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FreddyS

FreddyS

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Everyone knows about Craigslist and EBay but prices can be high especially on the latter. I have found good value on bikes at garage sales, church sales, neighborhood sales and just driving through some of the back roads when I am traveling. On CL I look for bikes that have poor listing language or crappy pictures. I recently bought a Dyno Moto Glide on the cheap because it had a crappy picture and said "bike good" and that is all. I'm giving away some of honey hole secrets here but that is okay.

You guys have any buying secrets you want to share?


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I just keep asking people Do you have any old bikes? I've got some over the years but nothing super cool yet [emoji53] lol

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Thrift stores.

I always go to the back where they take stuff in and see if any bikes are back there. Then, after getting to know the manager, try to buy before they put it out on the floor. The longer they have to think about it or research, the higher the price will be. I also hold some cash in my hand. lately, they are all priced way too high. But I've found the best deals at the thrift stores, sometimes the crappy bikes are marked up while the gems are going cheap.

They also throw all kinds of parts in bins, for bikes and all kinds of stuff. I root through those and sometimes find good parts or tools cheap.
 
Bad descriptions, crappy pics.

Garage sales are good.

Depends on how you like spending time, sometimes it takes a lot of garage sales to find 1 good deal. If you collect other stuff it may be worth while.

I've had a lot of luck with bookoo or local online classifieds, smaller scope than Craigslist.
 
Old farm properties
I found and Iverson dragstripper in the woods at the bottom of a hill on the back end of a farm, along with 4 other older bikes.

Farm kids just chucked their bikes when they were tired of riding them.
 
Just signed up for let go, and offer up phone apps. Plenty of stuff on there, it helps that I'm in Chicago suburbs, may not be as much as you move away from large population.

Spring cleaning is coming soon, now's the time to buy, flat tires baffle some people.

Better yet, go pick up all the lawnmowers you see on the curb. New gas, plug, carb cleaner and 10 min, they usually run. Couple of those and you can put the cash towards really nice bike parts.

Make friends with your local scrapper, I flag down the guys that drive thru and get to know them, tell them what I'm looking for. My guy texts me when he's rolling thru. $10 from me is a lot more than they scrap for, and he basically delivers a buffet of raw material for me to dig thru. I make sure he gets all my junk too.
 
I do Craigslist, Letgo, OfferUp, VarageSale, and Facebook Sale Groups.

I tried for a bit to search the curbsides before trash day, but being able to find anything vintage or unique that i can work with anymore is getting to be more effort than it's worth.
Not much luck in my area with the thrift stores, they only keep the newer shinny department store bikes.

The worst place to look are at pawn shops, they may have what your looking for, but most of the ones i've tried to deal with are greedy.
 
I work next to the road that leads to the local land fill. You would be surprised at how many bikes and other cool junk gets hauled in. Most people that come there are not the types that are concerned with metal scrapping, they just want stuff gone. Not sure how you'd intercept the bikes before they get crushed and buried, but you might could check with the people at the scales or grease the palms of the dozer operators.
 
The Renaissance Man said:
I work next to the road that leads to the local land fill. You would be surprised at how many bikes and other cool junk gets hauled in. Most people that come there are not the types that are concerned with metal scrapping, they just want stuff gone. Not sure how you'd intercept the bikes before they get crushed and buried, but you might could check with the people at the scales or grease the palms of the dozer operators.
Click to expand...
In my experience with scrapyards, it's easy enough to talk to the guy at the scale. If he's not in charge he'll point you to who is.

If I find anything of interest at my local yard they only charge me scrap cost to make back what they paid.
 
Scrap yards, thrift shops, old farms. I look in every open barn/garage I see. Look in yards, gardens, behind sheds when your out. If it's something you want, go knock on their door and be respectful. I had to trade a guy a bike to replace his yard art once. I also had to replace one with a working model as his grand kids rode it and it had to be old. Auctioneers can be useful, tell em you like old bikes, you can both make $ together. Word of mouth is good too, everyone you meet, ASK. Let people know your serious and inquire if they know of any. I have had folks GIVE me bikes after inquiring.
 
Many communities have a group of subscribers to FreeCycle.org. I've gotten quite a number of bikes from that source, in various states of repair. The best part is...everything is free.
 

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