TakingMyTime

Yes, I've been tracking Goodwill too! You are correct about the Santa Ana branch getting some really nice stuff (bicycles or otherwise).

miamijim

This is exactly why you need to know your market. Tampa seems to have a limit as well, its around $200 or so. But my market isn't Tampa...it's the world. I sell a majority of my bikes through eBay...and parts as well.

wrk101

Market here for vintage bikes $300 and over is pretty much dead as well. So it takes selling elsewhere, which to me means ebay. If I confined myself to local sales only, I would have given up long ago.

The great part of being in a dead market is I end up being a BUYER of the over $300 bikes. Those are the ones no one else is buying, so prices are well under FMV.

bargainguy

Ha! Good point.

I do sell on ebay, just not complete bikes, now I only sell small items there. Have sold bikes there in the past, but had bad experiences with them getting damaged en route.

Last experience with shipping a bike was about a decade ago, a Trek 2200. Looked like they dropped the box off a cliff, the frame was actually sliced in half through the downtube - no amount of packing could have prevented that. Claims process was ridiculously long, didn't get reimbursed until months later, and of course in the meantime I'm on the hook for a total refund while I deal with the damage claim on the back end. That kind of dampened my enthusiasm for shipping bikes.

Folsomjack

I started keeping a journal on 12-28-2015 with 12 bikes in the stable. 4 were and are there to stay, that left 8 that were for sale. I added # 123 yesterday with 22 in the stable, 6 keepers the rest listed. That is 2 years and 101 sold in two years and a Net of $ 8335 during that time. A living??? NO! but a lot of fun and it keeps me occupied. Regards, and happy holidays to all.

rustymetal

Bikes in my area, (about an hour south of Philly), are few and far between at any reasonable price. About half the bikes on CL are junk, the other half are priced at near new prices or worse. Rarely does anything worth having turn up at the local flea markets, when they do they want too much. It seems most flea market vendors don't know the difference between a high end road bike and a Walmart special They price everything in the stratosphere and won't budge on their price. I walked away from a so/so Raleigh Professional, roughly a 1977 model, the guy was asking $1,300, after talking a bit to the guy I was only able to get it down to $800, still way off for the amount of work it needed. The paint was rough, the tires rotted through and shredded, both rims were probably not salvageable, the saddle was split from being wet, and someone had hung a pair of cheap Chinese calipers on it. He sat on that bike all summer, probably still has it. I wouldn't touch it for more than $50 or so in that shape.
We don't have bike coops, and Goodwill and the likes has never once turned up a bike of any sort around here unless you count big wheels and little kids bikes. (I've never once seen anything in Goodwill here I'd ever consider buying, bikes or otherwise, its used ladies clothing and nasty, sticky, furniture).

The biggest issue with used bikes around here seems to be rust, I can't count how many nicer bikes I had to just scrap due to extreme internal rust. I've got a Panasonic DX5000 here that's rusted to the point there are holes in the lower seat tube and down tube, the right fork blade is also perforated on top just below the last curve.
My guess is that it got wet in one of the big storms, either Hurricane Irene or Sandy?
At best I'll salvage the aluminum bits but the seat post is stuck so bad it won't budge, the stem came out but the aluminum is badly pitted where it contacted the steel fork tube. If it hadn't been greased, I doubt if it would have come out.
I can't complain because it came to me as a freebie, but its by far the nicest or highest level road bike I've seen around here in years.
Last week I found a super minty clean Nishiki International in a local free paper, they wanted $150, when I went to see it, the first thing I noticed was a bent seat stay, it looked like it had been bent and straightened with a hammer. The guy said he rode it for four years in college and never noticed it. I left with it for $20, figuring its good for parts. I transferred all the parts onto a decent looking Trek 410 frame I had hanging in the garage, rode it for a bit but couldn't find a buyer for it at even $200, so I parted it out. I sold the wheelset for $150, the Cyclone derailleurs, chain, and crankset for $100, and the rest is back hanging in the garage.
It seems no one wants bikes in the 23-25" range anymore, only the super tall or super short sell. For some reason 23" is the hardest to sell.
The super small frames sell fast, as do the 26" and larger frames, the bigger they look, the faster they sell, regardless of the level of components. I've had guys that couldn't even get on the bike buy them because they look cool. I had a guy buy a 27" tall Kawamura back in the spring who was no more than 5' 2" tall. He bought the 27" frame bike for himself, and a 17" frame Centurion for his wife, who was a foot taller than he was. Whether or not they fit the bikes had nothing to do with the purchase. I'm seeing that more and more over the past four or five years.

I buy most of my bikes for resale when I'm on vacation, less than a dozen of the past few hundred bikes I've sold have come from within 100 miles of me. I've even had to rent a van to drive home rather than fly because of the bikes I bought while out and about on vacation.
I learned the hard way the first time I did that in that I rented a small van thinking I'd save a bit on gas on the long drive home, I didn't account for the fact that I may pick up a few deals along the way. I ended up having to take bikes apart to pack them into the small wagon I had rented. I started out with five bikes carefully placed into a minivan, and ended up with 16 bikes torn apart to fit in the same van by the time I got home. The best part is that in the end, the cost of the rental and fuel was very much offset by the larger number of bikes I brought back. All of the 'deals' were west of the Mississippi river. The farther east I traveled, the fewer deals I found. (Also, the fewer bikes I found for sale period). The west coast is definitely more bike friendly.

StarBiker

This is why I refuse to do Ebay for bikes. You figure in the DC market you should sell. The market is down, and now that it's so cold nobody is looking. I have a Lotus that isn't getting interest, and I couldn't turn down a Gary Fisher Cobia yesterday. I just don't have the space.

StarBiker

I find a few good bikes a year in Goodwill. And other things all though it's gotten a lot tougher. Jut picked up a pair of Maui Jim Ono's for $15 an hour ago. And I can walk, and usually bike to my local thrift. You can go a long time without a single find though. And I hit my local GW everyday, often more than once.

I was in Philly once and when I said I lived in Baltimore County everybody commented how nice they thought it was. Sort of surprised. I guess if you only go up here where I am you would say that.
I would not have the same kind words for Bucks County, Delaware or Southern Jersey. Although I like Rehoboth Delaware.
Rehoboth is a good place to flip bikes by the way.

68sd

its amazing how many bikes ive bought from kijiji/cl that ive gone to pick up to find they have flat tires.
from dealers as well as original owners.Even if i wasnt flipping a bike you would think having air in the tires would be something you would want to have ready for somebody buying your bike.
but then i guess no air limits the test drive possibilities.

curbtender

Always good to have pump and tools with you. Stuck seat post or stem can be a game changer.

Hatchet

I have found the same thing. I think for many people, the bike just isn't on their mind, they no longer ride it and just want to get rid of it.

Hatchet

I agree - if you check something while the seller there, and it is broken (i.e. a stuck stem or seat post), that can aid in your negotiations. For many people, if the bike needs something relatively simple to repair - but they don't know how to do it, or don't want to pay someone to do it, that can bring down the price of the bike considerably.

bargainguy

Actually, I like coming across bikes with flat tires - that keeps the price down. This tends to happen more often with Presta valve tubes, where the owner doesn't have a Presta pump or the little thread-on adapter that lets you fill Presta tubes from a Schrader pump or air compressor. Tires & tubes are an easy fix, so flat tires = more potential profit.

There have also been times when I bring a pump along, and pumping up the tires is the first thing I do before an inspection. If I find an issue and decide I don't want the bike, it's a goodwill gesture and generally is well received.

The downside of this idea is that if the tires and tubes hold air, occasionally the owner decides to jack the price. No, I don't let the air out if the owner jacks the price, though I will admit the thought has crossed my mind. If the owner ever jacks up the price from the asking price - no matter what reason they give - I'm out, I don't do business that way and refuse to do business with anyone who operates that way. I've passed on a lot of bikes because of the old bait-and-switch and have never regretted doing so.

curbtender

Was at a garage sale that had a bike that looked straight out of the 'Wacky" thread. Her husband had put it together and she rode it once. To cheap of a bike for me to buy, but I straightened it out for her. Paid for the work with a coffee and donut...

Binky

I sold a bike a few years ago that suddenly developed chain problems during an out of sight test ride.

My wife and I both test rode the bike in the morning and the bike shifted nicely. A swarthy "buyer" test rode it around the block in the afternoon & brought it back with the chain skipping and stuttering on the freewheel, and rattling through the derailleurs. He still wanted to buy it, but at a healthy discount. A close inspection showed that a couple of pins about 10 inches apart in the chain had been mysteriously pushed out of position and were catching on the next sprocket to the left as the part of the chain with the protruding pins went through the freewheel.

