Saying Goodbye To The Bike Hobby

[DJ Bill]

Yeah, he kinda exudes that "slightly full of BS " attitude...I get a kick out of his price quotes...this will sell for $50 all day long... etc.
I live about 3 hours from Austin and local antique dealers buy here to sell there.. It is a good (lots of folks with extra cash) market. A carpenter friend goes there for work, only coming home on weekends.

 

[the_undecider]

Yeah, he kinda exudes that "slightly full of BS " attitude...I get a kick out of his price quotes...this will sell for $50 all day long... etc.
I live about 3 hours from Austin and local antique dealers buy here to sell there.. It is a good (lots of folks with extra cash) market. A carpenter friend goes there for work, only coming home on weekends.

I should have added to my previous post that the Austin bike market is strong, though it has its ups and downs. Right now, it is weak. A lot has to do with the time of year and it will pick up soon. This "Bona fide Hustler" seems to be in it for the quick flip and not so concerned with making the bike really ready to ride. In his video, he recommended that you make sure the tubes hold air if possible. Too lazy to fix a simple flat? I get that some people just want to turn something over ASAP, but when you have a bike that is like every other dusty, fresh from the shed fixer-upper, why is someone going to pay you top dollar?

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Scrappers need love too. Remember, these were bikes worth less than $10. Would you really want to give that to a needy kid? Just saying.

 

[willswares1220]

For example, I've seen some people sell out of their front yards at a "great location" along a well traveled road or thoroughfare or along a bike trail and make some money, especially if they sell the cheaper, roadworthy, transportation type bikes for the non - collector type people to ride. The time of the season that people do a lot of biking.The bikes that are, for example $10.00 - $75.00 or so. Affordable type bikes that are clean, visible and displayed neatly for everyone to see. Just pick a time when your around to watch over them and perhaps make some $$$
Hold back the more collectable / valuable bikes $$ to sell elsewhere for a completely different clientele. To be determined........?????
You say you're done with bikes, but it gets in your blood and you're never out of it completely if you still get reward from it. It's a fever that "we bike nuts" get that's hard to get rid of !!

 

[American Vintage Bicycle Supply]

 

[ozzmonaut]

I never buy to make money. Sometimes I'll buy a bike for a part I need and sell the rest to get back part of what I paid. But I never make real money on bikes. A $10 bike is good if you need a rusty generic chainring or worn-out chinese bearings for some reason. If you need a cheap rider and are even slightly resourceful, you will throw one together from junk anyway. I bought a ridiculous amount of bike stuff for $500, some stuff cool or somewhat rare or valuable. However I don't have time to sit and list and list things and try to push for the highest dollar. So I sold dirt-cheap whatever I didn't want that would sell, kept what I wanted, scrapped the rest. Still don't think I made a dime. I sold a complete roadmaster mens tanker for $140. Anyone who knows me or sees my posts here knows that I do this because I enjoy bikes. I work long hours at a very laborious full-time job so I can afford to keep on doing this. I know hobbies don't generally pay for themselves. At least not with the time I'm willing to invest and my lack of desire to get over on people. If you really love bikes you just build them for yourself, and any money made is a happy accident.

 

[Bob Gray]

Could have at least posted a curb alert here and in the Craigslist free section. Going on a bike forum devoted to homebuilt and modified bikes and posting about sending bikes to the scrap yard is kind of low.

 

[user 15387]

I hear you on selling bikes. The way I roll is to buy projects for myself to ride first, then sell anything that's left over that I don't want mainly to recoup some expenses. I think if you try to make a business or a profit engine out of it, you're really making a lot of work and trouble for yourself. I'd enjoy the bikes as a personal hobby and sell mainly to recoup a few expenses and make some space.

 

[Bicycle808]

Long story short: if you want to make money flipping, you'll need to avoid low end bikes, and you'd need enough investment capital up front to get some decent bikes to flip. Flipping Magnas and Pacifics will never pay more than minimum wage....

If you enjoy the bike hobby, there are ways to sell and recoup costs, but I've found my best bet is with barter amongst other bike nerds for the nicer leftover parts, and donations to the co-ops or needy acquaintances for the cheaper stuff or in the case of a dire need (coworker got a dui, or a car repo'd, whatever. ) Selling on CL has always caused more headaches and wasted more time than the resulting sale was worth to me. I'm sure there are ways to deal with that, but with 1.5 real jobs and a social life, I'd prefer to waste time writing about bikes on forums like this one, as compared to arguing with Nigerian royalty over whether or not they really need me to launder $3million dollars for them while they buy a 1978 Suzuki (last thing I tried to sell on Craigs) from me.

 

[Rat Rod]

I think he's already gone.