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Used bikes and parts

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dirtman

Finally riding a big boys bike
About four or so years ago, after being away from bicycles for a bit, I got involved in a few large clean-outs of both old bike shops, a few bike hoarder estates, and lately a rather large farm packed with old bikes and parts. The original intention was to simply find a few things I wanted, build myself a few decent older bikes, and maybe sell enough of the extra stuff to cover the cost of moving it.
Now, four years later, I have a garage, a storage trailer, and most of my basement full of parts I felt were worth keeping to either use or sell. I've always enjoyed old bikes and working on bikes. I spent many years in bike shops as a kid, doing repairs, building new bikes, and later selling off old shop inventories on eBay. But I didn't start actively chasing down big lots till I stumbled on a free deal up in NY that gained me about 80 bikes and a trailer full of new parts just for the taking. One led to another, then another and so on. My only expenses are my time, fuel for the trucks, and on occasion some extra hands for the move. The most I've put out for a big cleanout was just under a grand but only because I needed several drivers and some muscle to move everything in a hurry in the city. Most cost far less to handle. Being retired helps but I still don't like working for free.

Every so often I weed through it all and find things to list and sell, hopefully to help cover the cost of it all.
What I'm finding out is that apparently none of it has any value when it comes to selling any of it.
I've listed a handful of really nice project bikes and a few that I've gone through and made into nice riding bikes, but have had no takers at all

Little by little its gotten bigger and bigger with the last clean-out being a joint deal with a guy who had been doing this for decades.
On his suggestion, I started listing more stuff on CL and FB, that pretty much turned out to be a waste of time, nothing sells unless its darn near free, and even then they want free delivery.
Something that has really amazed me is how someone who answered an ad for a bike listed at $200, will drive hours to get here, then show up with only pocket change expecting to buy the bike for $15. Then they get mad because they're going home empty handed.
I had that happen with a new in the box 1980 Trek 512. I ended up parting the bike out piece by piece on ebay and finally sold the frame through a friend who sells at a flea market.

Vintage parts, which I see selling for decent money on fleabay, don't sell at all locally, and a few tries on ebay have turned out to be a waste of time as items listed didn't draw any bids or sold for less than the time it took to list them.
The only bikes that have sold and sold consistently are department store bikes.

I see items bringing good money on eBay but when I list there nothing sells. I quit selling my own items on ebay and have a friend do the listing on her accounts. She takes a percentage and does all the shipping and listing. I watch the same items selling for other sellers but when we list the same thing it doesn't even get a look with the same title in the same category. I'm starting to wonder if those high priced items selling on ebay are real or maybe just items put there to get people to list their items. I had four new old stock JC
Higgins three speed hubs, I had just watched four or five sell for over $80 each. I gave her a pair of them to list, they went up, right next to another used one listed for $120 BIN. The $120 hub was gone three days later and showing under sold items. Mine never got a look with an almost identical title and good pics. Several others all sold for over $80 that next day, yet none we listed got so much as a look on the watch counter.
A few months ago I had a minty clean Huret Jubilee rear derailleur sit for two weeks without a bid while five others sold good money.
Mine was cleaner, the same version and model and it had good pictures yet it went through two re-listings in the same category with no bids and no watchers.
 
I hear you, seems the same thing when I tried to list anything! I think sometimes, you see something sell for a decent price, and then list a similar item, and crickets, could be there was only ONE person seriously wanting said part at the time! Even here, I see good deals, and am surprised to see them still there the next week, and sometimes several weeks later! Basic supply and demand, there are only so many in the hobby, with needs and money at the same time! Personally, I might only buy parts a couple times a year, when funds exist.
 
