It is easy to get financially upside down on a collectible bicycle

[Jim Barnard]

So, it starts out when I scan the Craigs Listings in an area where work will take me in the coming week. In this case I was working near the Hudson River in NY. So I tried to find a good deal, or a bike that is on my hit list. I picked a few possibilities and emailed them all that I may be calling during the day if work allows. I try not to get involved with the crazies. I avoid the ads that are angry, overpriced or intellectually casual. I remind myself that this is fun and I do not feed myself with profits from my hobby.

I have met a few friends through CL and look forward to the adventure.

The only guy available at 11am on a Monday was selling an old Schwinn "Ballooner" for $500. The ads pictures were terrible. The description was confusing. It looked like it was mostly untouched and that is how I like to get them.

He was in a hurry and I cut to the chase by a quick look and an offer of $300. He counters with $350 and a story of buying it for $500 and putting $100's into it with new wheels, tubes, WW tires and bars. He will throw in the original wheel set!

She looked dusty there in the back seat of my Jeep Renegade (yep, it is a Fiat). I had a sure fire plan to make her shine! ANOTHER diamond in the rough!

Huh. That chrome may not come completely back... and , whoo boy, the old rims are trashed... and they look like middle weight wheels...

No problem! I have some fatty west wind WW tires for the S7 and I have a spare set of wheels also... and there is a red(ish) rack! Let's do this! I am still viable with... um... $350 initial investment ...and $80 and $50 and $120. Not a worry. When this is shiny it will fetch more that the $600.00. For sure.

Well I had better look in the 57 catalog and see what light the Deluxe Hornet had... oh wow... yeah that one is pretty expensive. Not a concern! I have one in the drawer... just a moment to get the $145 price written in magic marker off the chrome with #0000 steel wool. There.

These springer parts are not cleaning up at all... I will just take the spring, struts, yoke and bumper bolt off my spare and Bang! that looks better. So... $600 + $145 + $80ish... $825.00 Hmm.

Well the paint did not come back as far as I had hoped... but patina is cool. I had better distract from the paint with some "almost" correct pedals and a better crank and chain wheel... oh right, two reflectors...and a better seat. That should do it! Add another $90 or so and... $915.00 yew.

There! I can't wait to ... JFC! There is no chain guard! How the Pope's balls did I miss that? I don't have one of those in my bins!

Note: I do not really care if my bikes are unwise investments. I do this because I love the challenge, working with my hands and bringing inanimate objects to life. I am sure you guy have MUCH worse horror stories about money spent and disillusionment in the bike of your dreams.

Feel free to share your story here.

Jim

ps. anyone got this guard in these colors?

 

[HARPO]

I feel for you. With some paint and chrome you get lucky, and some you don't, even on Schwinn's. I paid $325 for this one a couple of weeks ago. So far it's only labor...lots of it...to get this one to this point.

 

[mazdaflyer]

Been there and done that way too many times. Better than playing golf though.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[vincev]

It happens.I try to avoid projects.I found it is cheaper to buy a nice complete bike many times.

 

[rusty_apache]

I’m with you on that one. It’s better to just pay more for something nicer to begin with.

That is why I rarely sell any project I have put time, effort and cash into. Someone else can enjoy it when I’m having my dirt nap. We are just temporary caretakers of history.

I made a killing on a 52 split window Beetle because I bought it right and never got around to rebuilding it. The buyer still got a screaming deal on it because I knew he would give it a proper restoration. That and he relentlessly yet respectfully pestered me about it for many years!

 

[GTs58]

About 7-8 years ago I had the hair brain idea of getting/making a copy of my childhood bike that gave me plenty of cool memories. The hunt began and after a few weeks one popped up on eBay. It had nice paint but it had been drastically modified, more so than I saw in the listing photos. It was shipped from Black Mountain, NC after I won the bidding, and found out later I was bidding against another SBF member that was looking for one of these. Lost big money from the git go. It took a little over three weeks before it finally showed up at my doorstep after pulling my hair out dealing with the seller and shipping details. Oh heavens, what the hell did I get myself into. While I was cleaning up the paint I started looking for the parts to put it back to factory. I'm in over my head and this copy of my old bike cost me more than 3 maybe 4 times the resale value. But I love it!

What was added to bring it back.
Complete wheel sets including correct freewheel.
Rear Derailleur
Sprint saddle..........Lucked out finding this nice one!
Bars, stem and tape
All new cables
Brake Pads
Tires
Reflector and bracket
Rear alloy carrier and reflector.

