BNSF

This, exactly. Grandma bought the bike for $300 and now she's hoping to get $250 back as trade-in credit. Obviously, she won't get that much. In a moment of generosity, the shop might offer her $50, hoping they can get it into a saleable condition for about a hundred dollars in parts and labor. Then they'd have to price it at $160 just to make a lousy ten bucks profit. And at that price, it might sit there indefinately before someone buys it. It isn't worth the space it takes up in the store.

himespau 

My first thought is liability. If the shop doesn't know everything that happened with the bike, they might be afraid to try to sell it only to have someone come back with a problem and a lawyer.

FiftySix

That applies to almost anything. Used cars, used equipment, used aircraft, used boats, etc. Probably why most used items are sold "As Is, Where Is".

jefnvk

There's a few shops by me that do trade-ins, not every shop, but easy enough to find one. I suspect most shops simply don't want to deal with the storing/repairing/reselling of used bikes.

Ugly Dwarf

Doesn't seem like a terrible idea to me. My LBS does trade ins.

My guess is that (similar to older / mediocre trade in's at a car dealership) they offer offer a very low price to the would-be seller (new bike buyer) to minimize risk of losing money, and make the trade-in contingent on buying a new bike. Again, much like with car trade-in's, I'm sure you could get substantially more by selling your bike on Craigslist or eBay, but the trade-in requires nearly ZERO effort and get's that old bike out of your garage.

While I don't know that they do this, I can see how this trade-in could also be used to get around MAP pricing rules ("I can turn a profit on this bike buying it at $300, but I'll give $500 on it when you buy this $5000 new bike that I contractually can't advertise for $4800). I don't say this as a suggestion the shop is dishonest... My parents bought my first kids bike from them, my first road bike from them. As I got older, I bought 3-4 mountain bikes, my wife's bike, and bikes for both of my boys there, and it is the first shop I point friends to if they ask. They've been around for at least 40 years and always have a good selection of new bikes on hand, so I guess they know a thing or two.

Full disclosure, I've never traded-in a bike with them as my bikes seem to get stolen, totaled, or I ride them into the ground.

blue192

My only guess is two fold. Firstly the owner of the shoppe does not want to go through the hassle of getting used stuff ready for resale at their expense and secondly, if you sell used stuff to others they will bring it to a local shop for repair where the shoppe in turn gets to make more money.

livedarklions

When I was a kid, there were lots of stores who sold used bikes. I know one in Amherst MA that currently sells a lot of them (when not closed for COVID, anyway), and they are clearly trade-ins.

It exists, I just think the ability to market your own used bike online allows you to get a little bit more than you would selling it to a dealer, so it isn't very common.

Now that I think about it, I just realized that all 3 of my current bikes were bought used from a LBS. Three different shops, actually.

noobinsf 

This.

I'm sure it's not a decision taken lightly to insert oneself into the informal used bike market -- let everyone sort out their used bikes and bring them to us to have them fixed.

If you're a careful buyer of used bikes (and you'd have to be to make money at it), then you'll need to expend a lot of time and energy simply in the decision of whether someone's bike is worth taking as a trade-in. If I were a shop owner, this would be an easy "no thanks" for me.

Ogsarg

Lets see. You sell a bike for a profit. Now you give back some of, or perhaps all of the profit as a credit on a used bike. You've just delayed your income by however long it takes you to sell the used bike. Not great from a cash-flow perspective unless you have an extremely high level of confidence you can sell it quickly.

My LBS has some used bikes on the floor. I've been seeing the same ones there for a couple of years. Perhaps they are overpriced but I think it's more likely that the people who are buying are looking for a new bike.

TrueEarl

This is just a guess, but in the end it would probably cost the shop more to get the used/traded-in bike in selling condition than they'd get in return for selling it. Replacing components (if necessary), cables, wheel and BB bearings, tires/tubes, bar tape, etc. And then paying the hourly wages of the wrench to do all that. If you look on Craigslist...used bikes that are in good condition only fetch a few hundred dollars usually. There are some that go for more. But in general all the maintenance would likely cost more than they could sell it for. Just my guess.

Sy Reene

A couple things were brought up previously, and the idea shifted to the 'trade in' probably working better as a consignment program. example: The shop keeps 15% of whatever the bike ends up selling for, and the other 85% is available as shop credit for the provider of the used bike (and purchaser of something else from the bike shop).

A number of posts in this vein, as if the suggestion is that whatever POS someone might want to unload, the bike shop will be forced to accept. Also, forgetting to mention that this is tied to also buying a new bike from the same shop. FWIW, The shop would typically have some sort of criteria for their program that makes sense to them. Also, a used bike from a bike shop should sell for more than via Craiglist -- it's a lot more reassuring to a used shopper, and a higher demanded price may get the seller more than otherwise (even after via consignment program ~15%) selling all by themselves. Certainly makes it easier than dealing with various email enquiries, counter-offers, scheduling test rides with strangers, boxing & shipping, etc etc.

Gresp15C

I follow some of the forums for musicians. Something I've learned is that when music stores have trade-in programs, they often end up with a lot of bad word-of-mouth. Folks are just never satisfied with the deal that they get.

alloo

A lot of pawn shops sell used bicycles, craigslist has used bicycles, a local bicycle coop probably sells used bicycles. In Denver, it would be: https://bikestogether.org/

Maybe they're a similar organization in your city. Good luck.

ridinginjeans

The bike swaps work. It would seem to me that that is the way a shop could offer used bikes just once per year. I used to live in Burlington, VT and two of the shops held swaps every spring with great success. So many bikes under the tent, and most sold (assuming they weren't overpriced.)

Not sure why the shops in Massachusetts don't do them. But then the shops in Vermont as just better. Better service, better follow-up, and the shop actually wants you to return.

HerrKaLeun

This.

The person buying from LBS will expect that used bike to be near perfect and never break. For a year they will expect LBS to fix every issue for free. LBS will have to do some free repairs. Not for legal reasons, but because that customer will post in all Facebook groups that LBS sold him a bike that had a flat 5 months later and didn't stand behind the product.

If customer buys from private party, there is no expectation of free repairs and no reputation at stake.

Gresp15C

Great point. I was actually thinking from the standpoint of the person selling their bike to the shop, feeling ripped off, but your point is quite on the money too. Bike shops can sell used bikes, and they do, but they have to be quite selective about what they sell, and charge enough to cover their warranty liability. If they take a junker in trade, they'd be better off donating those to a co-op.

HerrKaLeun

You are right as well. The new-bike-buyer thinks the LBS makes so much money by selling a new bike, they can give a really generous trade-in value for that old Walmart bike that spent last 10 years in the salt sprayer. Basically they think they can trade in that old $300 hybrid, and get a brand new $2K MTB, and then only pay the "$100 difference".

Kapusta

Maybe the place to ask this question would be a bike shop.

I am sure they can tell you why a bike shop is not interested in doing this.