Originally Posted by
HerrKaLeun
The difference to cars is that the LBS only sell a small fraction of the market and have no motivation to report all transactions, or be accurate about those. Just look at this forum how many people report about purchases or sales on CL/ebay or ask advice about CL for sales. I can't recall a single thread about someone asking about an LBS used bike sale.
For cars the government has 100% of the sales recorded (due to titles) and in states with sales tax there also is a huge motivation to enforce honest transaction prices.
Bicycles also have no odometer, while mileage on cars is an important part of the price.
I think the only thing in common between KBB and BBB is that two words match.
Another difference is that cars are usually pretty standardized on the secondary market. Different trims, sure but rarely that different.
Bikes, especially mid and high level ones are often customized and upgraded - different wheekset, crankset, shock upgrades, brake upgrades etc.
This means the value of bike can be vastly different than what BBB states.