BIKE FLIPPERS, what's your opinion?

[mikeeebikey]

Guys and gals,
Been buying and selling more, in the past I had a strong desire to complete bikes, not break up classics, sell at a set mark up, not pure capitalism.
Here I am 20 years later, doesn't seem like anyone cares if it's o.g., or even period correct.....so I am kinda kicken myself for antiquated beliefs, that cost sales.
I have kids now, then I didn't.
So if I put it out, flip for the highest price, sell chop shop bikes, chop bikes, will I be a soul less merchant? Or is it just capitalism?
This is a discussion, not rant thread, share your feelings and beliefs, but please no personal rips.

 

[baldwooky]

Not sure what your question is here.
But I like to flip bikes more than I like bikes flipping me.

 

[Bicycle808]

I'm gonna try to be careful with this one.

Some bike flippers have a great talent. They find those rare gems that belong to ppl who want to sell'm but don't know how, and they get these items (parts, frames, completes, whichever) to the best possible market. An example of this would be finding a basketcase old bike at a yard sale, buying it despite the fact that it's not worth trying to make rideable, then stripping it, rehabbing parts as needed, and selling the good parts somewhere like RRB, the CABE, or any other national/international site where someone might be willing to shell out some real ca$h for whatever hubs came on that old rusted-thru ladies' bike you picked up at that yard sale. That's flipping where you're helping the hobby and getting specific (& possibly scarce) parts/bikes to ppl who may want very specific items. I've been looking for 7speed Shimano barcon shifters for some time now; Kingfish flipped me a set, and I'm grateful for it. There are good flippers out there, for sure.

Now, OTOH, there are flippers who troll Craigslist for cheap bikes, bully the seller into going even cheaper, then they spend a few minute "fixing" a few things, only to relist it on the same local craigslist the same month, at a viciously inflated price. (The worst of these flippers will put $20 worth of new tires on the bike and expect you to pay thru the nose for the new bogus rubber-- or they remove original parts that may be worth some $$, or may just need some TLC, and now the part is lost forever to flipper-incompetence.) These ppl contribute nothing to the hobby/sport of cycling, and are mere parasites on the local bike scene. Worst part about it is, they're selling out cheap, and it actually just seems sad to me.

In either case, it's "capitalism", but like any other huge/diverse concept, there are good and bad aspects of capitalism. Companies that produce awesome bike parts are capitalist, as are prostitutes and drug dealers. IF you're going to flip bikes, just try to lean towards the "awesome bike company" side of things, and try not to flip like a skanky streetwalker.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I have asked myself this same question many times over the years. Do I stay true to the bike or do I do what makes money?

Most bikes I buy are sought after by collectors such as oldschool BMX and rare bikes so I sell them in "as found" condition and don't touch a thing, it's their project let them restore it their way I don't even wash it. I make the most profit that way and don't have to spend time tracking down correct parts and blowing my profit on them. Some bikes I will just throw together using parts I have on hand just so it's ridable and flip them on Craigslist. But as far as classics go I always go with what the bike has going for it, if it's all original go original, if not then build it as a rat rod or if I take a liking to it it sits around till I find parts I like. Really depends on the bike.

 

[Bicycle808]

I've also made the mistake of paying too much and try to learn from it rather than screw the next guy. All life lessons have a value, too.

This is an excellent practice, and you'll come out ahead if you go this route. Over-charging will most likely cost you more in terms of time, trying to find the right chump to buy it, and it may very well hurt your rep in the long run.

Messing up history for my mistakes doesn't work for my personal goals, therefore I don't care fore parting out nice complete bikes for just another buck or two. If its a rough or mismatched mutt that may become my plan, though.

This makes sense to me. OF course, these days, mismatched mutts outnumber the clean/complete original bikes. Also, how many times have we seen nice complete bikes hereon on the CABE that no one will buy, but everyone is chomping at the bit for certain components if the seller parts-out?

 

[Bicycle808]

Oh,I agree that the preponderance of mutts ain't a good thing, but it does alleviate any qualms one might have about parting a bike. If it's already a frankenbike, you might as well...

And yeah, CeeBee, you're right--- some folks do begin the part-out process within a week of posting. Old bikes are a weird game; the buyers are out there, but things aren't always going to move quickly.

As for parting contemporary WallyWorld bikes for a profit--- I think it's shameful to make a few buck$ just by preying on the ignorance of kids', rookies, and ppl who aren't all-there. Sure, caveat emptor and all of that, but if one's profit depends on making fools out of others, there's nothing to be proud of there. that does nothing good for the community. Parting them to get other bikes rolling, OTOH, is just practical and should be encouraged.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

As far as waiting to sell a complete bike as I always say "I never buy a bike I will regret keeping."

