seypat

Definitely reads like he's trying to recruit potential sales/buyers.

turky lurkey

Who cares if he wants to recruit potential buyers. If I lived close I would have already called him and would be trying to go look at the bikes to potentially buy one or more (and just to share in his excitement). Yes he wants to sell them but he is also excited about the fact that he has so many bikes. He wanted to share his excitement with bicycle enthusiasts. Many here have been very rude in my opinion. People come here for advice on selling bikes every day, is there some moral difference between selling 1 bike and 800? Maybe some people are jealous, I can't think of any other reason for the negativity.

turky lurkey

I really hope he has some future threads, I am interested in seeing pics of what's in those piles of bikes. I hope he hasn't been turned off from the bike forums by the response he's gotten.

ericbaker

It's true, at least 3/4 of that is trash, scrap, better off being recycled then ever being a bicycle again, but there's plenty to make it worthy financial endeavor, you just need to know what you are looking for. There is a Ton of value in cycles that this forum does not care for.

Thumpic

I too hope to see future threads from the OP. The level of rudeness and ill will has been increasing in this otherwise gentlemanly corner of the forum. Too many trolls and not enough common courtesy. I've participated for years with no issues. In the last few months I have felt the need to block 3 "contributors" because they lack the skills of common courtesy and tact.

The op has a daunting task and I wish him well.

gomango

Isn't that the truth.

In the right hands this will turn into a nice revenue stream for some time to come.

I had a forum member from an English forum visit me about a month ago. He ended up buying two shelving units filled with parts and a couple of framesets. Took us four hours to pack, but I don't recall him ever being "worried" about how to sell the items. I've already seen some of the items selling at double the prices I would have charged.

Good for him and good for me.

Just goes to show there is a buyer for just about anything if priced and marketed correctly.

The op will be selling these items for a very, very long time. He already knows this though, I am certain.

noglider 

I think this collection, as a phenomenon which happens from time to time, is an illustration of how we, in North America, place too low a value on bicycles. That they should be discarded in such massive quantity seems like a big failure of some kind.

KonAaron Snake 

Can someone please site an example of rudeness? I'm not seeing it - I'm seeing advice offered after being solicited - telling someone the job is more difficult and less profitable than they might anticipate isn't rude. The OP seems like a perfectly nice guy - if I lived in the area I'd check it out. I have no problem with anything done or said by anyone here other than the over sensitivity by a few. The OP got a huge inventory supply and he's telling potential buyers and soliciting advice - none of that is an issue for me. I hope he makes crap tons of money and contributes to the tax base/employment market. I like when businesses are successful and I hope his is.

And yes - from an advice/labor perspective there's a huge difference to me between volunteering for a fellow collector/charity and a large commercial endeavor. I volunteer time for a bike co-OP, I don't volunteer time for a for profit LBS. I love my LBS, but if it's a business they can pay for labor/expertise. One is a business, the other isn't.

So - back to the matter at hand...I don't see how it's possible to sell 800 bikes at this level, and parts, on eBay, CL and store front in 60 days.

Tracy94

If only 1/10 of the bikes that where there where worth something plus other useable parts that's plenty of money. Plus with the amount of bikes there he could get Abit for the scrap value of them. I'd say there's some cool parts in there.

repechage

I am not sure the inventory must be zero in 60 days, he just has 60 days to empty the space. That could imply there has to be an alternate place to take them. If 800 is a good number, then over 60 days that is just over 13 bikes a day than must be moved every day, still quite a bit of effort. Not including the parts… there needs to be a keen eye to segregate the worthy from the trash and pronto.

mlgdave

You are 100% spot on Repechage, I have to move them form their current warehouse to my store within 60 days. I can take 10 years if I feel like it to sell them all (I wont of course). I have 3 guys who work for me full time and in my business about 1/2 the day they are "idle" and this new project will now have them "busy" (they hate me hehehehehe) so NO added labor in that regard. No one on this board, or anything anyone has said has turned me off from posting, sharing or this wonderful undertaking that I get to participate in. My store is on the busiest street in Spokane (over 70k Cars per day) I have huge signage and with a sign that says "Bikes starting at $30.00" Is put up I have a feeling I may be busy..........

mlgdave
ps...........and by the way, judging from the conversations and phone calls I have had I may already be down to about 600 bikes :-)

Daveyates

I haven't seen anybody being rude either. Seems strange to accuse this thread of that.

