# 350 + bikes that found me,looking for a buyer or backer



## kirk thomas (May 28, 2020)

This collection is in a 20' building made out of heavy duty tarps so they are all dry except the bikes outside. He said you can have all the bikes inside and outside. There are around 350 bikes in the room they are hanging and stacked. He would not let me tear down the walls to get in there to see what he has, so I only got to cut a hole in the plastic to get a few pictures but not very good one's. He came up with a price of $20 a bike at 350 bikes= $7000. I told him he would not get half that and would do better if I could sell them in bunches or singles. This is a blind buy but sometimes that is where you find treasures. There is all kinds of bikes in there, I saw a pair of wooden handlebars but could not get a good picture of it. There is banana seat bikes,balloon tire and older bikes,tricycles, a pedal car maybe more, plus some wagons. I need someone to give me an estimate as to what this might be worth. 
I am retired and would be willing to deliver to you if you wanted to rent a U-haul truck. You would just have to cover my travel expense food and gas and maybe a bike out of the bunch.
This guy is very private and does not want a bunch of people coming just to look.


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## 1motime (May 28, 2020)

Might be a good deal for someone with LOTS of time on their hands!


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## hzqw2l (May 28, 2020)

If swap meets were allowed it might be a opportunity but right now it would just be someone else's storage problem.


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## catfish (May 28, 2020)

Interested in the Bluebird....


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## kirk thomas (May 28, 2020)

I do not have anything to do but I do not have the cash at this time.
No problems.
I can do the work you supply the $
Thanks, Kirk


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## kirk thomas (May 28, 2020)

catfish said:


> Interested in the Bluebird....



You never know what's at the bottom of these piles.


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## hzqw2l (May 28, 2020)

kirk thomas said:


> You never know what's at the bottom of these piles.



Dead grass?


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## John G04 (May 28, 2020)

Wow that’d be fun to dig around!


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## mrg (May 28, 2020)

Probably a few jewels among a bunch of turds, I see alot of girls bikes!, looks like my kind of back yard tho!, I love diggin!


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## kirk thomas (May 28, 2020)

hzqw2l said:


> Dead grass?



No Grass he even has a floor in there.


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## Euphman06 (May 28, 2020)

Looks like one of those people who just buy everything in site whether it's worth it or not.


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## BFGforme (May 28, 2020)

Looks like lots and lots of$5 girls bikes!


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## HARPO (May 28, 2020)

Looks like a lot of Curbside Pickups...


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## kirk thomas (Jun 3, 2020)

This is what I want to do. I will change the deal to cash only as everyone wants the Bluebird under the pile. If there is something like that there it would have to be sold to pay the investors. If they are all middle of the road under the piles there would have to be some adjustments. I cannot guarantee there are any super bikes under there but just think if there is a half dozen under there. Everyone would be very happy. If there is something super there it would be offered to the investors first at a discounted price.
I think there is enough stuff there to double the investment. At the very least you would get your investment back. I do not have the resources to pay out of my pocket and everyone would have to take some risk.
Thank You, Kirk


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## vincev (Jun 3, 2020)

I got tired just thinking of going through that pile.


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## Archie Sturmer (Jun 3, 2020)

Seems like the owner should be paying someone to haul the stuff away; late spring cleaning.


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## kreika (Jun 3, 2020)

Where does the average person stash 350 bikes once purchased? Lol  I see a lot of thin tire, geared bikes. Probably coat ya $50-60in tubes n tires to get one sell worthy. Add in other repairs your upside down real quick. If say 30 of the bikes are keepers. Then your at $233 a bike. Minus the pain of disposing/fixing up 320 bikes. I’m thinking he should sell it  to you Kirk for 2k. Make it worth your while. Good luck!


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## 49autocycledeluxe (Jun 3, 2020)

I want to sell these bikes... oh no, you can't look at them, just give me $7,000.00 and hope for the best.

what could go wrong on a deal like that?


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## vincev (Jun 3, 2020)

might be too late,I saw Boris's truck.........


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## BFGforme (Jun 3, 2020)

vincev said:


> might be too late,I saw Boris's truck.........
> 
> 
> View attachment 1204897



That is soooo rad!


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## Duchess (Jun 3, 2020)

Might be tough to make the money back—I don't think the scrap yard would give $20/bike plus transport expenses. Sure, bikes are in demand (at the moment and these kinds of bikes still aren't the ones anyone but the most desperate new/returning riders are looking for), but it looks like everything needs work and none of it once in good riding condition would sell for much more than the $20 plus the cost of the new parts they need and that many would take years to move even around Boston. Maybe a bike co-op could take them as a donation, but that's such a volume I don't know if they could store it, plus they probably regularly get better donations to begin with. Having known a bunch of hoarders and having a friend who used to work sourcing antiques for auctions from estate sales that were usually former-mansions-become-hoarder-den liquidations (he had some great stories, though!), my estimation is that in the low likelihood there's anything of value, it won't be worth the trouble and would probably be in terrible shape. I base that on the indiscriminate nature of the "collection", low quality of what can be seen, the way they're just jammed into a makeshift kind of storage unit (because every other potential area was probably already jammed with other junk), they show no signs of recent use or intent to be used or any kind of turn over, and that the guy won't let anyone look at it, but delusionally thinks it's worth something and that people would buy it nearly sight unseen based on his word.


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## Rivnut (Jun 3, 2020)

catfish said:


> Interested in the Bluebird....



 You and about six hundred other guys.


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## John Gailey (Jun 3, 2020)

Duchess said:


> Might be tough to make the money back—I don't think the scrap yard would give $20/bike plus transport expenses. Sure, bikes are in demand (at the moment and these kinds of bikes still aren't the ones anyone but the most desperate new/returning riders are looking for), but it looks like everything needs work and none of it once in good riding condition would sell for much more than the $20 plus the cost of the new parts they need and that many would take years to move even around Boston. Maybe a bike co-op could take them as a donation, but that's such a volume I don't know if they could store it, plus they probably regularly get better donations to begin with. Having known a bunch of hoarders and having a friend who used to work sourcing antiques for auctions from estate sales that were usually former-mansions-become-hoarder-den liquidations (he had some great stories, though!), my estimation is that in the low likelihood there's anything of value, it won't be worth the trouble and would probably be in terrible shape. I base that on the indiscriminate nature of the "collection", low quality of what can be seen, the way they're just jammed into a makeshift kind of storage unit (because every other potential area was probably already jammed with other junk), they show no signs of recent use or intent to be used or any kind of turn over, and that the guy won't let anyone look at it, but delusionally thinks it's worth something and that people would buy it nearly sight unseen based on his word.



Ditto.


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## Arnold Ziffel (Jun 3, 2020)

Earth to Captain Kirk,  you have been out in space too long,  as it is clouding your otherwise wise and rational thinking!!
It is a terrible idea.

There is no question that there might be a few desireable bicycles and related parts and accessories in that sad collossal gigantic enclosed trash heap collection that likely some aging horder "saved" from the crusher.

Likely,  you'll see  such  a  mammoth collection that nobody will pay anything for the entire lot.   will make its way to the local dump via the paid contracted trash haulers that are employed by either the executor of the estate of the horder  --or--  after the sale of the property, when the still living horder cannot sell the lot in the timeframe necessary before the area must be vacated.     Sadly,  you see this all too often with people that just for whatever reason kept collecting far beyond what would have been anything manageable.

The  associated costs to move the entire mess of junk,  as well as the costs to  dispose of the junk and/or weed through the junk to find possible worthwhile items  are  simply too great  to  even consider  paying  anything at all for the whole she-bang.    ZERO!!

Now if the horder, were to  perhaps  sell  the few possible gems individually in the normal generally accepted manner of providing multiple angle high definition photographs,  then perhaps there might be folks that would be interested in paying a fair market price for that item (or those few items) but I highly doubt that there is anyone on Earth at this point in time that would accept that ENTIRE LOT,  UNLESS HE OR SHE WAS PAID TO HAUL AWAY THE ENTIRE LOT OF BICYCLES!

