Under pricing on flips

[dragnusa]

I'm thinking, if you flip a bike and you made money, then you did "good enough".

TBH, I don't see the appeal of flipping bikes. If you're good at it, you're just helping to inflate the prices of used bikes and bike parts. If you're not good at it, you're wasting time, money, and effort. I like to fix old bikes, so I do tend to help out friends/ co-workers who buy something stupid and cheap on CL; they cover the cost of parts, and I put it together for or with them. I'm not making money that way, but for me, it's a hobby. I have sold some parts on here, but i generally break even, take a slight loss, or come close (tough to measure if you got some use out of the part between when ya bought it and when ya sold it.)

The way I see it, the few bucks you make by swindling some guy who doesn't yet no how to tune-up an old bike isn't worth it when you consider the number of tire-kickers, nigerian money-laundering scheme-sters, psychopaths, and crooks you're liable to run into with a CL ad. A buddy of mine was selling his road bike on CL for a decent price; eventually got what he was asking, but not before he wasted hours of his weekend waiting for no-show "customers" or weird low-ballers. Worst was a guy who took it for a testride around the block, came back and said "I can only give you like $50; it needs new wheels." My buddy says he spun the wheel and it was waaaaay out of true; inspection of the nipples showed that the "customer" had loosened all the driveside spokes to make it look like the wheels were busted, so he could shoot a low-ball offer. Needless to say, my buddy told the guy to take off while he still had the legs to carry him. Long story short, I gotta ask: is this kind of thing actually worth it, for maybe $50 to $100 "profit" off of a few hours' labor?

I don't think it is, but that's just my opinion.
-rob

Heres my thing I dont make $50 to $100 off each bike, If I did my wife would be pushing me out into the garage all day every day. Im lucky if I can make 10 to 15 bucks after everything else. I mainly try selling local and have sold a ton of stuff on CL over the years. and when I set up a time for someone to come by its when im already in the shop so the only time I waste is when the persons actually there looking at the bikes. As for swindling someone by selling them a used bike Its no different then buying and selling other products. And I wont sell a bike that I wont ride myself and yes I will strip a bike for parts if the paints faded. I would say out of every 30 bikes I get in I will have 10 thats worth selling or passing on

[outskirtscustoms]

I normally score bikes from the scrapyard, yard sales, Goodwill, other second hand stores, junkers, scrapers, or find them thrown away. I also buy bikes that friend's find or that someone has hoarded in their garage for the last 30 years. I normally try to let people set the price then if there's money to be made I buy it, If not I try to negotiate to get the price down. I rarely ever pay more than $30 for a bike and most times if I spend $30 I can make $100.

I've had a few really hot deals this year that make it easier to snatch up more bikes. I also do bike trading and most times get cool stuff in on trade that needs work with cash.....Most times the cash breaks me even for what I paid and whatever I make on the trade in is profit. I have sold bikes that I have paid $5 for and gotten $100 out of them all the time. I normally focus on mostly vintage Schwinns and other vintage and newer beach cruisers, tandems, and other oddities. Also anything popular like low riders, OCC choppers, WCC choppers, recumbent bikes, and vintage BMX bikes. I have scored some good ones for $20 and sold for as much as $300! It's like any other job though, some days it's a grind of working on 100 WalMart bikes that you might make $10 each off of, other days you strike gold and get a truckload of goodies for next to nothing that could net you thousands. For me the joy is in the hunt and seeing the before and after transformations of $5 cruddy bikes into $100 polished classics.

[Gold Street Customs]

I have said it before and I will say it again, I don't mess with Walmart stuff to flip,its not worth the hassle to me,mostly I can get the stuff fo r free and maybe make $20 if I am lucky, how much time and money do I need to put into it to make that $20 ? I live in a town of 2100 pop and most the time I do a CL ad people drive from the bay area2.5 to 3 hours each way...sold 25 bikes one day and the guy stuffed them into a plumbing van,I didn't want to sell them all that day but $500 cash looked good for nothing much invested.

