Under pricing on flips

[Bicycle808]

Dude, how do you think I am paying for my vacation to Southeast Asia?
How do you think I paid for the cool vintage frames and bikes that I have.
If you know what you are doing, there is good money to be had while having fun at the same time.
And I do it without swindling anyone.
It's called a free market economy and it's as American as those old bikes you enjoy!

Fair enough, but it DOES serve to drive up prices on used bikes. If you're really making that kind of cheddar off of flipping, others will try it, too. Which is why all truly cheap ($20ish) bikes sell on CL in about 15 minutes; rarely to ppl who actually want to own the bike, but to a bunch of guys who want to slap some new tubes on it, clean the chain, and sell it for $100. Yeah, you're "allowed" to, I'm not telling anyone to STOP, but I miss the days of giveaway or cheap used bikes being a regular occurrence. Now, we've got too many flippers chasing the same cheap bikes, all in an effort to make them into more expensive bikes.

Maybe I'm just stingy, which is as American as being greedy... :mrgreen:

-rob

 

[kingfish254]

I can appreciate stingy!
I just refuse to ever apologize for turning coin on a bike or anything else that I sell. I get multiple repeat customers or referrals, so the people must not be getting ripped off. My ebay feedback is through the roof.
I just don't understand the mindset that profit is BAD JUJU and should be avoided. Profit does not equal greed. Profit equals paying for a hobby that I enjoy and giving me extra coin to have fun with.

 

[kingfish254]

808, I am just curious. I once sold a $10 painting on ebay for $3000. Should I have just told the guy to send me $20 instead, so that the art market didn't get too inflated?

 

[mos6502]

808, I am just curious. I once sold a $10 painting on ebay for $3000. Should I have just told the guy to send me $20 instead, so that the art market didn't get too inflated?

If it was a crappy painting yeah. :lol:

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

90s mtn bikes are pretty in demand. On Bikeforums.net there is a sticky thread all about them.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Most times I only buy Walmart bikes if they are dirt cheap or I need a good parts bike. I have a few customers in town though that buy anything that rides because their bikes get stolen or they ride them into the ground.

 

[NewOrleansFlyer]

A few weeks back, I drove 300 RT to pick up a bike. Paid about what it was worth, factoring in the gas....spent some cash, but hey, I got out of town and had a great trip.

 

[jerrykr]

bike flipping profits allows me to buy cool stickers and t-shirts from Rat Rod!

..... and a few other things for the bikes I'm going to keep that I normally would not want to spend the money on. :wink:

 

[kingfish254]

bike flipping profits allows me to buy cool stickers and t-shirts from Rat Rod!

..... and a few other things for the bikes I'm going to keep that I normally would not want to spend the money on. :wink:

Judging from some of Steve's post, bike flipping helps pay for this website too.

 

[largek9]

Well I guess the bottom line is (IMHO) the process of flipping,selling, or parting of used bikes,benefits in one way or another everyone on this forum If it did'nt happen we would' nt be here! and with 10,000 members I say KEEP ON SELLING BOYS AND GIRLS !
P.S. Oh ya if we didnt how ya gonna have a RRBO7 :?: ok I 'm done now!

 

[Bicycle808]

I can appreciate stingy!
I just refuse to ever apologize for turning coin on a bike or anything else that I sell. I get multiple repeat customers or referrals, so the people must not be getting ripped off. My ebay feedback is through the roof.
I just don't understand the mindset that profit is BAD JUJU and should be avoided. Profit does not equal greed. Profit equals paying for a hobby that I enjoy and giving me extra coin to have fun with.

Ebay is typically an auction; unless you put a "buy it now" at $3g, ppl must've gotten into a bizarre bidding war that netted you $2990 profit. I guess the maqrket has spoken. Good on you! (Unless it was my wife who bought it, in which case, you'll be hearing from me :shock: )

I think that flipping is a bad for the hobby b/c it needlessly inflates prices. This is true b/c so many flippers have a big bicycle $pending habit, too, so the whole thing snowballs. Flippers sometimes fall prey to other flippers, so the situation is kind of cyclical.

