m3rle

I've had a great time learning and wrenching and have sold 2 dozen bikes over the last 3 years. Sometimes you profit and sometimes you lose so maybe it evens out. I deal in bikes that are my size so get to ride them for a bit. eBay is good but shipping bikes is work and can be expensive if buyer is far away. Plus the fees. Selling isn't fun anymore which is a bummer because I sure like hunting and researching and rehabbing. There are over 2000 bikes on my local CL, 100+ added per day.

Bryanjp2

Bums me out, seems like I missed the glory days!

johnnyace 

I don't do very well with selling bikes, probably end up breaking even, really. Most of my selling occurs on ebay, I don't sell much on craigslist.

Honestly, I do much better selling parts than I do with full bikes.

big chainring 

Ahh Milwaukee. I love Milwaukee. Some of my best memories from my youth were the many bike races in Mikwaukee.

I have bought a few bikes from the guy on craigslist whose location is "East Side". He has many listings. Occasionally he lists something good at a reasonable price. He knows Schwinns and Raleighs, but once in a while he lists an oddball french bike that he has no clue what it is. I bought a couple Jeunets from him and got a good deal. And he's close to the donut shop, looks like sputnik, that makes the little donuts, yum.

I have been tempted to get the Jeunet mixte that is up in Sheboygan. Its been listed for over a year. I'm sure the guy would take a reasonable offer at this point. The bike has some potential.

As for selling I have given up on craigslist. Chicago people are just to odd. I dont want to deal with them. An appointment?An appointment window in Chicago is "I'll be there at 1:00, text at 1:00 and say be, there shortly, and show up at 5:00". Ebay is the way to go. Parting out bikes makes the most money. Bike enthusiasts love building bikes up from the bare frame. Buying parts piece by piece. Or sometimes its best to sell a whole bike. Name brands are key. Raleigh, everyone loves Raleighs. Peugeot, Motobecane, Miyata good names. Beyond that your buying audience is really reduced. Raleigh Super Course, gold. Jeunet Franche-Comte, whats that?

prairiepedaler

Part of the great thing about being Stateside is the remnants and offshoots of enormous wealth. This means tonnes of high quality stuff on the used market. I'm in the middle of the Canadian Prairie and it has gotten to the point of having to order everything through the mail because the local prices are so high for many things. In the USA, there are listings of bikes in the magnitudes unheard of up here, and for prices far less. I could have bought 3 or 4 top quality bikes - big enough to FIT - easily in the span of a month if I were in the USA and would be happy for many years.

So, for those flippers closer to the Northern border, perhaps it might be worthwhile to bring a vanload of product across into Canada and sell them there? Perhaps not, but there would be more demand and opportunity in certain geographic pockets.

p.s. DON'T Bring them to this town - you'll get offered $5 on a $250 good deal bike.

ramzilla

Quit worrying about money. Try bartering. Give some away. Keep your tools. Trade your bikes. Have fun. Be good.

durangotang

If you want to make money the formula is simple, but sad. Find a great deal on a bike, sell the decent components on ebay, put cheap components on the bike and resell it. Components are going to bring 5-10x the money that the completed bikes will. You just have to make peace with doing it that way, hard to do if you love bikes.

cb400bill

Closed for moderation.

cb400bill

Thread reopened after moderation and clean up.

RobbieTunes

I always start checking CL about a week before I travel to the area. It is a saturated market, and in both Schwinn's and Trek's back yards. Chicago folks definitely are checking Milwaukee's CL.

Only thing I can add is build a nice bike that you'd like to ride. Make sure it's super clean, ready to ride, and let the ride sell it for you. Patience is required, because people have to sift through all those other bikes.

Just to illuminate, rccardr and I were visiting the area from NC and VA, discussed heading to Mad Town for a CL Koga-Miyata. Chrome Molly showed up from MN at our 8 am ride, with the K-M in his trunk. Bastid.

rccardr 

Yeah. And I think he's still got it. Unbuilt.

Bryanjp2

I'm liking all of your viewpoints. Milwaukee is a wonderful city! I love it here and enjoy biking during the warm months. My takeaway is get dirty, have fun, be patient and construct solid rides.

dedhed

Most of the stuff I pick up is from friends or friends of friends who want to get rid of stuff but don't want to deal with CL. Let people know you're interested in old bikes so they can say, "I know a guy" when asked. At work I'm "The bike guy" too, that's where the last three came from. Got a bunch of old Park tools that way too.

Chuck Naill

I don't think it is true bike were better then. There are many great options today with my Kona Sutra a prime example of a steel frame bike with proven components. I suspect this effects the price of vintage bicycles.


Also, I am suspicious of listings. I know from other vintage markets that vintage means a hodgepodge of thrown together pieces that resemble an original. If I had $1000 to spend, I am not going to consider an old questionable bike versus a new bike with known and new components.