I used a chain tool to push the pins back into the proper position and tried it out. The chain skipping stopped.

Big time bike flipper. I posted a warning about him on CL and the local buy & sell.

bargainguy

Good story, Binky!

I often go out of my way to help people if I can. I remember a few years ago, I attended a rummage sale in a ritzy neighborhood because there was supposed to be a Trek bike there. Got there early, but the bike turned out to be a kids Trek, and I generally don't refurb kids bikes, so I wasn't interested. But I noticed the rear V-brake was nonfunctional - the cable tension was all wrong, and the pads wouldn't touch the rims with the lever fully depressed.

So I went to my car, got a multitool and proceeded to fix it on the spot with the owner's permission. After I was done, I said to the owner: "I'd hate to see some kid get hit by a car because the parent didn't realize the rear brake didn't work, so this is my way of stopping an accident long before it happens." The owner seemed impressed and asked for a business card, but I don't think I ever heard from him again.

StarBiker

Although I didn't deal with this kind of clown, I had one boob try to berate me on my asking price on a Trek 520.
Also I had a really pretty small Cannondale Road Bike, and he tried to purchase it. In his email response he kept running his mouth so much that he was trying to distract me? Cracked tooth moron.
Apparently he sold bikes in Rehoboth Beach. I started to attack him on CL and he disappeared.
I also had one goofy that would make offers.
I guess these goofs have moved on.

Binky

My only issue with Craigslist kickers is that I regularly get replies to bike ads with offers of "certified checks" with full price for the bike plus something "extra" with instructions to deposit the bogus certified cheque and then send the "extra" via Western Union Money Order by mail to a "shipper" who will then arrange to pick up the bike....

Bink

noglider 

Those scams are easy enough to ignore, now that you know what they are.

27inch

I'm in a dead market here but its not so much as the prices being high or low, its the quality of the bikes this area. Most everything you see is low end department store crap that they think is top of the line equipment.

The average person doesn't know the difference. They don't know or care about the difference between a Walmart bike or a shop bike. I did answer an ad last week where a guy had a half dozen bikes for sale, five were Pacific and Walmart Schwinn bikes, one was a mid 70's Raleigh Sports in great shape, he wanted $10 each but wouldn't separate them, it was all or none. Not wanting the five other crap bikes, I tried to buy just the Raleigh but he wouldn't do it. After I made like I was leaving, he said take them all for $25. I kept the Raleigh, pulled the tires off the one ladies mountain bike that looked fairly new, gave the two 20" bikes to the first two kids I saw walking down the street, and listed the two cheap beach cruisers for $25 each separately on CL the next day.

They also don't understand how it can cost more than they paid for their clunker to fit it with all new cables and tires after they left it outside all year and through the winter. To many, a flat tire means time to buy a new bike.

I've got a neighbor that bought a mid level Trek mountain bike last summer, its been sitting in front of his garage now ever since. It has to be a $5-600 bike, but its now got flat tires, lots of rusty bits and sun faded decals. His last bike got treated the same way, then it went in the trash pile after about three years when he realized it wouldn't roll any more when the chain seized up.

You can drive around and see the same thing all over the place, bikes just left sitting leaning against fences, next to garages, or flat out on the lawn for months or years.
I trash picked a Fuji Finest that was only a few years old a few months ago, it had vines growing through the wheels and the back tire had a root growing between the rim and the tire. The thing must have sat outside in the bushes for a couple of years. It cleaned up so-so but I was able to make it 100% mechanically again. I sold it fairly quick.

I had a two year old Fuji Roubaix here that I picked up with a bad bottom bracket and a chain with several frozen links. The bike was nice but small, and the seat has a nick on the rear corner from leaning it against a wall.
It had little use on it, but someone road it with the BB loose and it lost the bearings. I put a new bb in it, pumped up the tires, made sure everything worked 100% and listed it for $350. I didn't get a single reply through April to June. I lowered the price to $300, then $250, then $200. Not a single reply on it. I ran it on eBay, it sold for $360, but the buyer never paid. TWICE. The second buyer was local, was supposed to pick it up but he never showed up and never responded to any of my emails after the no show. A week later he was no longer an eBay member.