Take the most recent purchase I've made of a used complete bicycle. I had a sudden and urgent hankering to buy a late 80s mtb, with the low-mounted u-brake that was all the rage for a couple of years. I found one one CL, priced too high, but you know how it is when you HAVE to have it--and it was my size. I bought it from the guy, who was an obvious flipper, and I can't hold that against him, I guess. But, I ended up spending $130 for a bike that he prolly got for $25 in a sorry state, and I guess I paid for the horrible saddle he put on, the cheap and ghastly replacement rear rim he used to (improperly) rebuild the rear wheel with, along with some turd tires he must've had lying around. The thing is, he probably pounced on a good deal for a bike that he doesn't even want, and then he wastes time, effort, and money making "improvements" he thought were necessary to sell the bike, which I tore off immediately b/c it was the kind of trash that alot of flippers use to try to prey on the foolish.

Now, I'm not a standard fool, but I am a hopeless bicycle addict who knowingly got chumped by the flipper, but i prolly would've paid more for the original rim out-of-true, the knackered original saddle, and just about any other tires than the one he used. This guy doesn't like 80s mtbikes; he likes "coin", and he artificially drove up the price of 80s mtbikes that day thru his greed. (To be fair, I'm just as guilty, b/c I drove up the price as a buyer thru my lust for the Deore MT60 mtb group and the triple-butted chromoly frame they were hung on...) How does anyone benefit from this? He probably made about $80 on the deal, but he spent quite a few hours between rebuilding the wheel, cleaning/trying(failing) to tune the bike, placing the ad, responding to emails, possibly dealing with tire-kickers offering him $25 for it, and me being 10 minutes late to meet him at 7am in a parking lot somewhere for a test-ride. If he's really doing that sort of thing for the money, he oughta get himself a real job. If he's doing it to make me pay $130 for a bike that I should've paid far less for, or to make me spend many more hours and drive further to find a similar one for a fair price--well, then I guess he's just a sociopath.

I'm not suggesting that anyone should "apologize" for turning profit on the purchase and sale of bikes they don't want but bought simply to sell, but it does stink. I don't apologize for farting, either, but I totally realize how others might not like it, and I tend to excuse myself when I do. As for me, I don't buy bikes or parts that i don't wish to actually own and ride...

-rob

ps- profit doesn't necessarily equal greed, but I think some profit is better than others. Someone who builds things to sell is better, in my opinion, than a guy who buys things manufactured elsewhere by others to sell at a profit (pointless middleman). A doctor's profit is (sometimes) more honorable than a prostitute's profit. And I think it's kind of unnecessary and shameful to profit by cherry-picking the best bikes on CL and similar sources to sell them on CL later to those who don't have the time to scour CL for cheap bikes all day...

 

[kingfish254]

Now, I'm not a standard fool...

The only thing I agree with you on is your quote above. I think you are exceptional!

 

[Bicycle808]

Now, I'm not a standard fool...

The only thing I agree with you on is your quote above. I think you are exceptional!

Cool. So, you think it is worthwhile to make about $10 an hour doing routine bike repair and various forms of salesmanship, even though you'd make more as a drone at a bikeshop without having to meet with psychotic CL low-ballers?

I am honestly fascinated by whatever form of "wisdom" is behind that...
-rob

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I can appreciate stingy!
I just refuse to ever apologize for turning coin on a bike or anything else that I sell. I get multiple repeat customers or referrals, so the people must not be getting ripped off. My ebay feedback is through the roof.
I just don't understand the mindset that profit is BAD JUJU and should be avoided. Profit does not equal greed. Profit equals paying for a hobby that I enjoy and giving me extra coin to have fun with.

