Hi folks,

Long time no see. To make a long story short and not too personal, cycling and I have sort of broken up.

I'm not using Ruby at all anymore and thinking of selling her.

My only experience buying or selling used bikes is on Craigslist with bikes that typically cost $100 or so.

I bought Ruby, a Specialized Roubaix, in 2007 for about $1,500. She has about 2,500 miles on her - perhaps 3,000.

All original parts, except perhaps the saddle and of course I've replaced tires once or twice. Everything works just fine and she's pretty clean. Not showroom clean, but not too bad either.

How would you suggest I go about selling Ruby? And what's the possible range in current value as a used bike?

Thanks for any suggestions and ideas.

I can't help you, Deege.

I generally just hang seldom or never used bicycles in my bike room for a few years and eventually give them to one of my kids or to one of my grand kids. Truthfully, even when I had my own bike shop I wasn't all that great at selling bikes. That's why I don't have the shop anymore.

I know how to price it though because my dad taught me. Just pull a number out of the air and list that as the price. If you still have it a month from now, the price was too high. If you sold it, the price was too low.

Uh - just because you're not bicycling anymore isn't a good enough reason to keep you from posting on 50+. Some of our best threads have little or nothing to do with bicycling.

I recently sold two bikes on Craigslist and one on eBay. Craigslist is ideal for lower cost bikes, $500 or less. More expensive bikes require a more patient time-line, even in big-city markets.

Ebay will get fast results. However the approximate 15%, or more, cost of listing fees and PayPal fees is hard to swallow.

I'd try Craigslist first -- I've had great luck selling bikes on Craigslist, especially in the summer. Enthusiasts know what a Roubaix is so shouldn't be too hard in a big city like San Diego.

I'd try to get 50% to 60% of retail on a 4 year-old bike.

If you can't sell it on Craigslist, try eBay; bite the bullet and do a "no minimum" auction and it'll be gone in 10 days.

But I'm on Pitcairn Island. We don't even have a Craigslist, much less eBay!

Pitcarin Island - Isn't that where they had all those birds? The cause of the whole white bike thing has suddenly come to me and I can understand why you are reluctant to ride it very much.

Replace the chain and it will sell faster.

There is a bike store here that will sell bikes for customers on consignment. If you have a good relationship with an lbs it might be worth it to ask.

Good thinking. I'll probably have the LBS do a quick tune up and replace the chain. Even if I end up keeping Ruby that's a win/win.

You could always put it on the sidewalk with a hastily scribbled cardboard "FREE" sign...

A couple of tips on Craigslist listings:

1. Put the size in the title of the listing.
2. Also, add a rough estimate of the height of the riders it would fit (a range will do)

...so many noobs on Craiglist, so many bikes -- yours will stand out just with that info. Also saves a lot of emails.

3. Put the MSRP of the bike when it was new and the current MSRP of the current model in the ad.

A little tricky since there is no longer an aluminum Roubaix. Probably best compares to the current Sectuer Comp.

Pitcairn Island ? Wikipedia says there is a population of 50. Is there even roads to ride on? Hopefully you have some form of Postal service/shipping. I suspect it isn't often or cheap. You obviously have www access. So you could list on Craig's list from your old town, or Craig's list in any town. Just provide details in listing bike will be shipped from a dot in Pacific ocean. People can and do search all of Craig's list for an item. I've listed items in little old Reading, PA, Craig's list, and sold items out of state, buyer asked if I would ship, and of course offered to pay. And of course no fees with Craig's list. Item was listed for a month. And of course you can sign up with ebay, unless you gave up all credit cards. Biggest problem won't be the listing, but finding a box and packing the bike to make a long trip. Not that it applies, but I did sell on ebay a bike, packed and shipped to Hawaii. At that time FedEx was best deal.