To sell or not to sell...

[bikesntrikes]

I've been pondering this question for the last few days. I have a small bicycle collection that I've ammassed over the last few years. The bikes are not rare, but are of vintage. I have a little over a dozen bikes that I'm thinking about selling. This will leave me with 4-5 others to keep.

However, I'm torn whether I want to do that or not. Everytime I look at them, I find myself thinking about either fixing up the bike, adding accessories, and/or riding it around. But, for the last year or so, I haven't touched any of my bikes. I didn't even get a chance to ride at least once over this past summer. I also have a fair amount of parts and accessories along with these bikes.

These bikes are sitting in my shed and take up all of the room. I'm running out of storage space in the garage and could really use some of the room in the shed. If I do decide to sell, what would be the best way? I'd love to sell them as one lot to someone because this would be faster, but I don't want to take a loss on them. Piecing them out will take a long time, but likely will get me the return that I'm thinking of. If I do sell them, I know that I'll likely regret it later... but there'll always be more bikes.

Here's my shed. It's even more packed now. I have started to store a few bikes outside of the shed now.

And here's a link to pictures of some of my bikes that I'm thinking about selling. I'm still on the fence about the Hiawatha and/or the Evans.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=2149470

I'll post them in the FOR SALE section here if I do decide to sell. Please help me make a decision.

 

[2manybikes]

If storage is the main issue then maybe you could hang some of your bikes and create some more space?
Hate to see anybody sell cool stuff and then regret it later :mrgreen:

 

[jerrykr]

remove the pedals and zip tie them to the frame. Turn the handlebars sideways, you can get them packed much closer together.

 

[karfer67]

maybe thin the herd a bit but remember the economy is in the tank at the moment when it comes to selling bikes.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I can't stand to see anything go unused, so for me, I would sell it all except one or two that are special. What's the point in having stuff you don't use?

 

[Kevintothej]

Weed out the ones you really dont need, free up the space, and you can take the money from the sale to make the ones you keep even better. Win, win.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I always rank my bikes from favorite to least favorite and when storage gets to be an issue I sell off the Walmart junk, part out some of them, and take a few of the junk frames to the scrapyard and drag home a few more and make the problem worse :roll: :mrgreen:

I have a small tin shed and many frames with reverse dropouts can be hung on the tin rafter. Really helps when trying to find space for that new bike, just throw the wheels in the corner and hang it up. But you may not want to listen to my advice, my shed looks WAY worse than yours...... :shock:

 

[ckdesigns69]

Man, it would be hard to part with them. I like the straight bar bike. What is it?

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Man, it would be hard to part with them. I like the straight bar bike. What is it?

The one hanging out behind the black trailer? It was a spray-bombed Murry, I think I gave that one away for parts with the Schwinn I sold last month.

 

[Daddyar]

I kind of have the same dilemma. I have a few that I'm attached to, and some I buy just to flip. I'm also the only one in the family without a rideable bike of my own right now. If you have a few you like more than others, keep them and sell the others.
If you can hang stuff, check these out:

These are about $2.50 each at Home Depot, and can hold up to 50 pounds each. I like them because you don't have to drill into the rafters.

 

[M.Martian]

I saw those bikes on CL the other day. If I had the money I would have picked up that fair lady for parts for my 1970 stingray I'm very slowly gathering parts for.

 

[bikesntrikes]

Yup, I put up a little more than a dozen on CL a few days ago. I'm still keeping about six other bikes. Many have called, but none have showed up. Everyone wants them for cheap!

 

[Wildcat]

Can't get a decent price for vintage bikes right now. Tax return time should be better, but we might be paying more tax now, so that's out the window too.

I like those hooks in Daddyar's post. I would have bought a dozen if I knew they were there. I used an 8' 2x4 and laid it in the rafters , then added bike hooks to the 2x4 to store my bikes.

 

[gashuffy63]

Possibly cull out the duplicates? Those tandems take up loads of room. I just scrapped a pile of Ladies bikes after pulling all of the good parts to use later, it was a shame but the market is flooded with them around here. If not hooks work great, small bikes above and the larger ones side by side tight beneath.

 

[Rat Rod]

SELL SELL SELL!!! :mrgreen:

 

[M.Martian]

SELL SELL SELL!!! :mrgreen:

I don't see any Felts in there so you're out of luck. :mrgreen: