Did you just miss a good deal on Craigslist? Are you still feeling salty about it? Post about it here!

I'll start things off with this 1985 Team Fuji in "Flamingo" pink ( https://www.classicfuji.com/1985_09_TeamFuji_Page.htm )



I fell of the no-visiting-craigslist bandwagon recently and I come back to find this: a fairly unmolested Team Fuji with newer tires for $100. I saw that it had been on the market in southern Minnesota for a long time, with a probable price drop more than a week ago. I thought that meant: green light. I was getting ready to drive 2 hours to pick it up only to hear they had sold it yesterday. Oh well- I hope someone gave it a good home. Even better if it was someone from the forums.

So, share your stories!

About 3yrs ago I missed a Cannondale Criterium Series for 75.00. Couldnt contact them soon enough.

The good ones usually pop up on Craigslist when I'm either out of town or at work doing a 24 hour shift. There's never anything good that is local. Everything is in Indianapolis 50 miles away. To many bike flippers in Indy to compete with. I just can't get there fast enough.

Pepto Pink Bruce Gordon a year or two ago on ebay, just my size.

A month ago, I had a Craigslist ad that had a classic Raleigh with a 12s Dura-Ace setup, asking $50! Of course someone beat me too it.

Two recent for me...

Several weeks back a Gunnar Cross Hairs with good spec came up for super cheap, cheap enough to make me think it might be a stolen bike. Sent email to poster and the bike was gone.

The good one is I flipped a Clist bike. Bought and sold on Clist and more than doubled my money by just doing a clean up on the bike.

I hear ya! Man, those Indy flippers are on top of it all the time. Then the bike is back on there for crazy high prices and sits on the CL for YEARS... For example, that Pink 15th anniversary Tommasini has been on there for at least two years. Tommasini 15th Anniversary Super Prestige

I'd own that but I'm not paying anywhere near two grand for it...

Then there was the Chrome Paramount that the lady had no idea what year or model or serial number it was, but she knew enough about them to be wanting $1000.00. She was a professional buyer and reseller of estate sales... She was a freak... Wouldn't tell me how to come and look at it! I have cash and she is too paranoid to let me come and look at it... How does that work? "I want to sell it but I'm not going to show it to you"..... ummmm?

I was just thinking about the 85 Schwinn Cimarron that I intentionally passed on.

Really cool bike with really cool parts... But I reasoned that it would be redundant with my High Sierra- and my touring bikes are more favoriter rides, that I wouldn't ride it.

I know the guy that has the Tommasini. He's also the one that has the black and gold Paramount. He's a really nice Italian gent. He has really nice bikes and spends a lot of time and money fixing the bike to get ready to sell. He does ask top dollar, and will leave them on there for years without lowering the price a dollar.

I couldn't show up to pick this $125 1985 Schwinn Tempo up early enough on a Saturday due to work. Sold. The disgust I felt was part of the reason I quit looking on CL for a while. My luck with 85's is awful. '87 is my lucky year

There is a flipper in my city that does the same thing, except the bikes are usually not that well done. He specializes in GIANT bikes, I mean this guy is consistently posting 69cm bikes, and he never drops the price a dime.

I missed a Fuji 'Black' Ace on our local CL a couple of years ago (you could say the Black Ace is one of my 'grail' bikes)... a flipper got it for $75, as half of a two-bike deal with an old Schwinn Varsity; according to the original seller, his email got there about 20 minutes before mine.

Two weeks later, that same bike was up there again... this time for about $500.

A little while back, there was a Bob Jackson at a local garage sale. Very good deal, but it would have involved not eating for the next week and a half, which wouldn't have gone over very well with the wifey...

Smallest Ironman Dave Scott I've ever seen in beautiful pink (before the colors went crazy in the late 80's) and a similarly-sized late 80's Schwinn Prologue updated with brifters. Both priced to move... which they did before I could decide to purchase them.

Fortunately the one that fit me did not get away this summer.

This. Don't care about price. I would've loved this in the stable.

That bike is beautiful.

1988 Bianchi Grizzly, $150, about 8 months ago at the thrift store. I waffled too long, and someone else nabbed it.

Probably a blue and yellow Team Fuji for $60-$75 in Kinnelon, NJ. But I did snag the Team Fuji below for $5 at a moving & storage company sale.

A Canopus a long time ago.

Colombian-made, Italian SLX steel, on which it was intended for generations to learn to race.

A what?? Man, this is dizzying trying to keep up with the Italian bikes.

An 80's specialized expedition. $100. I could not make it over immediately and someone offered him more money.
That was several years ago, I still think about it.

The posting was less than an hour old, and I still knew I had no chance with this Peugeot.



I do appreciate when sellers tell you it's gone rather than making you wonder.

I stopped by at an estate sale on a whim. Had a choice of a De Rosa track bike, Masi 3V with modern Campy, Fuso with Dura Ace, or Mercian "King of Mercia" with Nuovo Record. $600 each--not deal of the century, but good value for prized bikes and maybe I could have talked them into a package deal. All my size, and well-maintained. But I didn't have the extra cash at the time, so I walked away with only some colored pencils for a my daughter and an Elton John CD. "I guess that's why they call it the blues…"


Another time, I contacted a local CL seller about a beautiful red early 80s Cinelli Super Corsa with chrome lugs and Campy Super Record. $500. Didn't hear back. A few days later I noticed his reply email in my spam folder. I was the first to reply, but I missed missed my chance while the email languished in my spam folder.

Forget the flippers. I had a Cannondale dealer refer me to a shop that sells used bikes, and found a Trek 330 with Reynolds 531 tubing, lugged frame, 700cm wheels, Shimano 105 components. It is fully serviced, all bearings lubed and repacked, bottom bracket serviced, new tires, new cables, all decals in place, paint near perfect on the frame, and no defects. Their price is $485.00 out the door. And I may save up and pay that much if it means it won't nickle and dime me to death in the near future. It may very well beat that Voyageur 11.8 I looked at on Craigslist for $75.00 that needed the new tires, wheels, and cassette.

Here's what I learned so far from owning bicycles recently: A bike is like a horse. Cheap to buy, but expensive to own.