[Sinner4]

Flipping is fun times, where 80% of the people who call never show up, 1/2 of the people who call low ball you to the point you make about $10 per bike. I have a few high dollar bikes that retailed for around 2k, I was wondering what I could even get out of them?
Sure I have payed $30 for a vintage road bike, put 10 hours into the rebuild plus over another $100 and sold it for $300. Its a hobby that got away from me, I should finish my Camaro and Chevelle and have fun with them instead of collecting and restoring beaten down old bikes.

[mos6502]

If it doesn't sell you're asking too much. If it does sell you asked too little.

What gets me though is all the people who're asking too much and relist their items ad nauseum on CL or ebay. It's like they don't understand the basics of supply and demand.

The real problem with this though is that people see a Huffy for $300 and then think their Huffy is worth $300 too, and soon you have tons of people listing $300 huffys that won't sell - inspiring even more people to list $300 huffys that won't sell. And do you think a single one would wise up and go "wow there's apparently no demand for a $300 huffy!" and lower their price? Nope. They just keep clogging up CL with ludicrously priced huffys.

In my opinion if it doesn't sell the first time you list it, you've asked too much.

[Bicycle808]

Dude, how do you think I am paying for my vacation to Southeast Asia?
How do you think I paid for the cool vintage frames and bikes that I have.
If you know what you are doing, there is good money to be had while having fun at the same time.
And I do it without swindling anyone.
It's called a free market economy and it's as American as those old bikes you enjoy!

Fair enough, but it DOES serve to drive up prices on used bikes. If you're really making that kind of cheddar off of flipping, others will try it, too. Which is why all truly cheap ($20ish) bikes sell on CL in about 15 minutes; rarely to ppl who actually want to own the bike, but to a bunch of guys who want to slap some new tubes on it, clean the chain, and sell it for $100. Yeah, you're "allowed" to, I'm not telling anyone to STOP, but I miss the days of giveaway or cheap used bikes being a regular occurrence. Now, we've got too many flippers chasing the same cheap bikes, all in an effort to make them into more expensive bikes.

Maybe I'm just stingy, which is as American as being greedy...

-rob

[kingfish254]

I can appreciate stingy!
I just refuse to ever apologize for turning coin on a bike or anything else that I sell. I get multiple repeat customers or referrals, so the people must not be getting ripped off. My ebay feedback is through the roof.
I just don't understand the mindset that profit is BAD JUJU and should be avoided. Profit does not equal greed. Profit equals paying for a hobby that I enjoy and giving me extra coin to have fun with.

[kingfish254]

808, I am just curious. I once sold a $10 painting on ebay for $3000. Should I have just told the guy to send me $20 instead, so that the art market didn't get too inflated?

[mos6502]

808, I am just curious. I once sold a $10 painting on ebay for $3000. Should I have just told the guy to send me $20 instead, so that the art market didn't get too inflated?

If it was a crappy painting yeah.

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

90s mtn bikes are pretty in demand. On Bikeforums.net there is a sticky thread all about them.

[outskirtscustoms]

Most times I only buy Walmart bikes if they are dirt cheap or I need a good parts bike. I have a few customers in town though that buy anything that rides because their bikes get stolen or they ride them into the ground.

[NewOrleansFlyer]

A few weeks back, I drove 300 RT to pick up a bike. Paid about what it was worth, factoring in the gas....spent some cash, but hey, I got out of town and had a great trip.

[jerrykr]

bike flipping profits allows me to buy cool stickers and t-shirts from Rat Rod!

..... and a few other things for the bikes I'm going to keep that I normally would not want to spend the money on.

[kingfish254]

bike flipping profits allows me to buy cool stickers and t-shirts from Rat Rod!

..... and a few other things for the bikes I'm going to keep that I normally would not want to spend the money on.

Judging from some of Steve's post, bike flipping helps pay for this website too.

[largek9]

Well I guess the bottom line is (IMHO) the process of flipping,selling, or parting of used bikes,benefits in one way or another everyone on this forum If it did'nt happen we would' nt be here! and with 10,000 members I say KEEP ON SELLING BOYS AND GIRLS !
P.S. Oh ya if we didnt how ya gonna have a RRBO7 ok I 'm done now!