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dragnusa

dragnusa

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Took a elderly friend up to a small town about 50 miles away from us to pick up something for him. Since the town we went to in known for all their antique stores, basically the whole small town is a bunch of antique stores and I have found awesome deals on stuff there before. So while my friend was visiting with a friend of his I hit up the antique stores looking for bikes or even just parts. I found 2 bikes in about 10 stores, one was a 24 inch girls bike that was only good for parts and the other was a huffy mens cruiser that was missing parts and had been painted badly with house paint, both had $75 price tags. blew my mind in both cases. As a builder they wasn't high value bikes but as yard art evidently they had alot of value. It's hard for me to understand how I can bring an old cruiser back to life and make it rideable and can hardly make my money back if I sale it. (don't sale many of my cruisers) but some one will buy an old beat up raggity bike for the same price and sit it in their yard.
 
The town actually has a town wide craft/antique sale every year, and I have probably 5 stripped girls frames and atleast another 5 waiting to be stripped of useable parts. between my scrap pile and parts frames I could build atleast 10 yard art bikes. Thinking I will be taking a truck load of "Yard art" bikes up there in the spring instead of sending them to the scrapper.
 
I've seen toilets, bathtubs, bicycles, pedal cars, tricycles, and all kinds of other crap being used as yard art.
 
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Dinger
 
CeeBee said:
The yard art bike phenomena is a totally different market and buyer base. The value of what someone will pay for a decoration, whether it be on their living room wall or garden is dictated by trends outside of a bike flipper's regular world. Right now styling trends are all about "retro", "re-purposed", shabby chic", etc., so an old bike with a basket full of pansies or a vine growing through it is cool.
The trend will slow down if not end completely soon so now's the time to sell rough bikes as yard art, however I don't suggest over "building" yard art bikes in quantity for one event. The people that want yard art bikes think they are being somewhat unique, so if they see too many available they move on to the next trendy thing---like a used toilet with flowers growing in it....
Click to expand...

Ppl have been "yard-arting" bikes in my neck of the woods for probably 20 years or so; can't say whether it'll ever end, but it seems to be on the decline from how it was back at the turn of the century (as in, like, 2002). Still, plenty of folks doing it, and yes, I've been tempted to pull a heist to rescue some decent Bendix coaster hubs, but I digress.

CeeBee is right that having several yard-art offerings at once will probably kill the vibe, as would having your crusty/macho rear-end sitting in a chair by the money box. The target yard-art customer will want to buy these things from a sweet-n-crafty antique-type person, as in, a lady wearing gingham and round-framed eyeglasses. Better to have your ol' Lady do the selling, one yard-art bike at a time. Stash the other 6 in a van, and bring another out each time your wife/girlfriend/mom or whoever sells one for ya. :crazy:

As far as pricing goes, remember, folks with an antique shop enjoy different clientele and different pricing expectations than the typical bike flipper. I sell $6 cups of coffee all day at the cafe, but I bet I couldn't sell ANY $1-a-cup coffee out of my house, via Craigslist ads. Yeah, the shop can ask more, but they got more overhead, too....
 

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