wrnj

I am the original owner of a green Schwinn Fair Lady from mid 1980's that my daughter used. Straight step through frame unlike any I have seen. Stamped numbers above front wheel are B74315 and 3156. According to what I've read on the internet, the latter number may indicate production on 315th day of 1986. Near perfect condition, stored indoors for 30 years. At a flea market 3 years ago someone saw it from a distance and immediately offered $100, and 15 minutes later another person suggested it was probably worth much more. Can anyone help me figure out where it was made and the approximate value? Thanks.

cb400bill

Thread moved from C&V to C&V Appraisals

WGB 

wrnj Welcome to BF!

Not a fan of these bikes myself though there certainly are those who like them and hopefully ones of those will post here soon. I thought they stopped making these in late '70's but now see they made them again as recent as 2020.

Several things and please understand I don't know anything about you and your knowledge, don't think I'm being negative. I just don't know your experience with flipping bikes.

We don't know where you are located and so when selling bikes, location does matter. Bigger cities, easier sale.
Are you prepared to ship? If so do you know how to properly pack a bike? It can take a lot of time to do it well.
If you are prepared to ship, eBay might offer best bang for buck. I checked sold listings, not current listings and saw the lowest recent sale was for $157 then a few sub-$200 then they jumped to above $250, then $300, etc.
Lastly, there is always interest on https://thecabe.com for any bike known to man and you could check listings there as well. Selling here is a possibility, after paying the fees.

3alarmer 

...checking on the CABE is a good suggestion. Generally , the boy's models command the better prices.
But there are always people looking for one of the girl's bikes, in good shape, as parts donors for their project frames.

The boy's frames are in higher demand, because most of the people collecting and restoring the old bike they rode as a kid are men.

All things Schwinn are surprisingly popular on the CABE. Here on this forum, not so much..

wrnj

Thank you for your insight.

oldroads

A photo would help a lot.
They kind of are becoming popular again.

https://oldbikeguide.com/p_query_ful...value=fairlady

Hummer

I have seen Fair Lady and Lil Chik models from 1987 clearly marked as being made in Japan and with Panasonic format serial numbers. The format of the serial number for your bicycle is missing the leading number for a Panasonic serial number. If the number is missing, I would expect that number to be a 7. This would make the year of frame manufacture as 1987

I assume that the numbers 3156 are from the headbadge. This indicates November 1986. I have seen this kind of discrepancy between serial number date and headbadge date on made in Japan Schwinn frames before.