 

[OldSkipTooth]

Looks great Jim!
This bike racket is for us quirky, somewhat ADHD, detail oriented, obsessive compulsive, creative and lastly, artistic and loving people that need to rescue something from the bottom of the junk pile. Dare I say we rock?

 

[Pantmaker]

So, it starts out when I scan the Craigs Listings in an area where work will take me in the coming week. In this case I was working near the Hudson River in NY. So I tried to find a good deal, or a bike that is on my hit list. I picked a few possibilities and emailed them all that I may be calling during the day if work allows. I try not to get involved with the crazies. I avoid the ads that are angry, overpriced or intellectually casual. I remind myself that this is fun and I do not feed myself with profits from my hobby.

I have met a few friends through CL and look forward to the adventure.

The only guy available at 11am on a Monday was selling an old Schwinn "Ballooner" for $500. The ads pictures were terrible. The description was confusing. It looked like it was mostly untouched and that is how I like to get them.

He was in a hurry and I cut to the chase by a quick look and an offer of $300. He counters with $350 and a story of buying it for $500 and putting $100's into it with new wheels, tubes, WW tires and bars. He will throw in the original wheel set!

View attachment 911324


She looked dusty there in the back seat of my Jeep Renegade (yep, it is a Fiat). I had a sure fire plan to make her shine! ANOTHER diamond in the rough!

View attachment 911326

Huh. That chrome may not come completely back... and , whoo boy, the old rims are trashed... and they look like middle weight wheels...

View attachment 911327

No problem! I have some fatty west wind WW tires for the S7 and I have a spare set of wheels also... and there is a red(ish) rack! Let's do this! I am still viable with... um... $350 initial investment ...and $80 and $50 and $120. Not a worry. When this is shiny it will fetch more that the $600.00. For sure.

View attachment 911331

Well I had better look in the 57 catalog and see what light the Deluxe Hornet had... oh wow... yeah that one is pretty expensive. Not a concern! I have one in the drawer... just a moment to get the $145 price written in magic marker off the chrome with #0000 steel wool. There.

These springer parts are not cleaning up at all... I will just take the spring, struts, yoke and bumper bolt off my spare and Bang! that looks better. So... $600 + $145 + $80ish... $825.00 Hmm.

View attachment 911332

Well the paint did not come back as far as I had hoped... but patina is cool. I had better distract from the paint with some "almost" correct pedals and a better crank and chain wheel... oh right, two reflectors...and a better seat. That should do it! Add another $90 or so and... $915.00 yew.

View attachment 911329

There! I can't wait to ... JFC! There is no chain guard! How the Pope's balls did I miss that? I don't have one of those in my bins!

Note: I do not really care if my bikes are unwise investments. I do this because I love the challenge, working with my hands and bringing inanimate objects to life. I am sure you guy have MUCH worse horror stories about money spent and disillusionment in the bike of your dreams.

Feel free to share your story here.

Jim

View attachment 911330

ps. anyone got this guard i

So, it starts out when I scan the Craigs Listings in an area where work will take me in the coming week. In this case I was working near the Hudson River in NY. So I tried to find a good deal, or a bike that is on my hit list. I picked a few possibilities and emailed them all that I may be calling during the day if work allows. I try not to get involved with the crazies. I avoid the ads that are angry, overpriced or intellectually casual. I remind myself that this is fun and I do not feed myself with profits from my hobby.

I have met a few friends through CL and look forward to the adventure.

The only guy available at 11am on a Monday was selling an old Schwinn "Ballooner" for $500. The ads pictures were terrible. The description was confusing. It looked like it was mostly untouched and that is how I like to get them.

He was in a hurry and I cut to the chase by a quick look and an offer of $300. He counters with $350 and a story of buying it for $500 and putting $100's into it with new wheels, tubes, WW tires and bars. He will throw in the original wheel set!

View attachment 911324


She looked dusty there in the back seat of my Jeep Renegade (yep, it is a Fiat). I had a sure fire plan to make her shine! ANOTHER diamond in the rough!

View attachment 911326

Huh. That chrome may not come completely back... and , whoo boy, the old rims are trashed... and they look like middle weight wheels...

View attachment 911327

No problem! I have some fatty west wind WW tires for the S7 and I have a spare set of wheels also... and there is a red(ish) rack! Let's do this! I am still viable with... um... $350 initial investment ...and $80 and $50 and $120. Not a worry. When this is shiny it will fetch more that the $600.00. For sure.

