So I recently flipped a bike I bought and sold on Craigslist. I bought it, tuned it up a bit and flipped it for double what I paid.

I got some nasty emails about this from some of the people on CL but didn't pay it much mind. Am I truly evil for recognizing a heavily underpriced bike, giving it some love, and doubling my money?

What do you think?

nothing wrong with that, you have to get paid for your time.

There's nothing wrong with making money.

Taking advantage of a seller's ignorance is a bit questionable. Not saying that's what you did.

No ignorance involved, just wanted to get rid of it quick since he was moving.

It's called flipping for a reason. There are some guys up here in NE that turn a fair profit from flipping bikes.

I do this all the time - I even bought $500 worth of Castelli gear from Realcyclist once and made 100-150% profit on each item.

I see nothing wrong with what you did.

On the other hand, people who take advantage of "free to a good home" offers is another story... there was someone here locally who did just that. Needless to say, it didn't go over well and we haven't seen his postings in a while.

No, not at all. You list your bike on CL, the buyer is interested and purchase it from you. They come to you for the bike, not the other way around. Unless you try to sell a damaged frame or bike and hide it without telling the buyer, but that's another story.

I had a bad shaped bike once from CL for a fairly cheap price. Brought it home, clean it, polish it, tune it, put some new bar tape and brake cables. Resell it on CL and found a new home for the bike. The new owner of the bike loves it so much that he even text me couple days later about how happy he was about the bike. That was priceless

F them.

I do buy a lot of stuff online, use them and end up selling them for the same price I got it or even more. Same thing with Vintage bikes you see on ebay, where sellers have 10+ vintage bikes for sale.

There's this "legendary" sneaker-flipper on ebay that I know of and he restores old sneakers. Usually ends up earning 300% of his capital and some @ out of this world prices. I don't know what he does for a living but checking his feedbacks before he was grossing @ 5k/month. Can't knock the hustle indeed.

How does what you did differ from about 99% of the purchases that you have made in you life? Are the stores then evil too? It was good timing on your part. Seller was happy to sell goods to you and your buyer was happy to pay your asking price.

Not to say it is wrong or right but to those whom say it's fair, how does that philosophy compare to huge auto dealerships that give you little to nothing on your used car for trade-ins and then mark it up insanely? They are just trying to make the most money as well. Yeah?

The people who wrote you on CL might think of it that way . . just a thought.

Nothing wrong IMO...unless you bought stolen property, or forced someone to sell/buy at gunpoint.

You evil capitalist, you!

You beat someone to the bike, that's all they're upset about. As long as the buyer is happy, let it go...

Nothing wrong with it.

There are some nasty people on the 'net. And Craigslist is the left armpit of the world wide web. That's all you need to know.

Also, I assume this means you put some work in to fix the bike up, and not that you had sex with it. Your time and effort are worth something, and the bike's new owner is going to benefit from what you did. So, apart from the fact that it doesn't cost anything to email a nastygram, you actually performed a service, and showed some initiative; you deserve to be paid for your work.

I do enough of this that it pays for many of my hobbies. Why leave money on the table? Haterz gonna hate.

no, nothing wrong with that at all. sometimes people just want to get rid of something so they put it up on CL for CHEAP. you get a great deal and if there is an opportunity to sell it for what someone else is willing to pay without being conned into doing so, then so be it. I have done it several times and I dont feel there is anything wrong with it at all as long as you are being honest.

Looks like those haters were trying to wait and see if the seller would drop the price even further since he wanted this to be gone ASAP. Once the bike was gone... sour grapes.

They are mad they didn't do the same. Once someone was selling a nice Trek 1.2 for $200. It was up again in another ad for 3x times as much later and after a few days sold. The surrounding environment looked different but the bike looked 95% the exact same.

Either the original person realized their pricing mistake and raised the price or someone bought it and fixed it up a bit to re-sell.

It would have been my first road bike if I had gotten it.

Depends. Ethically speaking, if you are an "expert", you have an obligation to the novice. For example, little Billy comes into your comic shop with Grampa's Action Comics #1 and wants to sell it for $20, you need to tell Billy its actual value. Some states have laws on the books to this extent.

That said, I think fair-market for the expert would be the wholesale price which is typically 50% of the retail price.

What I hate the most is when some flipper starts to whine about the seller who finds out their bike is worth more than they originally asked and then wants the fair-market price.

I don't understand your point. Are you saying it's unethical for car dealers to buy a used car (whether they buy it or take it on trade) and then sell it for more than they paid for it? How did you think it worked. Unless I'm missing something, what you wrote just doesn't make any sense. Are you familiar with "Low (or wholesale) Blue Book" vs. "High (or retail) Blue Book".

I think its great!! the American way!!

That ethical standard might apply to a business transaction, but I really don't think it does apply to casual sales like OP is talking about.

Dell started by flipping pc parts. Nothing wrong with it. They are just pissed they didn't do it.