Dave i watched some of your program Meltdown and i enjoyed it! Well done.

Also one more bit of advice is DON'T let anybody come to buy anything before an expert you trust looks everything over.

Believe me when i say to an untrained eye a 1000 dollar bike can look like a 30 dollar bike.
To start with you are going to have a lot of people who want to take the best of what you have.
Until you understand pricing of bikes and what certain pieces are worth it's not worth the gamble of trying to get rid of some early.

You could end up with a lot of good stuff going cheap and ending up with junk that won't shift and the phonecalls drying up.

As i previously suggested invest some money in Bobotech to help first.

mlgdave

Thats great, so you know that yahoos that work for me then, Dan and Webb and Jim :-) It was fun doing the show and in fact I found these bikes when we were doing the catalytic converter episode!

mlgdave
ps........yes Bobotech is coming on board!

Chombi

Only thing I noticed is how the forum tempered the discussion with a bit of "reality check", based on what was mostly seen so far in the posted pics.
Pretty much saying that the OP might have to dig around a bit to find any significant (in a C&V collectors point of view, as this is the C&V forum) or hi-buck bikes in there.....
I think that's the best way we can start to help the OP........and not give him false initial impressions on what he acquired.....

howsteepisit

While I am not sold on the ultimate profitability of the venture, it is not unusual for the entrepreneur to find ways to earn profit where other don't see it. Good for you Dave, for seeing something of promise and going for it!

crandress 

Might have to find an excuse to get over to Spokane (from Seattle) to check these out once he knows what he's got!

billnuke1 

Road trip!

KonAaron Snake 

And there's the rub...

Clearly the OP is a bright guy and has a plan, that said...bikes have the following challenges; they're big and tough to store, they're hard to ship, they have substantial liability, they're labor intensive and you get a lot of returns. All of which means that bikes that aren't worth much are hard to sell from a retail perspective because they take a lot of room, you have a limited market, they take a lot of work to fix up and ship...so even at low buy in rates, the other expenses can quickly wipe out income. Storing something that's big and labor intensive means you have to be able to sell it for a reasonably high price.

The OP clearly understands the issues - I have nothing else to say to him other than good luck and god speed! I hope some of the stuff ends up a home run for him.

himespau 

I see a couple mentions of returns. People selling on CL have people return bikes to them? Or is this just an eBay thing where people don't like what they finally received in the mail?

Lascauxcaveman 

I was thinking similar. Maybe we'll carpool? It'll give me a chance to razz you in person for not snagging that cheap Shogun for me a while back

The trick, for me, would be to come up with something to tell my wife other than "I'm taking the weekend to go see a guy on the other side of the state who just bought 800 bikes he's looking to unload."

KonAaron Snake 

eBay and store front have returns, though I do accept returns on CL. I've never had one, but I would accept a return if it was a reasonable time period from a reasonable person. If someone crashed the bicycle and brought it back (not due to my negligence), that's not a situation where I'd accept the return, but if someone had it for a week and realized it didn't fit well - sure, I'd take it back.

Chombi

I agree,.... One might be better off just giving away the most basic/cheapest (hopefully, still rideable) bikes to a coop or charity.....as they might be zero gain bikes or less, if you try to inventory, store, sell and ship them....

CenturionIM

please please, if you found some diamonds in the rough, post pics here.

billnuke1 

6 hour flight!

bykemike 

Any discussion of profit/loss etc. is meaningless unless you know what was paid.

I sell items on ebay that ,on occasion, bring hundreds of dollars but my cost is..well, less than zero. I am paid to take them away.

There is a world of deals out there gentleman. Dave seems like the kind of guy that spends his time looking for the best ones and I say good for Dave.