View attachment 911331

Well I had better look in the 57 catalog and see what light the Deluxe Hornet had... oh wow... yeah that one is pretty expensive. Not a concern! I have one in the drawer... just a moment to get the $145 price written in magic marker off the chrome with #0000 steel wool. There.

These springer parts are not cleaning up at all... I will just take the spring, struts, yoke and bumper bolt off my spare and Bang! that looks better. So... $600 + $145 + $80ish... $825.00 Hmm.

View attachment 911332

Well the paint did not come back as far as I had hoped... but patina is cool. I had better distract from the paint with some "almost" correct pedals and a better crank and chain wheel... oh right, two reflectors...and a better seat. That should do it! Add another $90 or so and... $915.00 yew.

View attachment 911329

There! I can't wait to ... JFC! There is no chain guard! How the Pope's balls did I miss that? I don't have one of those in my bins!

Note: I do not really care if my bikes are unwise investments. I do this because I love the challenge, working with my hands and bringing inanimate objects to life. I am sure you guy have MUCH worse horror stories about money spent and disillusionment in the bike of your dreams.

Feel free to share your story here.

Jim

View attachment 911330

ps. anyone got this guard in these colors?

"Intellectually casual" I am SO going to start using this phrase.

 

[locomotion]

So, it starts out when I scan the Craigs Listings in an area where work will take me in the coming week. In this case I was working near the Hudson River in NY. So I tried to find a good deal, or a bike that is on my hit list. I picked a few possibilities and emailed them all that I may be calling during the day if work allows. I try not to get involved with the crazies. I avoid the ads that are angry, overpriced or intellectually casual. I remind myself that this is fun and I do not feed myself with profits from my hobby.

I have met a few friends through CL and look forward to the adventure.

The only guy available at 11am on a Monday was selling an old Schwinn "Ballooner" for $500. The ads pictures were terrible. The description was confusing. It looked like it was mostly untouched and that is how I like to get them.

He was in a hurry and I cut to the chase by a quick look and an offer of $300. He counters with $350 and a story of buying it for $500 and putting $100's into it with new wheels, tubes, WW tires and bars. He will throw in the original wheel set!

View attachment 911324


She looked dusty there in the back seat of my Jeep Renegade (yep, it is a Fiat). I had a sure fire plan to make her shine! ANOTHER diamond in the rough!

View attachment 911326

Huh. That chrome may not come completely back... and , whoo boy, the old rims are trashed... and they look like middle weight wheels...

View attachment 911327

No problem! I have some fatty west wind WW tires for the S7 and I have a spare set of wheels also... and there is a red(ish) rack! Let's do this! I am still viable with... um... $350 initial investment ...and $80 and $50 and $120. Not a worry. When this is shiny it will fetch more that the $600.00. For sure.

View attachment 911331

Well I had better look in the 57 catalog and see what light the Deluxe Hornet had... oh wow... yeah that one is pretty expensive. Not a concern! I have one in the drawer... just a moment to get the $145 price written in magic marker off the chrome with #0000 steel wool. There.

These springer parts are not cleaning up at all... I will just take the spring, struts, yoke and bumper bolt off my spare and Bang! that looks better. So... $600 + $145 + $80ish... $825.00 Hmm.

View attachment 911332

Well the paint did not come back as far as I had hoped... but patina is cool. I had better distract from the paint with some "almost" correct pedals and a better crank and chain wheel... oh right, two reflectors...and a better seat. That should do it! Add another $90 or so and... $915.00 yew.

View attachment 911329

There! I can't wait to ... JFC! There is no chain guard! How the Pope's balls did I miss that? I don't have one of those in my bins!

Note: I do not really care if my bikes are unwise investments. I do this because I love the challenge, working with my hands and bringing inanimate objects to life. I am sure you guy have MUCH worse horror stories about money spent and disillusionment in the bike of your dreams.

Feel free to share your story here.

Jim

View attachment 911330

ps. anyone got this guard in these colors?

love reading your write-ups Jim
That Bug in the background is beautiful .... WOW, what year is it?
and the $915 spent is not so bad as long as you had fun doing it.
at least you made the road trip worth while in your Fiat , and didn't pay anything on shipping fees.
if you had the parts at home that could find a way back unto a bicycle ..... then that's even better

 

[Sven]

That goes for any project, whether its restoring or customizing Tonka trucks, Harley Davidsons, Hot Rods or a bicycle. The way I look at it is if it doesn't become a financially upside down project..then its a failure.
Its just money , anyway.