I found this video entertaining.
maybe some off you have seen it but I thought I'd share for those who haven't.

https://youtu.be/G5GcaV7aOj8

Some really great advice in this video. Now I know to buy $20 Stumpjumpers!

In my market, his estimates of potential sale price were way out of line on the plus side. Consider that he is in hipster city (mid south US) and that could lend some credence to his claims.

he chopped up the timberline and quoted a $1,000-$2,000 price. that alone is a sign that he has no knowledge on prices.

I couldn't get past his first Schwinn Collegiate.

1. Good luck finding those consistently at $25.
2. No - all cleaned up it's probably not going to sell for 150-200, at least not quickly.
3. The amount of time to turn a thrift store find into a top dollar flip is considerable. Granted, his time might not be worth as much as many of us, but it's still a lot of time for $125 (at his numbers).
4. He didn't mention materials cost, let alone storage and taxes.

So let's walk through this:

Time to find bike.
Gas and car wear/tear to find/transport bike.
Storage for $175 bike
Time prepping bike for sale
Time photo'ing bike
Time writing ad.
Time meeting customers and waiting for them to test ride it.

Have fun "hustler".

My take on this is that ASSUMING you can find something worth finding for $25-50, you probably need to put an additional $20-40 in consumables into it, and a minimum of a couple hours of cleanup and tuneup work, plus another hour or more on the sales side to have something that you MIGHT be able to sell for $150-200. That's quite a bit of labor and risk to MAYBE make $70-100.

A more realistic way to approach flipping would be to skip all the low end stuff, and find GOOD stuff that might be under-valued at $100-200 because it's old, but properly tuned and marketed to knowledgeable buyers, might command $300-400.

The cheap finds he's talking about are better served as gifts to kids or donations to less fortunate folks who really need a bike for basic transportation. That way, you'll get a lot more out of it in Karma and or good feelings about yourself than you ever really could in profit. Or maybe keep one of them for yourself to use as a bad weather/high crime zone bike.

The only way to make real money with that level of bike is bulk purchasing of the bikes and bulk purchasing of the supplies. You're just not going to "hustle" with the margins and time commitments at this price.

......crap. Earlier this year I sold a near mint continental, new tires, all bearings serviced, new pads, etc. and couldn't get more than $95. All things considered including purchase price and supplies I made about zilch. He sounds like many of the people I come across when trying to buy a bike......you know the type. "Hey, this bikes worth a fortune if you fix it up." Of course my reply is always, "Why don't you fix it up then?" One person actually told me it would cost too much!

There is no money in flipping low end bikes. There used to be, but no more. Even in a college town, at least one with a Walmart.

I don't think this guy does much fixing. a quick cosmetic cleaning and he's done. I doubt he gets into the hubs and bottom bracket.

some sellers on craigslist seem to think original cables and housing add to the price.

PT Barnum school of thought.

what's his motivation on making such an uninformed and boring youtube video?

he calls himself bonafide hustler. he teaches people how to make money from items acquired at thrift stores, swapmeets, garage sales, etc. he has a few videos on bikes.

He claims to know vintage bikes like the Collegiate, but has no clue about the actual year....
Based on the shifter, I'd bet that Collegiate is 64-66 era, not 70's...