GOOD NIGHT NURSE! -- FORT WORTH BIKE SALE

[tuga]

I went there with a mission to find me a prewar cruiser in good shape and that's what I did, believe me I wanted to buy all of them too and had a pocket full of mazuma . I even left

early before I changed my mind...LOL!. Had no plans to buy and flip, kinda burned out on flipping bikes right now, specially shipping stuff. Like Steve mentioned, we were probably not

the best candidates to be at that sale... :wink:

 

[jerrykr]

Steve sez:

"It was sort of a strange situation...you were surrounded by tons of bikes, you could only take two out at a time, and you really had to focus and concentrate to even know what the heck you were looking at half the time. Mix in a bunch of people all milling around grabbing bikes and it was enough to make your brain lock up...ha ha. :lol:"

This really sums it up for me. I just picked out 2 that I had money for, and that I have never owned, and something compelled me to keep my hand on the bar and roll it up to the front. Did I make a good buy, I think so, easily worth the money parting them out, but I have already learned that the profit margin is low on these things, and you usually you get stuck with a frame, and you don't know ahead of time which parts are stuck in the frame.

At least I didn't buy a bike without a seat!

Crazy thing is: I made more yesterday (the day after the sale) selling walmart type bikes I got at HOA garage sales last week, posting then on CL while it rained than I spent at the big sale. Just not much satisfaction in adjusting junk brakes and shifters.

My neighbor just rolled 2 "Next" bikes up the street for me to clean up and sell. Oh boy!
(he did mention something about his dad keeping the bikes he had as a child...... hope springs eternal).
.

 

[creebobby]

The 1/2 price thing started at one maybe? Everything slowed down and most of the prize bikes were gone - then they announced that everything was half price, and it all stayed half price until the end.
All of a sudden sales perked up again!

Yeah the late 40s cruiser I got is a Huffman made bike.

If I could do it again I would have rented a U-Haul flatbed and stocked up on $20 donor/parts/project/craigslist bikes. Which would have been my wife's worst nightmare, so it's a good thing I can't do it again! But now every time I need a good serviceable wheelset or some other simple old part, I'll be seeing the yard.

What was best about this event, and what made it worth every penny any of us spent, was that it was structured to make it fun - a testament to the guys who helped put it on. It was like a gameshow bonanza free-for-all type of thing - the excitement of an easter egg hunt with the magic dinge of what we all dream of but can never find - a classic bicycle junkyard with everything up for grabs.

It would have cost me over $1200-$1500 to buy online what I got for $300 at the sale. But nothing I got was my 'dream bike', or very hard to find with a few clicks of a mouse.

Again, I feel like the real value was the experience of the event. I woke up sans alarm at 5:50 the morning of the sale, and it felt like Christmas morning as a kid. Exactly like that.

Now I can't wait to give my nephew the Batmobile!

 

[tornadofan]

Re: GOOD NIGHT NURSE! -- SALE OF ALL SALES

Anybody see what the Manta Rays sold for? And all the Stingrays?

the mant a rays went for 100 and up stingrays varied.I bought a manta ray and three stingrays for

 

[tornadofan]

I heard there were 2 to 300 bikes left inside and two guys from houston bought it all for 2000

 

[Rat Rod]

Sounds like $2000 worth of someone else's headache.

 

[nwt76]

It could have been a 3 day sale :lol:

 

[Rat Rod]

Sounds like that's exactly what they are doing this weekend.

I heard from several folks at the swap meet today that the two guys from Houston are up here this weekend and they are trying to sell as much of it off as they can. They paid $2000 for what was left including another HUGE load of bikes and parts that were filling the two storage buildings and they were told this past week that they had to have it all out by this weekend.

I guess they are planning to move what they don't sell into the storage unit across the street until they can haul it all back to Houston.

A few folks went over to the warehouse again this morning and picked up a bunch more.

 

[phantombmx]

Sounds like $2000 worth of someone else's headache.

I assure you there was no headache digging thru the two building full of bike items and the price was more like half the $2000. I belive I met you while we were up there nice talking to you....

 

[Rat Rod]

Ha Ha...you must have more time, space and energy than me. :wink:

You'll have to remind me when we met because I have hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast at this point. :lol:

 

[jerrykr]

Are bikes still being sold at that location, or close by? I keep running into people who make vague references to bikes being sold over in that area from what was left over after the sale. I ran into a guy at a couple of garage sales this week-end who told me somewhat the same thing, but had no idea where he had spent $600 dollars. hmmmmm????

 

[axsepul]

Just got home from a bike show. Talked to a guy that was selling parts from this location. So some of the parts already made it to puerto rico

 

[phantombmx]

I would imagine that if you offered any true collector the opportunity to dig thru 2 buildings 80'x100' they would find the time, energy and all the room needed for the good stuff left in those buildings.
I met you when you came out there on that saturday and I was going thru the contents..

Ha Ha...you must have more time, space and energy than me. :wink:

You'll have to remind me when we met because I have hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast at this point. :lol:

 

[Rat Rod]

I guess I'm not a "true collector" then. :lol:

I went that Saturday with money to spend and only left with 4 bikes and said "Nah" to a bunch of them laying around.

After all of the years of dealing with this stuff, my interests in the collecting side of this hobby have narrowed down quite a bit.

There was some cool bikes there that day, but it wasn't like I was tripping over piles of amazing bikes. If you loved middleweights and lightweight bikes you were in Heaven.

As the ones who ended up scoring the warehouse contents, I'm sure yall managed to pick up some nice bikes. It just sounded like a lot of work and gas money to me...especially when you got notice that you had to get the stuff out pronto.

I don't remember meeting anyone that day at the sale. I was not wearing a RRB shirt and the only people I talked to was member "tuga" and Kevin Murphy.