It sat for a winter, getting a year older. I relisted it again in the spring with new pics, back up at $350, but no bites. I happened on a perfect seat, changed out the seat, and put up new pics, still no takers. I left it listed for almost another year before I got a few emails. Out of 23 emails all of a sudden, only 2 showed up, only one had any money but wanted it for $75 tops 'because it didn't fit him well'. I declined and left it listed. I got an email about this time last year, there was snow on the ground that day and the guy had to come check it out. The phone number wasn't local, I think from western PA. He said he would be here ASAP, that was at 8am, he showed up at 8pm in the dark, driving a tiny Suzuki subcompact sedan. He said he didn't realize NJ was so far from Pittsburg, PA. He never even questioned the price, he paid cash, took the bike and left. He pulled the wheels, stuck the frame in the back seat, the wheels in the trunk and left. A week later two people that emailed prior emailed after I took the ad down and offered me $40. It was probably one of the better bikes I've had here and it stayed almost 3 full years. There was no way I was dumping it for less. I'd have parted it out first. Even at $350 I feel I let it go too cheap but around here people won't spend money for a good bike.

In this area, its hard to find decent bikes, the few that buy nice bikes either keep them till they die, or they get trashed and aren't worth fixing up. The rest are all department store junk.

barnfind

The whole bike market has been dead this winter, not a single email or looker on anything. I've even put up a few super cheap deals but not so much as a bite.
What I do find is that no matter what you list a bike for, they low ball you at less than half your price. I listed a Panasonic DX2000 in a common 23" frame in near mint shape for $100, the best offer I got was $25. I had more than that in tires, cables and my time. I pulled the ad, relisted it at $250, it sat on CL all last summer. I got three emails, all offering half of what I listed it at. I re-shot the pics, with a different background, and listed it on Philly CL for $350. It sold that night for $300 cash. Better yet, the guy who bought the Panasonic also bought a small frame Raleigh Rampar for $100 for his wife.
I gave up listing anything in my area, there doesn't seem to be any buyers here at all, and when there are, they don't have any cash.
Every buyer I've sold to in the past 18 years has come at least 50 miles, some over 300 miles to buy a bike. There are no real bikes shops left here. The few that are left only 'sell' bikes and they sell department store grade bikes at that. But I suppose its what sells here. I had a guy email me about building a set of wheels for a bike he's restoring, he dropped off the rims and hubs he bought online last weekend. He said he went to 13 bikes shops but no one would build a set of wheels for him. They either told him they don't have time, or they don't know how.
I put his wheels together the other day, he picked them up the next evening in amazement that they were so perfectly round. He went on about how he took a pair of wheels to a guy up north to get them respoked and got back a set of wheels worse than what he dropped off.

The hardest thing to sell here is small bikes, they all want giant size frames, nor for a proper fit but for the 'look'. I sold a bike to a guy 5ft2in tall that was so big he needed a milk crate to get on the bike, he had me install a rear rack so he could carry the crate so he could get on and off the bike. I get requests for things like white wall tires, colored spokes, custom chrome bits, banana seats on big bikes, and all sorts of odd horns and lighting. I sold a 27" Shogun 10 speed to a guy who mounted a 12v car battery on the back rack and ran neon lighting all over the frame and forks. The last time I saw the bike he wanted me to find a way to mount the shifters on high rise handlebars out by the grips. He paid me $50 to mount a pair of thumb shifters and run new extra long cables. (On a 27" frame, 27" wheel Shogun in bright red with a white banana seat and hi rise handle bars with blue tires).
I sold a super nice Gitane Interclub in a 21" frame a while back, the bike had perfect decals, perfect paint, and original wheels and tires. The thing was spotless and looked like it came off the showroom floor. The guy who bought it removed the wheels, put on a pair of steel 27" clincher rims and cheap gumwall tires with a coaster brake hub. He then painted the whole bike with brown latex house paint. It looked like it was dipped in a cesspool when he was done. He's bought three bikes from me over the past few years and done the same thing to everyone of them. Bikes with house paint are pretty common here for some reason. I've passed on many decent bikes that were bathed in cheap paint. I've got a complete 25" Raleigh International hanging in the shed that someone camouflaged with spray paint, they painted the Brooks saddle, tires, chain, cranks, everything.
I bought a Nishiki International with a set of chopper springer forks and a 20" front wheel complete with a banana seat on it at an auction last year for $10. If I find an original fork its fixable as the paint is decent. I sold the chrome springer fork for $50 on CL.