 

[mikeeebikey]

Thanks for the input, I also have another ideal to run by everyone...
How do you price?
When I ran a shop, we priced 10 percent more than the bottom line, no break. Made money off accessories, repair.
Now a days I find myself pricing around 25 percent more than the bottom line. For the hagglers, but am I hurting intrest with price?
Ok, thanks for the input on my unclear question!

 

[mikeeebikey]

I guess I should clarify that I am generally talking about old bikes. I know a lot of flippers are actually buying Huffys at Wal-Mart and parting them out or even marking them up on Craigslist, etc. More power to you if you can make a buck or get something else rolling by doing this!

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

I flip decent Huffy, Murray, and such, buy a couple, put one together, sell for $50-$75 range. I am bothered by it. I can't say hate, but strongly dislike budget frames. But in buying them, you do run into some decent bikes...

 

[Bicycle808]

I hear what you're saying, mikeee, but I've come to appreciate a simple budget frame. Skinny steel tubes, no suspension, very few geegaws? I respect those frames, even if they have little/no value. It's the budget frames with the dramatically oversized tubing, often formed in a convoluted manner, with primitive or even faux suspension built in, that P me off. We were separating all the real bangers-- the lost causes-- in a big heap at the county bikeshare, and we decided to salvage all usuable parts, and toss the rest in scrap piles, separated by steel or "aluminium" (we got a Brit guy who volunteers with us; the term is catching on here in South Jersey.)... The thing is, so many of the cheap bikes from the past decade or so have these fat steel tubes with big, boogery welds, so many of us couldn't tell the steel from the aluminium. (Doesn't help that the Aluminum bangers weigh a ton, too.) So, we were magnet-testing a few of these things. Wretched. I do my best to quell my bike-snobbery, but some of these monsters are so bereft of any charm or redeeming characteristics, I just couldn't help but throw up in my mouth a bit....

Oh, yeah, I guess that tells a bit about my views on flips.... i'd usually rather donate, both parts and labor. I do sell stuff on occasion, but more often, I leave it in my stash or give it to someone who needs it. Then again, I rarely get anything worth real $$$, and when I do, I tend to wanna keep it...

 

[dragnusa]

I flip bikes often but mainly just run of the mill stuff to people that cant afford new bikes. Like this last week end I sold 3 bikes to a woman for her kids for less than the price of one at our local store. Now old cruises and such I rarely flip or strip even if it's a womans bike.

 

[decotriumph]

As far as waiting to sell a complete bike as I always say "I never buy a bike I will regret keeping."

My philosophy exactly. I buy bikes I like. If I decide to sell one later and it doesn't sell, no big deal. I have bike I like.
Also sometimes I pay too much for a bike, but other times, I'll get a swingin' deal on one. As long as it balances out, that's cool with me. As an example, if I buy a $500 bike for $300 but get excited and pay $700 for another $500 bike, I figure I'm even. I have $1000 in $1000 worth of bikes.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I normally find cheap bikes like Huffy, Magna, Murry and such at the scrap yard for $10-$15 and after a tube and a basic tune up (air up tires, wash, adjust the brakes and gears, and oil the chain and such) I normally sell them for $40 and they sell like hot cakes. If it's a vintage cheaper bike (70's-80's) and in nice shape I ask $60 and take anything over $50. Nicer bikes like Diamondback, GT, Trek, mountain and road bikes I sell for $75-$100. And anything really good or rare like Hutch, Redline, Haro, Elgin, exc. I just price them high and hang on to them till I find someone who loves the bike and is either willing to trade something else cool or give a boatload of cash or a trade with cash.

As a general rule of thumb I try to buy for 1/3 what I think I can get out of it so 1/3 is purchase, 1/3 is repairs, 1/3 is profit.

 

[Bicycle808]

As a general rule of thumb I try to buy for 1/3 what I think I can get out of it so 1/3 is purchase, 1/3 is repairs, 1/3 is profit.

That's prolly a pretty good breakdown of costs/profit for everything on the cheaper side of the market (less than $250, I s'pose.) The amazing thing is, we sell bikeshare memberships for $25/year for individuals (still working out family plans), and that includes use of the bike for a year, plus repairs and/or replacement of the bike if the repair is more than the bike is worth. These are mostly banger bikes to some degree, but we do get some nicer LBS bikes from the 70s/80s/early 90s from time to time. And, somehow, the good citizens of Camden County are just trickling in for memberships. If I were ever at the point where I had trouble swinging a $40 CL banger, you'd best believe I'd go for the $25 co-op bike instead, so I could get free flat repair and tune-ups. Dang.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I wish we had a co-op around here. In Kokomo you pretty much got two options as far as bikes go, you got Walmart, K-mart, box store bikes and you got two bike shops Schwinn Cycle and Victory bike shop that only sell $300+ bikes. If you get really lucky you can sometimes find them at the second hand stores or flea markets but 9 times out of 10 they are over priced or DOA.