You see this often with folks and their classic  car collections.     I'll give you just one example without mentioning any names.    A  guy  owns  many acres of land  in  what was out in the sticks relative to  the metropolitan Atlanta Georgia area in 1982.    This guy collected over 400 Chevrolet Corvairs of all types and years during the period after he retired in 1973.     He was 58 when he retired.   By 1982 when he was 67 years old,   he had  at least 380 Corvairs on the many acres of his rural property  that also had creeks and a 12 acre pond.   By 1985,  the northwest Atlanta suburbs are now very close to this once rural farmland area.   Well,  his wife dies in 1986 and  now at 71 he has nobody that will be that reality-check  and  say honey you're 71 now and you've got hundreds of cars, and you do not need any more,  if anything you should try to get down to a manageable amount of say ten or twelve cars, including parts cars and maybe one organized barn with engines, engine cases, transaxles, body parts, carburetors, etc.        Well  he keeps expanding his hord of junk.   What happened is the area became the new nice suburbs of metro Atlanta by 1990 and  he is forced by the county to clean up the eyesore...........................Well moving 400 cars within a sixty-day time frame is not without significant cost to a 75 year old who although is far from poor,  but  think about it when you're faced with moving all of it within sixty days,    you're either gonna pay through the nose  or  you're gonna have to let the junk dealers and other car club pals take what they want for free and then I'd bet the sales proceeds and disposition costs  at  best balanced out to zero,  if not a massive balance towards the payment to the junk removal people that hauled off the tons and tons of cars.        I'd guess it did cost him at least $10,000   to clean up his property in 1990 and have
the cars and parts hauled away.     Thankfully,   the  growth of Atlanta  and  the county marshalls forced him to clean up the property in 1990.


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## 49autocycledeluxe (Jun 3, 2020)

I'd love to get a pile like that for free.


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## Tim the Skid (Jun 3, 2020)

vincev said:


> might be too late,I saw Boris's truck.........
> 
> 
> View attachment 1204897



And he got his wife to follow him in the van.......


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## Superman1984 (Jun 3, 2020)

I would love to have parts or even @ $20 a bike some of those beehive J.C Higgins, Monarks with Super Deep fenders, and '58 or older straight bars .... but nobody will pay $7,000 sight unseen and then those $20 bikes are sold stupid high to recoup some of the $ or parted for it ridiculously on evilbay


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## kirk thomas (Jun 4, 2020)

Whatever


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## charnleybob (Jun 4, 2020)

Nobody thinks they are ever going to get old.
Nobody, especially hoarders, think they have too much stuff and need to get rid of it while they physically can.


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## Euphman06 (Jun 4, 2020)

I don't think (or hope) anyone is poo pooing on you Kirk, I think we are just trying to save you, or anyone willing to fork over big money, over bikes kept in this condition. How do we know there are 350+ bikes in there? Someone who wants 7k but won't even let you look at what you are buying screams bad business. I would guess that guy has no clue how many are in there and just made up a number that looks right.  Too risky, especially in times like this. I've bought cars for less that I got the opportunity to test drive first, just think about it. Chances are you could get at least your money back, but how much time would you have involved...even if you physically didn't lose money, in the end time is money and you'd be out a lot. Chances are this guy will die with the same amount of bikes in that room as there are now and relatives are going to have to pay for someone to trash it all. Hoarding is not collecting


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## Superman1984 (Jun 4, 2020)

Euphman06 said:


> I don't think (or hope) anyone is poo pooing on you Kirk, I think we are just trying to save you, or anyone willing to fork over big money, over bikes kept in this condition. How do we know there are 350+ bikes in there? Someone who wants 7k but won't even let you look at what you are buying screams bad business. I would guess that guy has no clue how many are in there and just made up a number that looks right.  Too risky, especially in times like this. I've bought cars for less that I got the opportunity to test drive first, just think about it. Chances are you could get at least your money back, but how much time would you have involved...even if you physically didn't lose money, in the end time is money and you'd be out a lot. Chances are this guy will die with the same amount of bikes in that room as there are now and relatives are going to have to pay for someone to trash it all. Hoarding is not collecting



Exactly. I wasn't trying to piss him off so when the whatever came out I just didn't say anything. Your points are valid as I had been buying every vintage straight bar or girl's bicycle that I could identify from '65 and back for $100 or less. I have bikes that aren't what I paid for them to collectors because they aren't rare or highly sought after missing parts or house painted etc. Without seeing what may or not be there would be hard. I would go through them and take all but the jewels are what everyone wants. At $20 a bike I am sure I could pick at least 10 or more for parts that would still help thin and give the man some $ but I understand he wants it All or Nothing. 50/50 gamble as they will end up costing him something 1 way or another


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## vincev (Jun 4, 2020)

Ask him to throw in a few more bikes and you can say you have a different bike for every day of the year to ride. honestly.it could be a good winter project parting them out and hoping there are bike shows next year.