Yeah as I always say if I find a bike at a yard sale for $5 THEY priced it. I'm not going to haggle it down to $3, but I'm not going to tell them it's worth $100 either. The longer they go on oblivious to the world of collectable bikes the longer I can buy cheap bikes at their next yard sales. :mrgreen: I can say though TV did me a favor. I sold a tandem bike project a while back and the guy had seen an episode of American Pickers or Storage Wars of a Schwinn Tandem that he said was worth a lot of money. I said I'm asking $100 and he didn't haggle it down at all. :mrgreen:

As long as the buyer and the seller reach an agreement that both are happy with then others need to stop being jealous that someone besides them got a good deal. Thing is most of my best scores I have yet to sell. I got major deals on them but I figure I don't have much into them and I don't have to sell them until I'm good and ready. Call me a hoarder if you want but I got some cool bikes. :mrgreen:

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Just about everything being sold anywhere could be called flipping. Stores buy stuff and then resell it for a profit. That is how business works.

Exactly, or all this Chinese junk we buy, they sold you $0.52 worth of scrap metal in the shape of a tool and charged you $15. At least my customers leave happy.

 

[kingfish254]

I think most of us are preaching to the choir here.
Turning a profit on a bike is fun and doesn't require any justification to someone that doesn't like it.
I will continue to flip bikes and other yard sale finds (for much more than $10 an hour).
Oh yeah, and I will definitely enjoy the fruits (and drinks) of my labor in Bali.
Bon Voy Ahh Gee

 

[jerrykr]

I think we may have 2 different definitions of "flipping" here.

1. selling to bike hobby people/collectors like US.

2. buying bikes and selling bikes to and from the general public.

I personally try to find bikes cheap, repair the problems and make them generally safe to ride, and usually sell them for 1/2 dept store prices to the general public saving them a bundle on the initial cost and they don't have to pay sales taxes. Yep! I take a profit for my time and trouble or I would not mess with it.

I have a feeling that your problem is perceived to be the collectors buying and selling collector type bikes and parts, jacking prices up to what a lot of people think Mike and Frank pay on the TV show. No one forces anyone else to pay more than they think a part is worth, or what they happen to want to pay.

Good discussion here IMHO!

 

[Danimal]

Good thread here. Personally, I don't try to buy bikes to flip. If I'm at a yard sale, flea market or whatever and a bike is in my face, and it's dirt cheap...yeah I'll pick it up. Whether its old or new, it's usually a hassle for me. I don't have the time to fix it, clean it, and sell it for a profit. In most cases I pass them on to local friend who want to fix them up for themselves. I've given away 2 bikes this month and I could have made $$$ on both of them if I wanted to spend the time. But they were both given to me so what the heck.

What flipping bikes (and parts) has done though is allow me to buy some bikes I really want! It's a fun hobby and in the beginning It was expensive. Now it pretty much pays for itself and I have some cool rides.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I think we may have 2 different definitions of "flipping" here.

1. selling to bike hobby people/collectors like US.

2. buying bikes and selling bikes to and from the general public.

I personally try to find bikes cheap, repair the problems and make them generally safe to ride, and usually sell them for 1/2 dept store prices to the general public saving them a bundle on the initial cost and they don't have to pay sales taxes. Yep! I take a profit for my time and trouble or I would not mess with it.

I have a feeling that your problem is perceived to be the collectors buying and selling collector type bikes and parts, jacking prices up to what a lot of people think Mike and Frank pay on the TV show. No one forces anyone else to pay more than they think a part is worth, or what they happen to want to pay.

Good discussion here IMHO!

Or my kind of flipping, Buying from general people for pennies and selling to collectors and hobbyists at fair market value. :mrgreen:
Most times I don't work on X-mart bikes unless I get them free and they don't need many parts simply because now days by the time you buy 2 tires, 2 tubes, and a brake or gear cable you're up to $50 into a bike that you might get $50 out of. Just no money in it. I normally part them out when I do get them.