been looking.

I guess if the entry-level Schwinns and their counterparts, for example, are not "good" bikes, then, yes, I'd agree there aren't many better bikes to choose from on CL; but then, I can't say there ever were many of the high-end bargain priced bikes to begin with.

Last weekend, I bought a Schwinn Continental II for $35 from a buyer of storage lockers; he had originally advertised it for $75, then $50. I bought it mainly because I wanted the leather toolbag that was hanging from the saddle. Once I got it home, I immediately cleaned and treated that toolbag and put it on my wife's Raleigh Sports to replace, at long last, the one that disappeared on a trip to Grand Haven.

I felt this was a bargain because I wanted the toolbag, which can be hard to find on CL or at yard sales, but there are plenty of overpriced ones on eBay. So it's like I paid the market price for the toolbag, with a bike attached to it for free.

And, despite the prevailing opinion here on C&V, I like flipping Varsitys and Continentals. They are affordable. It's very rare anyone buys a bike from me that is priced much more than $100, and I know most flippers here won't touch a bike that doesn't bring that much in profit.

The price of C&V bikes may be going up, but every buyer I see is expecting a bargain for an old bike. My latest sale was a 1982 LeTour for $150, and that is the high end for me.

Chrome Molly

I just hope you didn't sweet talk your way in front of me on the waiting list...

gomango

No worries!

Made my decision though mid week.

Waiting list is growing and his work is only improving.

If I wait, his list could go up quite a bit.

I'll need a fair amount of time to come up with the cash anyway.

...and this means a further downward adjustment in the size of the stable.

big chainring 

I haven't noticed a drop off of bikes. In fact in the last month or two I have bought and sold more bikes than in the summer months. I work less in the winter months so I have more time to look for bikes. There are about a dozen bikes on CL right now that I would like to buy. Just don't have the cash at the moment. But in the Chicago area there are always tons of bikes available.

Talking about bikes that get scrapped for metal. While sitting at my computer just now a metal scrapper came down the alley. 8 am on Sunday morning. Bike frame sticking out the top of the truck.

DavidW56

P.S. I have about forty bikes in my possession to be flipped, but again, they may not be what you term "good bikes". Just old.

Poguemahone

The good ones have never been all that common. It's the run of this mill bike boom and later Japanese stuff that eludes people now. There used to be a lot of that, and it is no longer common. If anything, I find more high end vintage stuff than I did years back. Of course, I now have a network of folks who call me about stuff like that I did not have 20 years ago.

I'm getting pickier, and every year I re-assess my place in this hobby. I usually finish my re-assesment sometime after the Westminster swap meet. Last year, I decided I wanted to play around with the Peugeot PE41 I had just pulled out of the basement, and respray the Viner, in addition to building the Lightspeed and Vitus I picked up for under 400 total at westminster. All done. I haven't bought a bike for myself since then, just a handfull of flippers and a Merckx with c-record. This year I think I'm trending towards selling four or five bikes and buying one really nice American custom, or an early euro cyclo cross bike. I'm in no hurry, and the market seems fine overall. Neither thing I'm hunting for is particularly common, or ever was, for that matter.

Figure out where you sit in this hobby and what you want to do. You can control those things. The larger market for vintage bikes is completely beyond your control.