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## kirk thomas (Jun 4, 2020)

Ok


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## Freqman1 (Jun 4, 2020)

I think if you could get in there and actually get some decent pics of some of the 'good stuff' it may wet the appetite of someone thinking about this. I think $7k is a pipe dream based on what I'm seeing but a few thousand may be realistic if there are at least a few gems in there. Jus my 2c. V/r Shawn


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## kirk thomas (Jun 5, 2020)

The owner wants me to spend 2 or 3 days up there and pull it out to see what was there. I would but on my income after bills all I end up with is $40 left. So all my extra cash has to come from finding things people want and making $10 off it. I would rather do this than go without my insulin or food.Sorry guys I just cant afford it maybe someone else would like to go look if the owner will allow. I am to old to camp out in his lawn or sleep in the van. It is a 3 hour drive from me so driving there everyday is not going to work either.
I will see what I can do after I am done with the other collection I just sold for a guy. I hope to make something from that.
Thank You all I just wanted you to know where I stand.
Kirk


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## 1motime (Jun 5, 2020)

kirk thomas said:


> The owner wants me to spend 2 or 3 days up there and pull it out to see what was there. I would but on my income after bills all I end up with is $40 left. So all my extra cash has to come from finding things people want and making $10 off it. I would rather do this than go without my insulin or food.Sorry guys I just cant afford it maybe someone else would like to go look if the owner will allow. I am to old to camp out in his lawn or sleep in the van. It is a 3 hour drive from me so driving there everyday is not going to work either.
> I will see what I can do after I am done with the other collection I just sold for a guy. I hope to make something from that.
> Thank You all I just wanted you to know where I stand.
> Kirk



Good luck to you Kirk.  Everyone is going through something.  Lots of deals all around.  You seem to be a hard worker.  Keep trying and hopefully things come together!


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## Archie Sturmer (Jun 6, 2020)

I bought a book about reducing one’s clutter at the community used old junky book sale. 
The author recommended a divide and conquer strategy - divide into groups:  #1 throwaways; #2 giveaways; #3 sell, if practical; #4 keep (not applicable); and #5 repeat. 
So perhaps, one may divide the 350 into groups:  200 throwaways; 100 giveaways; 50 sales.  Step one - move the 300 throwaways and giveaways outside, perhaps in separate “piles” (pun intended); step 2 - photograph the few worth selling, perhaps paying someone on consignment (that means they get paid some or most of the proceeds, might be less than 7).


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## Superman1984 (Jun 6, 2020)

Archie Sturmer said:


> I bought a book about reducing one’s clutter at the community used old junky book sale.
> The author recommended a divide and conquer strategy - divide into groups:  #1 throwaways; #2 giveaways; #3 sell, if practical; #4 keep (not applicable).
> So perhaps, one may divide the 350 into groups:  200 throwaways; 100 giveaways; 50 sales.  Step one - move the 300 throwaways and giveaways outside, perhaps in 2 separate “piles” (pun intended); step 2 - photograph the few worth selling, perhaps paying someone on consignment (that means they get some or most of the proceeds).



The likeliness of that happening with a hoarder and let's face it $300+ bikes is hoarding won't be likely. I have seen or heard people would sooner throw it away vs taking reasonable cash offers when they can't get more than what it may be worth. Whether paid much for it or not. From somebody who scrapped cars & metal the scrap yards will usually sell it to you but at double or triple their pay out also. I'd go through it and take 1 good chain side pic if I was in the area of everything but like Kirk said it's time & money. If I am not compensated something I can't see spending them freely for other's gains anymore. Just facts basically


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