Dumpster dive dilemna

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Cap, do you see flipping potentially hot or abandoned bikes is relatively low on the totem pole of concerns? I can understand acquiring vintage and good quality stuff from dubious sources.

Record serial numbers, get'em out the door and sleep well at night. Every business person accepts a loss at some point. So long as it doesn't happen often.
 
Cap, do you see flipping potentially hot or abandoned bikes is relatively low on the totem pole of concerns? I can understand acquiring vintage and good quality stuff from dubious sources.

Record serial numbers, get'em out the door and sleep well at night. Every business person accepts a loss at some point. So long as it doesn't happen often.

I think it's extremely low concern that somehow one would end up in possession or flipping a hot ride (at least for me in my relatively small community) Occasionally I'm sure one could make it's way through due to some scumbags unscrupulous acts, but it's low concern

Just more of a talking point. I never really considered it until the Mrs brought it up
 
How many people with Wally world bikes know the serial numbers?

We used to live in a high crime area and had an Electra Townie stolen from the basement bike locker of our apartment building along with maybe 30 other bikes. My wife was really upset about it so she found a foot patrol cop and reported it. He said "You have to have the serial number" and she had it because I save everything. He was so pissed. He tried to talk her out of filing the paperwork because he said they'd never recover it. I guess paperwork isn't fun.
 
I buy a lot of arbitrage and haven't encountered the police yet. That said, I do avoid deals that make me uncomfortable.

I know of some NYC folks who got to sit in the back of a cop car for trying to sell some bikes that were reported stolen.... in OHIO. Apparently the jerks stealing nicer bikes have become aware of people searching CL and such for their missing bikes so they truck them to other geographies to unload. I guess things like Instagram are probably amplifying the message of nicer stuff being stolen.

I wouldn't worry about cheaper bikes. It would suck to put some work into it and lose it but you shouldn't be putting more than a few bucks into it if you're serious about flipping.
 
It’s happened to me, the bike was disassembled in a dumpster. I repaired and rode it to work and on the second year the original owner saw it and said it was stolen. I just gave it back, bikes are all over the place, no big deal. He reported me to the cops and I told them it was apart, missing the front wheel and other stuff and pulled out of a dumpster. They said be more careful. The replacement wheel was from another junk bike. He ended out with a much nicer bike, new used tires, but it was his.
 
You never know if this guy is watching ?
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