I saw this one listed last night on CL. I really didn't need another girl's bike but there was no price listed in the ad and I had to know so I emailed them about it. The fact that it was only about a mile from my place didn't hurt either.
The owner sent me a response saying that it needed some TLC but that she had seen nice versions of similar bicycles selling for $300 and up. Now this kind of ticked me off as this person is clearly not used to dealing in the buying and selling of old bikes and doesn't really know what they are talking about. To me it's like someone owning an old Ford Pinto and saying, 'I don't really know what it's worth but I saw another restored old car sell for $30K so I figure it's worth around that'.
I sent her back a polite email explaining that she might be a little optimistic to think that her specific bike might get that kind of money and then I laid out why I thought that. Basically I told her that in the condition it was in I would be comfortable paying $40-50 for it.
After a couple of hours she emailed me back and thought that sounded fair. So I went over to have a look at it. It was actually a bit nicer than I expected so I gave her $50 for it and felt like it was a fair deal for both parties.
It even still had the 1956 Minneapolis bicycle license plate on it!
The owner sent me a response saying that it needed some TLC but that she had seen nice versions of similar bicycles selling for $300 and up. Now this kind of ticked me off as this person is clearly not used to dealing in the buying and selling of old bikes and doesn't really know what they are talking about. To me it's like someone owning an old Ford Pinto and saying, 'I don't really know what it's worth but I saw another restored old car sell for $30K so I figure it's worth around that'.
I sent her back a polite email explaining that she might be a little optimistic to think that her specific bike might get that kind of money and then I laid out why I thought that. Basically I told her that in the condition it was in I would be comfortable paying $40-50 for it.
After a couple of hours she emailed me back and thought that sounded fair. So I went over to have a look at it. It was actually a bit nicer than I expected so I gave her $50 for it and felt like it was a fair deal for both parties.
It even still had the 1956 Minneapolis bicycle license plate on it!