 

[Bicycle808]

I wish we had a co-op around here. In Kokomo you pretty much got two options as far as bikes go, you got Walmart, K-mart, box store bikes and you got two bike shops Schwinn Cycle and Victory bike shop that only sell $300+ bikes. If you get really lucky you can sometimes find them at the second hand stores or flea markets but 9 times out of 10 they are over priced or DOA.

Where I'm at, we've had a successful co-op over the Bridge in Phila since before I was very much aware of bikes, beyond riding my bmx bike all over town as my main means of transportation. A few years back, a nearby town (2 towns over; I used to have a job over there...) kinda got gentrified and neo-uppity, so of course they had to start a co-op. At the time, I shared a cheap 2 bedroom with a somewhat crazy roommate, and we had an extremely small-scale "co-op" operation going on in our basement. It was strictly trash-picked bikes, mostly 70s step-thru lightweights, mostly trashpicked in the boojee town of Haddonfield, where I currently reside, so they were all decent quality bikeshop bikes, that were neglected for decades before being trashed. We'd piece'm together and give'm away, mostly to the female international exchange students that my roomie was forever schemin' on. Usually they'd need new tires, and that was kind of the easy first date, where this kid I lived with would be like "Here's your bike...it just needs tires; after class tomorrow, I'll go with you to the bike shop to get a set...."

I built a singlespeed Schwinn World Sport for my girlfriend in those days (she's my wife, now) but she barely ever rode it....

So, yeah, it seemed awesome that there was gonna be a real co-op around, but that co-op started out small, been thru some changes, and it's pretty awesome right now. We just started this new county-wide co-op recently, and it's a shame b/c at this point, we have more volunteer wrenches than we have folks who need bikes! Well, I guess that ain't true b/c a lot of bikes have been distributed, but that's what a typical night at the bikeshare looks like: a bunch of guys wrenching on battered bikes, some donated but most received en masse from local police forces.... some still have "Evidence" tags on them. There are satellite distribution centers in a couple other towns, with more springing up all the time, and for instance we need to finish another 20 bikes for the new Gloucester BikeShare by June 1. So, yeah, I think it'll grow quick if we do it right, and even if it never gets better, I'll take it over WallyWorld bikes any day of the week.

Dang, I hijacked this thread, but I guess a good local co-op is kinda like the natural predator of the small-scale local bike flipper.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Sounds like a good way to pick up chicks... I built a '68 Schwinn Hollywood for my girlfriend (Now my fiance) and she has ridden it once in like 3 years. I also got her a nice newer Iron Horse (aluminum frame cruiser) bike that I scored at the scrapyard and looked brand new but she says she loves it. I think she's ridden it twice. If we had a co-op I'd probably pick their inventory and still make money. Knowing me I'd probably sleep there.

 

[franconuevo]

Well, you know most flippers work off of Craigslist.
and the drill there is the same...people will first text you and ask..."Would you take 20.00 for it"...before they've even seen the bike.

I have pretty good luck, but my philosophy is simple...start out with a bike.any bike that's cheap..or free. I find a lot of 'em out on the curb on trash day.
No one is gonna buy a custom Rat or cut and stretched beauty that you poured your soul into for a G..on CL..not around here anyway.

Clean them up, take them all down, you have to love wrenching them....derust...wax them..then, take GOOD PICTURES.
Give them new life. I just saved two today from a local scrapper.
One is a BMX nothing, but I'll make it look good and run straight.
The other is an old Huffy Mtn. Bike that I'm going to keep and Klunk.
Hufft was sitting in the weeds for so long the rims are rusted right off of it....but, the rest of the bike ...has "that" patina, I think you know what I mean.
Anyway, just flipped a Huffy Cranbrook and a li'l kids Tony Hawk bike with training wheels. You have to love just fixing them up and working on them....because your labor comes out to about 3 bucks an hour.


Then, I'll leave a pic like this up for a few days a week or so....cuz it's good advert. People eventually see your stuff and keep comin' back or tell other folk.

FRANCO

 

[CrazyDave]

You mean your suppose to sell some of the bikes you buy?!?! No wonder I ain't makin no darn money!!!

 

[horsefarmer]

You mean your suppose to sell some of the bikes you buy?!?! No wonder I ain't makin no darn money!!!