I local Craigslist seller shows a bunch of bikes on his boat dock. I also think it would be anyone's guess where those bikes and components originated.

dedhed

I don't know if bikes were "better", but there are certainly some excellent vintage bikes. You do have to educate yourself on "vintage" (whatever that means) and know what you are looking for and at. It's also one thing to be looking for flipping reasons and another to be looking for that diamond in the rough for your own stable.

You can have the best of both worlds. I've built a couple "modern" bikes on vintage frames for my own purposes for less than I could buy a new bike meeting my desires.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...i-s-ergos.html

Chuck Naill

When I started riding more seriously in '09 I used a hand me down 80's Trek and enjoyed it thoroughly. I have an mid '80 Specialized that I've maintained well over the decades. That said, why would I pay the same that I paid for the Kona? Yes, if I can get the same or similar for a few hundred, I would think that a reasonable option. However, I really doubt that to be possible for most.

momo608

It's a fools errand to expect to make money on a "hobby". With any collectible your best chance to make money are on high end items, buy low sell high and put little to no labor or parts replacement in it. The only people I have known that make money selling to collectors are those that have no interest collecting. Except for high end old road bikes, there is no money to be made if you consider your time and effort worth anything. A minimum wage job would be better if it's the money you're after. As someone said, bike are cheap compared to old cars where the losses can run into the tens of thousands and yet that hobby is going strong. You can have a fleet of pristine collector road bike and put them in the dumpster and still come out better than restoring an old car. It's all relative and it's supposed to be a hobby. If your primary focus is on the money then invest in real estate.

prairiepedaler

On the bright side, someone is paying for parts and assumedly he's another bike aficionado. People value that which has a price so it's probably also safe to assume the parts will be looked after. These parts buyers are stewards of sorts. They're being re-used and re-cycled, so all is not lost. It isn't as if the bikes are being crushed underground at the landfill. If it's about making money in a tough economy then bikes and their paraphernalia probably isn't the way to go.

Bryanjp2

It's not about money, at least for me. If you look at my original post, I just wanted to start a discussion on this topic of attempting to sell a bike in this type of market. My ideal situation is buying a decent bike, work on it, sell it for a small profit to buy or put money towards the next bike. I wouldn't consider myself a collector or trying to be one, can't afford it. I like taking things apart and seeing how they work and I like to ride. My biggest ? is what do you do once you're ready to sell and end up sitting on that bike for months? I want to get to the next bike

higgins617

It's not all that unreasonable to make a few bucks while helping get some older rides back on the road. If you're performing complete overhauls, replacing spent tires with the sort you'd put on your own ride, and using higher end consumables, then no. You really can't expect to even get out what you put in.

But you can service what needs tending to, spend time with different bikes getting your hands dirty, and pass along a solid bike. I price most of my bikes so that should the person choose to have a shop overhaul it, they're still into it for close to, if not less, than a shop around here would have charged for it.

nak45z

I been rebuilding old steel bikes for a few years. I think if they see you riding them and at the same time enjoying them. They will pay your asking price. Rebuild them like they are for you.

ollo_ollo

I've sold a few over the years, but my only large scale experience was reducing my hoard/horde down to 10 or so when I retired and relocated more than 10 years ago.

Most were bikes I picked up for & $10-$30 at Goodwill or yard sales and they sold for $35-$75. A few nicer ones sold for $150-$300 with much haggling, often after throwing in a Brooks saddle or one of my thrift store bikes for free. I remember an Austro-Daimler Olympian, that lost me a really nice Brooks Professional. People who buy from Craigslist are a flakey, frugal lot and it's hard to pry $$ out of them. Don

higgins617

Perfect example of my market, known flipper has two Columbia "road bikes" posted for 195 each and a Varsity for 225.... Bikes that really should be about 60-80 each.

Deals are hard to come by, and you'd better act quick. When I picked up my last two bikes on Saturday I was one of 15 people who told the seller they'd come take them.

ollo_ollo

Only advice I can give is never haggle the price over the phone. I guarantee the caller will just take that as the starting point to haggle some more if/when they arrive.

miamijim

A lot of good points mentioned above me...

I noticed a downward change in component prices 3 seasons ago, it wasn't much but it was the first downward trend since I began selling back in '07. And prices have plummeted since. Reasons for the rise in prices are multiple, hipster/ss/fixies, a certain population demographic reaching peak spending and others.

What I find more concerning is the lack of supply. Maybe its the crap Tampa market but I cant find anything worth flipping. Nothing. All of the high end Campy Record, high end lugged steel and similar bikes are non-existent. Poof. Nothing.

Due to the exceptionally soft market I've become very conservative with pricing. Bikes I'd previously pay $600 for I'll now only consider if they're in the sub $400 range.

Basic rules as mentioned above...

1. Know your market
2. Know your market
3. Establish a minimum ROI for your project and stick to it. Mine minimum ROI started ta $100 and I bumped it to $250. Flip fewer bikes and make the same amount of money with less time.
4. Flip for fun. If your doing it to make money your in it for the wrong reason.