I listed a 23" frame 1975 Paramount P10-9 in orange for a friend last summer, he hadn't ridden it in a long time, and finally decided to part with it.
It was on Campy hubs and clincher rims, and pretty much all original. He bought it new, rode it sparingly and hung it on a wall.
He wanted $200, I listed it for $500 after putting a fresh set of tires on it and regreasing the BB, HS, and hubs. It was ready to ride. It never got a single email, not even the 'still for sale' emails. He said lower the price and see what happens. So I put it up at $250. Again, nothing, not a single question, offer, nothing. Meanwhile, I had sold two dozen old beater bikes at $100 or more each.
I took the thing down and just gave him the $200 figuring I'd get that back out of the parts. I put it back up at $500. Then finally around New Years I got an email on it. A guy half way across the country was interested in it, he asked the right questions, called and talked about it for a bit, and said he was going to see about either making the drive or finding a way to get someone to pick it up. After a month, he calls, says he's making the drive, he's coming from Indiana, I'm in New Jersey. He tells me he'll be at my place around 5pm the next evening if all goes right. He calls me several times through the following day, tells me he's running a bit late due to an accident but the GPS now says his ETA is 8pm my time. He calls back at 8:15pm, tells me he's crossed into NJ and wanted to know what exit was best off the highway. He tells me where he's at, and he's not more than 15 minutes out. I tell him to take the next exit, and gave him instructions what to do after that. He calls me asking which way to turn at the light right off the highway, I tell him to go right, and make your second left and I'm right there. I walked out front so he could spot me and the bike.
That was the last I heard from him. Not another call, he never showed up, never emailed, nothing. I had tried to call him 10 minutes after that last call but it just rang. I pretty much waited around and adjusted my schedule to meet this guy and he doesn't show, and worse yet he apparently made up the whole story for kicks? I back searched his phone number, turns out he's in his mid 60's, and does live in Indiana, and at the time I found several posts on another forum where he was selling something and had left his phone number on that for sale page. So I know the name and phone number matched, and that he was into bikes. The one post he left was about him driving 900 miles to buy some bike in TX the year before.
I never saw any new activity beyond that though. After thinking about it, he was likely able to make his conversation sound right and ask the right questions about which way to go by looking at Google maps but what gets me is why?
He had to devote as much time as me to the whole charade, and to come out of it with what?

I gave up and parted it out last winter letting a friend of mine list the parts on ebay. I came out about $50 ahead after fees and likely lost money if I counted my time in it.

I'm pretty convinced that most of what we see selling for big bucks on fleabay is staged these days. The items I see in under Sold Listings seem to come out of nowhere.
There have been items that I was actively searching for that appeared in the sold category under the very name or title I was searching for and yet they never showed up for me while they were listed?
I also have searched an item I have for sale to see where to price it, and I find others just like it, listed for three times what most others are at. I tried using contact seller to ask a few questions and I get either no response, or it tells me I cannot email the seller and that all info about the item is in the ad, all while there is no info in the ad, just a picture and heading.
The other result is finding one of two similar items with high bids on Wed. just like mine, then a long list of the same item all with the same pics, but under different ebay names, all listed for crazy prices. Yet after the sale ends, none of those high dollar items can be found and the item that did have bids is gone as if it never existed. Its almost as if eBay somehow generates ads to fill the search results as you search so that you don't find nothing. Then there's the items that show up which are completely unrelated to your search. I searched for a Shimano Baitrunner Reel' and the first four items are reel parts, only one for that reel, then a starter for a Mack truck, some car tires, then one used reel for five times what its worth, then somd underwear, and way down at the bottom, marked items you may be interested in were two beat up and battered used reels, both with the same pics, one for $14.73 wth five bids, the other for $396.07 BIN.
 
About four or so years ago, after being away from bicycles for a bit, I got involved in a few large clean-outs of both old bike shops, a few bike hoarder estates, and lately a rather large farm packed with old bikes and parts. The original intention was to simply find a few things I wanted, build myself a few decent older bikes, and maybe sell enough of the extra stuff to cover the cost of moving it.
Now, four years later, I have a garage, a storage trailer, and most of my basement full of parts I felt were worth keeping to either use or sell. I've always enjoyed old bikes and working on bikes. I spent many years in bike shops as a kid, doing repairs, building new bikes, and later selling off old shop inventories on eBay. But I didn't start actively chasing down big lots till I stumbled on a free deal up in NY that gained me about 80 bikes and a trailer full of new parts just for the taking. One led to another, then another and so on. My only expenses are my time, fuel for the trucks, and on occasion some extra hands for the move. The most I've put out for a big cleanout was just under a grand but only because I needed several drivers and some muscle to move everything in a hurry in the city. Most cost far less to handle. Being retired helps but I still don't like working for free.