I stopped at a local diner the other day and couldn't help but notice that someone had chained their bike to a pole in the parking lot. However, someone took the time to fold it completely around the pole till the front wheel touched the rear wheel. It was a late 70's Motobecane Grand Jubilee painted with a brush in zebra stripes. They painted every thing but where the decals were.
40 years ago this was a big area for road bikes, there were a half dozen good dealers, thousands of bikes on the road, local rides, clubs, and a ton of vintage bikes around for sale. Back then I could sell as many bikes as I could get hold of. Those days are long gone. Things slowed down in the 90's, then died completely by 2005 or so. There was a point where you could go to the annual police auctions and buy two dozen bikes cheap, now they don't often even have bikes there. Kids don't own or have bikes, when they do, its usually cheap Walmart BMX junk.
Goodwill never has bikes here, I've got a friend who works there and she said they haven't had a bike donated in years. The only source is yardsales and fleamarkets.

bargainguy

Don't know what climate you're in, but I don't even attempt to sell bikes in the winter in Wisconsin. I don't want people taking a test ride on slippery streets and hurting themselves and/or damaging a bike in the process.

As to offers, here's how I deal with it. I advertise on CL only, and every one of my posts has this line:

$xxx firm, cash only, local pickup only. No offers or trades please.

The only way you can contact me is the CL email auto-responder. I don't list an address or phone. So if I get an offer, I delete the email without responding. That weeds out the tire-kickers/lowballers from folks who are serious in purchasing. I price my bikes reasonably, so it's not like I'm holding out for top dollar.

Sometimes people try to get around "no offers" by asking a question in their first email and following up with an offer later. I generally don't respond at all once the offer is made, but occasionally I will say something like "my price is firm as in the post, no need to get back to me if that price doesn't work for you."

Does this stop folks from making an offer in person? Of course not. Then I pull something out of the Mike Wallace (of 60 Minutes) playbook. I show the bike, they take a test ride, they say, would you take $xxx? First thing I do is pause. Then after about 15 sec., I'll say, the price is firm as in the post, and I don't take offers, either via email or in person. Pause. I don't say anything else. The silence makes people uncomfortable, and they often blurt out something they didn't want to say. But it gets across the idea that you're not going to get my bike for less than my posted price.

This illustrates part of effective selling - know when to shut up. Many sellers tend to prattle on. This does absolutely nothing to further the sales process, and often indicates a seller who is not listening to the buyer.

I should add - I thoroughly go over each bike, replace needed wear items, dial it in and rebuild as necessary, and clean it up as best I can. I demo all functions on a repair stand and answer all questions before the buyer takes a test ride. I often get the comment that I give better service than they've ever received before, and get a lot of repeat business. I have this down to somewhat of a science, and I've reverse engineered the sales process - what would I want to happen if I were buying a bike from someone else? Be knowledgeable, be available, show your good work and answer questions appropriately, but don't oversell, know when to step back, know when to shut up.

barnfind

I always put a 'price not negotiable' clause in all my ads.

Usually this is the best selling period for bikes, after the weather warms, I don't get any lookers or takers.
They're out and about and not on the computer. The best bike selling season for me has always been between Thanksgiving and Valentines day, beyond that it dies totally. Maybe this year will be different. After Feb. all I get is offers of trades for junk car parts, broken hunting gear, and junk. I had a guy just the other day offer me two used snow tires for a new wheel set. I can't count how many sad song stories I get wanting bikes or parts donated for free to some odd charity or church Ive never heard of.

Oddly enough, I've never once had a buyer want to or take a test ride, every bike I ever did sell just got tossed in the back of the truck and they were gone. I did have one guy show up all beat up and bloody, he was on a bike already, he bought the one I had for sale and rode away on his with one hand towing the new bike he bought. He looked like he had been in a fight or something but he paid cash and left.

I had another guy show up one day during the summer four years ago, it had to be 100 degrees all day, he rode over 50 miles to look at a bike, he bought the bike, but said he could only take part of it home at a time. He stripped it down in my driveway, took out his boot laces and hung front wheel, and frame over his back. He said he'd be back for the rear wheel, handle bars, and fork but never came back. He left behind a perfect fork for a PX10, and an original rear wheel with a new tire. I never heard back from him again, he didn't reply to my emails or texts either.

