Originally Posted by wrk101

I've been buying/flipping bikes for about 15 years now. 2017 was my best year ever. The market always changes, what I did 15 years ago, or even five years ago, isn't working as well. So I have changed my game many, many times.

Good deals CAN still be found on Craigslist. Four keys:

1) you have to be more knowledgeable than others that are scanning Craigslist. I am often amazed the bikes that sit on Craigslist for days or even weeks.

2) It really helps if you can pounce quickly, any day, any time. Expecting deals to linger until it is convenient, and you can miss out.

3) shop while on vacation or while traveling. I pretty much ALWAYS find bikes when I travel. I run out of space before I run out of deals.

4) High priced bikes! Most C/L buyers want the cheaper stuff. A $50 POS bike that might only be worth $10 can sell fast, while a $500 bike that could be worth $1000 lingers. I bought a Colnago this way. Guy really needed cash NOW, was bike poor. He was asking $1000, so I went to look at it. Nice bike, I told him I thought it was worth it, but I just wasn't looking for an expensive bike. So I passed. He contacted me two weeks later, he still had the bike. Turned out I was the only person that even responded to his ad. We worked out a deal and I bought it.


Stop looking for the $25 to $50 stuff. No thanks. Start looking at the $300, $400, $500, or even $600 stuff instead. Every market has a price where vintage bikes stuff don't sell. Shop ABOVE that point. If you can get a $1000 bike for $500, why not? The profit potential is 10X the cheap stuff, and you only have one bike to fix versus ten, and you only have one bike to sell. I used to hang out at the $150 to $200 price point. Find a decent bike for $75, put $50 into parts and consumables, and five hours of time, and ask $175. And then have to take an offer, say $140. At that point, I was making $15 for my time.....Even if I got the bike cheaper, the economics were still mediocre. Heaven forbid I found a serious problem with the bike.

Exception to this pricing is old MTBs. Old MTBs sometimes go cheap, really cheap. While most of the cheap MTBs are not worth repairing, the parts can be valuable. I bought two old rusty Ross MTBs 1/1/18 for $75. Sold the pedals on one for $150, sold the pedals on the other one for $75. Sold the crankset on one for $75, thumb shifter set for $60, list goes on. I'll probably end up with at least $600 out of those two bikes, which had been for sale for a month. Had I refurbished them, at best, I might have broke even (and gotten zero for my time).


Scoring deals is ALL about knowing bikes and their components well. Its not about having some secret list of specific models or brands. Thats all most pickers know. You need to go beyond that. Last week I picked up a Volkscycle. Volkscycle? I had never heard of the brand before. But I know components, First generation Dura Ace crankset, first generation Dura Ace brakes and levers, first generation Dura Ace long cage rear derailleur, first generation Dura Ace bar end shifters. Were all those parts listed in the ad? No. But with a trained eye, they were there in the pictures. That bike sat on C/L for over a month.


Picking/flipping bikes is just like picking/flipping anything else. It takes knowledge, and the more you know, the bigger your advantage. Its not easy, but the rewards are pretty juicy for those with the knowledge. Most flippers are unwilling to spend the time getting knowledgeable. I know flippers that do quite well in a variety of markets. One guy flips Miatas. He pretty much knows everything there is to know about Miatas, has a stockpile of parts, knows how to fix them. Does quite well! Others flip houses and make money doing it. If I started flipping houses or Miatas, I'd lose my fanny on it. I do not have adequate knowledge or skills in either area. I'd probably end up with the stuff the knowledgeable people passed on. Bicycles is no different. You can't just randomly buy old bikes and expect to do well.

Particularly when time is at a premium, would you rather flip four high end bikes a year, or forty low end bikes? Both can net you about the same $$, one will take you ten times longer! And selling forty bikes is a time suck too!