Would You Buy It???

[wheelhorseman]

Today i got an interesting phone call from an elderly man who saw my ad in the paper wanting old bikes. Says he has at least 30 bikes that are in a trailer out of the weather and wants 100.00 for everything. He could not tell me any brands or sizes. Said they had been in there a long time and wanted them gone. He even agreed to meet me with the trailer to view. Sounds pretty good huh? KEEP READING.

So after about 2 hours of our conversation i get to wondering what exactly is the condition of the bikes so i call back and ask what it will take to make them rideable. His exact words "just need to put them back together" In other words its a bunch of junk piled in a trailer. Said theres frames wheels etc.

Well bike selling here is useless. Kids bikes dont sell at all. Single speed cruisers and mtn bikes will sell for about 10 bucks if they are in very good shape. Higher priced than that forget it. So im thinking sell parts on here but what if this stuff is a bunch of Walmart China junk?. You arent going to be able to assess much looking at a bunch of scrap at the back of a trailer and 100 bucks is a lot just to increase the size of my junkpile.

How would you know if it was worth the money not knowing exactly whats there.? If the bikes were whole then i would grab it because i think there would be some potential but parts and pieces i am not so sure of.

 

[dragnusa]

Id say take a look at what he has atleast, I always look at what parts are there and what It would cost me to buy them parts.

 

[CRASH]

Without a picture, we won't be able to help out with any "Hey, look at that!" help. I don't know what you're area is like, but if it were me and I had the room and the time, I would at least go look at it. If I saw anything remotely interesting that looked old with decent part, I would buy it. Then I would start going through it and getting ID's on everything. After that start selling on here and on Ebay.
It will take time and it will take effort, and it's a gamble. Worst case is that if you just hauled it to the scrapper, could you at least make your $100 back? My guess is you would.

Bottom line: You have to go with your gut on if the juice is worth the squeeze. Are you willing to put in the effort to make the money on flipping it all?

 

[dragnusa]

heres the way I look at it
any wheel sets (front and rear) in good shape $25
rebuildable cruiser seats even in rough shape $15
good shape cruiser seats $20
tanks atleast $10 each
cruiser bars in good shape atleast $5
hunt wilde grips good shape (set) $5

 

[wheelhorseman]

heres the way I look at it
any wheel sets (front and rear) in good shape $25
rebuildable cruiser seats even in rough shape $15
good shape cruiser seats $20
tanks atleast $10 each
cruiser bars in good shape atleast $5
hunt wilde grips good shape (set) $5

I will at least look at what he has and try to determine if its worth the gamble but i have my doubts. I tried selling some hard to come by parts on CL like rat trap pedals origonal banana seats aluminum wheelsets etc. and never got a call about anything so selling parts is not an option. Right now i have several real nice 20in. bikes for 20 bucks each that have been on 3 CL sites for weeks and have never got a call. They get relisted every few days. I even made some flyers up and posted them in the local coin laundry here which is a busy place and still no calls.

As for the 30 bike deal the last time i went to look at a large quanity someone wanted to sell me it was an old man who said he had 25 in a chicken house. All kinds he said. Ended up after a 30 mile each way drive to be about 7 bikes. They werent "all kinds" they were one kind JUNK. That caustic chicken litter dust had eat them up not fitting for the scrapper. I will let you know Friday thats when we are meeting.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Around here I don't have a problem selling bikes but at $100 if it's everything he says it is I'd go for it. Never hurts to look.

 

[CRASH]

...I tried selling some hard to come by parts on CL ... and never got a call about anything so selling parts is not an option.

You might need to expand your "business" into Ebay. It's really not that hard, you just have to ship.

 

[honestherman]

Why do you have an ad "Bikes Wanted", if you are not willing to drive over there?
You said you spoke to that guy for 2 hours about a 100.00 purchase of a load of old bikes? That old man is very patient !
It sounds like you only want a specific kind of bike. Just change your ad to " only complete bikes" " No Chicken Poop on bikes Please"
Just post his phone number here so that other people can contact him. I have a feeling they will all be sold by the time you get over there.
They may be sold by the time you get over there.

 

[Bama Bill]

Where do you live,Alabama? Same story on selling bikes.I bought 31 a couple of months ago. .They were left on the beach in Gulf Shores ,Al and impounded.I bought them from a local who brought them from Gulf Shores.I gave $80 for them and parted out all but two BMX bikes.They sold pretty easy.I kept everything I could use or may use and got $40 for the junk at the recycler.I don't think I would do that again.They were all complete.Nothing old and all dept.store stuff.

 

[wheelhorseman]

Why do you have an ad "Bikes Wanted", if you are not willing to drive over there?
You said you spoke to that guy for 2 hours about a 100.00 purchase of a load of old bikes? That old man is very patient !

First of all i dont get where you think we talked for 2hrs. Ouf first conversation lasted about 5 mins but about 2hrs. later i called him back because he was not very descriptive about what he had. He failed to mention they were all in pieces. Thats like trying to sell someone a car and not telling them it has no motor or wheels on it. Would have been pretty peed to make a 100 miles round trip to look at a pile of junk. One thing i have learned is that around here these ole junk scroungers and hoarders will tell you anything to get you to come look.

Now as for me not wanting to make the trip. We are 50 miles apart but Friday i will be about 10 miles from him so HE said he would bring them to me.

 

[honestherman]

You Said "So after about 2 hours of our conversation"

So you are really saying "So about 2 hours AFTER our conversation"

Sorry My mistake I did not understand what you were saying. My mistake,
Good luck on finding bikes

 

[Fahrrad]

It depends on scrap price, in Waco TX, 1000lb of metal = $100, so buy it, sell what you can here and scrap the rest.

 

[honestherman]

OK, So what did you do? Did you go to look at the stuff or Buy it or what?

 

[wheelhorseman]

Left em alone and never looked back. I dont need a bunch of junk piled up that i couldnt give away. I am trying my hand at selling parts here on RRB. I do ok but its not hardly worth the hassle after shipping cost you dont make enough to worry with and the "good" parts that i thought would sell get little or no interest. For example i went and bought up a bunch of banana seats to resell thinking these would go like hot cakes. I dont think i could pay somebody to take them. Now i am stuck with them. I dont regret passing up that deal one bit.

 

[honestherman]

Well you never looked at the Trailer of stuff, So you dont really know what it was.

As far as resale stuff and making money. Remember you are talking about Bicycles here. Not High Performance speed equipment.
I walked into Target yesterday. They have a 26" Schwinn Cruiser complete. Mans bike with rack on back. $125.00
I know they dont build them like they used to, But I can still walk out with a nice Cruiser with everything new on it.
Good Luck on finding what you like.

 

[LarzBahrs]

Why didnt you even go look at them when you were 10 miles from him? You could have potentially made a killing here on RRB. :roll: