fadetoblack6902

Hi,
I am considering dedicating a lot of my time to opening a by-appointment used bike shop. I focus mainly on high end mountain/road bikes, and vintage bikes/parts. Currently I have a splattering of 70's-80's high end road components (superbe pro, DA, Campy, Ofmega, etc), some 90's high end mountain bike components, and some various.

I did this for several years in St. Louis, and did fairly well. Selling was easy enough, though finding bikes/parts proved challenging at times. I had a pretty good corner on the market, as very few others sold high end used bikes. I am currently living in Salt Lake City, where there is plenty of cool stuff to buy but it's usually overpriced. Parts/bikes do not sell well at all here.

I have considered places with gigantic bike scenes like Denver or Portland/Seattle, but I'm afraid I won't be able to find many deals, and I'm worried there would be too much competition.

Does anyone have any ideas/experience with this?

Thanks in advance

gioscinelli 

Better yet! Open an account with Ebay and sign up for a Ebay store! I know that a lot of people have some animosity towards Ebay and Paypal, but they are the only players in town providing us with their services. With a Paypal account, you can accept all credit cards and debit card through Paypal. With Ebay, you can go world wide, rather then depending on local sales. Best of all, no overhead, work out of you home, sit at the computer, dressed as casual as you want, nice life. I love it! Mike

fadetoblack6902

I do sell on ebay occasionally with mixed results. I've had trouble selling anything that's not collectable for what its worth. Also with ebay living in a slow city, finding parts to sell is a challenge. I do want to ebay more, but it still helps to have a good local market. Where do you locate your parts? Is ebay your full time job?

wrk101

+1 The areas that are the best for selling (Portland, San Fran, etc.), are the toughest for sourcing. Best option: live in an area great for sourcing, sell via ebay. No rent, no storefront, very little overhead. Those good sourcing areas often also have much lower cost of living.

When did you stop doing this business in St Louis? In my experience, any decent sized town is going to have flippers, some of whom can provide higher end bikes. I know this is true in Charlotte, where I have bought some higher end bikes from flippers myself.

fadetoblack6902

I moved from st. Louis last winter. There are a couple guys there who flip the occasional high end vintage ride and several that flip varsities, but the high end modern market was all mine. Any experience which cities are great for sourcing?

gioscinelli 

In Chicago land area, there's the northshore that is a good source of late road and mtb bikes. Unfortunately in the Chicago area CL is cluttered with wanabe used bike dealers, who persistently re-post their junk four to five times a day with no regard for the average person. Flagging seldom works, so you have wade through the junk yard to find the right item. I found highend bikes don't sell well on the local market or through CL, so I channel my highend bikes through Ebay, there's millions of buyers out there, rather then hundreds or less to sell to locally. Best to part out the bike, if shipping overseas, box size are restricted by most shipping companies, or cost tons of money to ship.

RobbieTunes

Phoenix.
Dallas.
Memphis.