I had a guy drive almost 3 hours to buy an original 1950's Schwinn cruiser off me, the bike was near mint. He showed up in a beat up 40 year old pickup. He and his wife were arguing from the minute they got out of the truck, he rang the bell, looked at the bike, paid me, then tossed the bike over the side of the truck like it was a bail of hay and they drove away still arguing with each other. He didn't speak more than 10 words to me the whole time and she never stopped screaming at him.

I had listed a near mint 1970's Schwinn adult trike on CL a few years ago around the end December. There was a foot of snow on the ground at the time. A guy showed up driving a small Suzuki car. He and his wife got out, both over 400 lbs, and looked the trike over and decided they wanted it and paid cash. The guy then asked me if I thought if it would fit in his car. All I said was "not in one piece". I said it probably could be tied to the roof if he wasn't going too far but he said he had 100 miles to go with it, they were staying at a relatives house about 10 miles away though. He fiddled around out in the street trying to figure out what to do, then I saw him take out an old extension cord, tie it on the car and he then tied a knot in one end and trapped the knot in the trunk. The wife then gets on the bike and he towed her down the street on the trike with his car, in the snow. Two of my neighbors came out of their houses almost rolling on the ground laughing at what they just saw. I guess all went well because I never heard from either of them again and I didn't read anything in the newspaper about them.

I had a guy email me from five states away, over 1000 miles away. He was asking about a lower end mountain bike I had listed on CL. He emailed about 30 or so times with dozens of questions, he finally called me and asked me how long did I think it would take him to drive from his place to mine. I told him to google it and see what it said. After five calls he said he thought it was too far to drive for a bicycle. A month later, he emails me and says if I'll be around on the following Saturday, he was going to make the drive. He shows up about 9 hours later than he had planned, he went on about how much gas his big block dually truck had burnt getting here. He looked the bike over, said it was perfect but he'd have to return another time for it because he spent all the cash he had for the bike on gas getting here. He turned around and left empty handled. Four months later he showed up again, this time with a buddy who was driving a smaller truck. He looked the bike over again, but left saying he wanted to think it over some more, he returned the next morning and bought the bike. The truck had AL plates that time. A few days later, he emailed me a pic of the him and the bike I sold him in front of Graceland in Memphis. The odd part was that it was a run of the mill bike, nothing rare or odd, just an old Raleigh entry level Mtb from the early 90's.

I had a truck driver show up one day with a full load of pigs heading to slaughter, he bought a bike and had to take it apart so he could get it in the cab of the truck on the passenger side. I'm sure the neighbors loved that one.

I had a guy fly from the opposite coast to buy a pair of wheels I had listed only to find out he had to ship them home anyway after they wouldn't let him carry them on the plane. I had offered to ship the wheels in the first place but he didn't want to take the chance.
I had told him I didn't think they would allow them as a carry on but he tried it anyway. The wheels were a pair of new old stock prewar balloon tire bike wheels. I can't imagine what they cost him after adding in the cost of the flight here and back. He flew in, and was going to fly out the same day. He ended up missing the first flight because of the wheels, it cost him an overnight stay in a hotel, plus the shipping at some shipping store he found. Plus, I'm at least an hour from any airport so he had to rent a car to get here and back to the airport as well.

I had one buyer show up in a NYC taxi. (I'm two hours plus from NYC). He got out, paid the driver, and the cab left. He came to check out a fixie conversion I had listed as a fixer upper. It was complete but very much untested. He went on about how much the cab had cost to come from NYC, but said he was here on a work visa and had the last five weeks of his visa left to see America. He bought the bike and said he was headed to Philly and then to Pittsburgh after that. He said he would ride a bike because he didn't know how to drive. The bike had 40 year old tires, no brakes, and a flip flop rear hub with two gear options, both higher than anything I'd want to ride over a long distance like that. He paid, hopped on the bike and left.

But so far this season, nothing, not even a serious email. Its been getting slower each year since 2007. I don't even find bikes for sale like before, fleamarkets, yardsales, and auctions have only junk lately. I haven't seen a decent bike in over a year from all the normal sources. I'm going to an auction next week, we'll see if there's anything worth buying there but in reality, I shouldn't bother buying any bikes if they're just going to sit. Unless its something I wouldn't mind keeping.

Hatchet

That is good advice about salesmanship. I have sold a few bikes so far and am really enjoying it. How many bikes do you sell per year? Do sales fluctuate a lot over the year or is it pretty steady all year long?

noglider 

@barnfind, you got me laughing. Those are amazing stories. People are so weird!