Every so often I weed through it all and find things to list and sell, hopefully to help cover the cost of it all.
What I'm finding out is that apparently none of it has any value when it comes to selling any of it.
I've listed a handful of really nice project bikes and a few that I've gone through and made into nice riding bikes, but have had no takers at all

Little by little its gotten bigger and bigger with the last clean-out being a joint deal with a guy who had been doing this for decades.
On his suggestion, I started listing more stuff on CL and FB, that pretty much turned out to be a waste of time, nothing sells unless its darn near free, and even then they want free delivery.
Something that has really amazed me is how someone who answered an ad for a bike listed at $200, will drive hours to get here, then show up with only pocket change expecting to buy the bike for $15. Then they get mad because they're going home empty handed.
I had that happen with a new in the box 1980 Trek 512. I ended up parting the bike out piece by piece on ebay and finally sold the frame through a friend who sells at a flea market.

Vintage parts, which I see selling for decent money on fleabay, don't sell at all locally, and a few tries on ebay have turned out to be a waste of time as items listed didn't draw any bids or sold for less than the time it took to list them.
The only bikes that have sold and sold consistently are department store bikes.

I see items bringing good money on eBay but when I list there nothing sells. I quit selling my own items on ebay and have a friend do the listing on her accounts. She takes a percentage and does all the shipping and listing. I watch the same items selling for other sellers but when we list the same thing it doesn't even get a look with the same title in the same category. I'm starting to wonder if those high priced items selling on ebay are real or maybe just items put there to get people to list their items. I had four new old stock JC
Higgins three speed hubs, I had just watched four or five sell for over $80 each. I gave her a pair of them to list, they went up, right next to another used one listed for $120 BIN. The $120 hub was gone three days later and showing under sold items. Mine never got a look with an almost identical title and good pics. Several others all sold for over $80 that next day, yet none we listed got so much as a look on the watch counter.
A few months ago I had a minty clean Huret Jubilee rear derailleur sit for two weeks without a bid while five others sold good money.
Mine was cleaner, the same version and model and it had good pictures yet it went through two re-listings in the same category with no bids and no watchers.
You're obviously doing something wrong....
 
I quit selling on EBay as they have no protection for their sellers. I have 1300 auctions with 100% positive feedback. The last group of items that sold, 2 requested returns from having buyers remorse. I listed in my auctions no returns,however, EBay forces you to accept returns regardless. One was 25 dollars shipping that cost me 50 dollars to get my item back. The second item was 47 dollars to California that cost me 94 dollars to get my item back. I contacted EBay to fight this and EBay pointed out in their sellers contract you have to accept returns regardless of buyers reason even when you list no returns. Both these clowns had less than 10 auctions and EBay won’t let you cancel peoples bids with low auction counts. I just started listing on Facebook and hopefully that will work out.
 
I quit selling on EBay as they have no protection for their sellers. I have 1300 auctions with 100% positive feedback. The last group of items that sold, 2 requested returns from having buyers remorse. I listed in my auctions no returns,however, EBay forces you to accept returns regardless. One was 25 dollars shipping that cost me 50 dollars to get my item back. The second item was 47 dollars to California that cost me 94 dollars to get my item back. I contacted EBay to fight this and EBay pointed out in their sellers contract you have to accept returns regardless of buyers reason even when you list no returns. Both these clowns had less than 10 auctions and EBay won’t let you cancel peoples bids with low auction counts. I just started listing on Facebook and hopefully that will work out.

I hope that works out for the most part. But from what I've seen on Faceplant, the buyers can be just as bad or worse than the ones on eBay. Big difference though for the seller when he has some buyers with remorse or changes his mind and decides he doesn't want the item. Have you listed anything here on the Cabe?
 
I think I'll list here if I ever get around to selling anything bike related! Like I've also sold guitars on eBay, but won't again, Reverb is a music gear selling site, better to go with a site specific to your item when possible! I still buy on eBay though!
 
I am so tired of eBay's games. I sold some parts and a bike on there last month. The parts got sent back to me despite using the label I paid for and printed from their site. The bike got damaged by UPS and required a costly part to fix, eating up any margin I made. Oh, and they're keeping my money hostage for a month, too. I will continue to use eBay to buy, though.
 
I recommend writing short sentences, and limiting any item description to about 5-lines, (on equivalent to regular type on letter size paper). Perhaps the buyers figure that if the seller writes a novel; then the sales might not be simple financial transactions.
 
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