This post is not selling anything, just asking for advice.

My bike riding buddy of 35 years recently passed away. He lived alone, but I offered to assist his family with whatever they need, including selling off his bike stuff. They'll probably have their hands full with other property and legal matters.

He has some good stuff - two custom frame bikes, more nice bikes, bike gear, bike tools. Nobody else in his family is a rider and they'd probably just donate these things to Goodwill or something which would be a shame.

If anyone has gone through this, I'd like to know how it went, what worked what didn't, what you'd do differently. Reply or DM me. Thanks.


RIP JB

When a cycling buddy passed away, I had one of his good bikes in my basement for when he visited back east and wanted to ride. His wife basically said “it’s yours, do what you want with it”. She mostly was overwhelmed with his passing and didn’t want to deal with his bikes. I learned after, she donated the bikes he had at his house in Utah to a triathlon club to give to kids coming into the sport. I gave the NY bike to the son of a riding buddy so he could take his son cycling.

It took me a long time to go through my mother's stuff after she died. My spouse helped me tremendously, and we wanted people to use the stuff. We wanted to minimize stuff going to trash. Fortunately, there was a goodwill type place at a church one block away so we used a shopping cart to bring stuff there. Some things went to recycling, of course. Nearly no one would take books, though we found one library, very far away, that accepted some donations. We were able to find takers for furniture though it took a long time. We paid rent on her place while doing this work, and of course, that hurt, on top of all the other pain we felt.

So as with other things, you're looking at a trade-off between time and money. If you're hoping to get money for the estate (the people inheriting the remains), it takes more time and effort. If you want to get it done, you can hire one of those liquidators who offers an insulting amount of money and hauls away everything you offer.

I'm not sure if this addresses your question which seems a bit vague.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend

I would first try and discern the family's wishes and provide them reasonable expectations. If they are really planning on "just donating to good will" that seems to indicate minimal attachment or desire for financial return. Would they be happy to just see these go "to a good home?" If that is true, that gives you quite a bit more leeway in how to go about this. Might allow for donating locally or here on "pay it forward" or Selling at lower/reasonable prices for quicker sales. Whether it is just "finding a good home" or finding a buyer, as others posted above there is a trade-off with the time it takes to make that happen and how well it gets done. What is the time frame? Do you have a place for them if they need to move?

You could always throw some pics up in the Appraisals thread and get folks here to help gauge value/desireability

best of luck

I'm not looking for a percentage of the sale or anything like that, and I'm not looking to get absolute top dollar for the stuff.
I guess what I'm asking is if folks have had success selling niche stuff like this keeping local and quick vs paying for national ads and shipping and dealing with auctions or message boards.
I don't really know his family, I expect they'll be satisfied knowing they just didn't give away anything too valuable and would like it to see it go to an appreciative owner.

I think this should be quick and reasonable... whatever that means.

I would think with your location, in a large bike market, your should have as good a chance as anywhere with local sales, particularly if listed at reasonable prices. Shipping/packing/fees/returns for me would make Ebay not worth the effort. That said, if local sales did not work I would consider the BF sales section where you still have to deal with shipping, but likely a lot less hassle and headache dealing with BF members?

If you hold out for the appraised value of that stuff, you might be tying up the closing of the estate and final tax filing. So balance that with whether or not you hold out for a offer of what the stuff is worth vs just a reasonable but quick sale.

Valley Spokesmen is having their swap soon. It is usually well attended.
https://valleyspokesmen.org/swapmeet
You could post what you intend to bring for the locals if you go that way.
Best S.F. Bay Area Bike Swap?

That is a wonderful idea, thank you.

Did your deceased friend have a will or similar? If there is one look in that first to see if there's any designated destination for the bicycle stuff. The parts and bicycles might be designated for donation to a co-op which would make disposal easy (if the co-op wants it). Bike-specific clothing might be tougher. If no will and the 'estate' is over a certain amount of $$$ then it has to go through probate and you'll have to keep records of the money collected from sales, plus disposition of other stuff that doesn't sell after a reasonable effort. Record keeping in probate can get to be a ginormous headache.

Yes, there's a will (I don't know if it discusses bike eq.) and the estate is over whatever the threshold is for the IRS to be interested.
One of his brothers is an attorney and the executor, so I'm sure all that will be handled properly.
I'm hoping to see his bikes on Diablo again.

One of my riding friends passed and his wife had a memorial ride for him where she gave away a lot of the small stuff and told people about the bikes and other stuff for sale. She did not care about the money/top dollar.

Before he sold out, my lbs guy would sell stuff for me. Bikes, wheels, parts, etc. So much easier than trying to advertise and deal with buyers.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

awww, rest in peace to your friend. wishing you only good memories

fwiw, I helped my late Father, before his death, go thru things. he taught me how he could let go of things, even after keeping them for ~80 years, like a photo of him & his best friend when he was 10 or so. things bring you joy & then it's time to let them go. I'm learning to let go w/o feeling the need to get top dollar. some very lucky ppl are going to get some nice donations

My general rule of downsizing, is get an estimate of value from ebay, facebook marketplace, etc. Then sell at 50% of the estimate. Also, if your using FB marketplace - pay attention to buy ratings or at least look at their profile to get a sense of who your dealing with. Also, most police departments have a meet up spot for transactions. If one of the bikes is really special can list it here first.