3alarmer 

...I have almost all of them now. Once I have truly cornered the market, you will rue the day you sold in a downturn, sir.

16Victor

I self-fund the hobby by occasionally buying an under-priced bike and parting it out; keeping some goodies for my next build. It may seem like a sin to some but the bikes aren't worth restoring whereas the individual components keep other C&V rides going. Kind of like an organ donor program.

jpaschall

^^ I was just about to say this. I will sell stuff occasionally to fund some other component or something bike related.

tkamd73 

That would turn a fun hobby into a job, but I too will sell a few things I remove from bikes, that are too good for the recycling bin. Usually really cheap, so it departs quickly. Tim

dunrobin

I sold 4 bikes this year...none for a profit, and only one bike at a loss....the only bike I've bought new in the last 20 years.
The sales funded some really nice frames.

Spoonrobot 

Sorry my comment was meant to be enthusiastic and not disparaging. That's a really impressive work list, thanks for sharing. It sounds like you're quite a craftsman, fighting the good fight against the dko-flippers.

miamijim

Buy on the way up...sell on the way down.

Sucker.

j/k

miamijim

In all seriousness...I'd like to find a nice all SR Italian. There's nothing out there...

mstateglfr 

I do it when i find bikes that fit my parameters.

I dont mind not making much as my time is not worth anything. I fix up bikes as a hobby and when i have free time, usually at night.

- The paint needs to be in good condition as visual is often a priority for CL buyers.
- i need to buy it for a price that makes sense. Add in expenses and if the $ makes sense ill get it.


My local CL has been turrble for months now when it comes to good options to refurbish. I want $40-100 bikes, typically. All new consumables and sell them for $100-225. Profit $15-100.

thinktubes 

Much harder to make money flipping anything anymore, not just bikes.

The days of buying things cheap from unwitting sellers are long gone.

Everyone looks up everything nowadays and prices reflect this.

FargoRider

I laughed!

thinktubes 

^^^^^^^^^
+1

markwesti

Back in the late 90's early 20's my buddy Psycho Billy made some serious cash buying and parting out high end road bikes . He would only deal in high end , he was a excellent mechanic and he was a master with the computer and photography . He built a nice reputation on customer satisfaction . He did the same thing with vintage motocross bikes . He did it all on the Bay , but then he started getting competition . That he did not mind because he had a following . The thing that killed it was some new guys pulling all the tricks to screw him .

wrk101

+10 My wife and I have been amateur pickers for about 15 years now. Ten years ago, it was easy. Bargains everywhere. Eventually, I watched as pickers that only bought toys, or electronics, or whatever, started wading into our areas. Some camped out an hour before the best thrift stores opened. Garage sales were mobbed too. At the same time, market pricing has softened up on everything, not just bikes. So the cost to buy stuff has gone up a lot, supply has gone down, and profits were squeezed. Fortunately it has always just been a hobby....

DMC707

I started out with the intention of ddoing this a couple of years ago --- figured id buy up any available mid range bike that was under a certain price range just to build up my parts stash, then id make enough on ebay sales to fund my next new something or other .

3 years later, I have boxes and boxes of fair to middlin' components lined up and neatly organized, along with piles of framesets that I pray I have time to list and sell one day to at least break even . The frames are likely worthless --- some people like old Cannondales, but when you can find one complete for $175 at times, who wants to build up an old frame -- the rest are things like old Giants, uninteresting Treks and the like that I was buying to snag the nice 105sc and 600 tri color parts kits off of to either sell or for future builds


The time component is the kicker for me.

My last 2 resto-mod vintage frame build ups I did for personal use , (A DeRosa and a nice Colnago) - I brought the parts boxes to my mechanic and had him built the things up -- I knew they would never get done otherwise - and they turned out awesome

tmh657

My last really good flip was July 2015 and it was a whopper. 8 or 9 years ago I had more free time and flipping paid for bikes. This past summer I picked up 2 Bridgestone RB-1's far below FMV. Forgot to check the 1 thing I always do and 1 had a stuck seat post that I had to "melt" out with lye. The other was tweaked and didn't track straight. I might have made $100 between the 2 not counting probably 30 hours into that stuck seat post.

When I see a really nice Ironman sit on CL for a week at $200 flipping is over except for the occasional $500 bike that gets parted out for 8-900 bux to keep expendables on my small stable.

3alarmer 

bike_galpal

a viscous cycle? where are you getting these bikes, honeybees?

cinco

Oh, I didn't really take your comment as overt impugnment and I certainly didn't take offense. But in the past it's been suggested on this site and in real life that both my motives and my methods are worthy of ridicule and these days I seem to default to a state of mild defensiveness. There just don't seem to be many whose end goals line up with my own. It's one of the reasons why my post count is still so low after so many years - either I don't post because I don't want to seem standoffish by opposing the prevailing opinion, or I do post and nobody wants to talk to a guy who seems standoffish . Thanks for the kind words, and feel free to join the secret society of preservationists if you haven't already. Our next meeting will be at your house on Tuesday.

rjhammett

I don't flip bikes as much as I used to. I really like working on bikes so for me it is a hobby. I do a complete overhaul on every bike I sell. If I figured out my hourly wage fixing bikes for sale it would be very low. I have paid for quite a few vacations and paid bills with my profits. Look at the bikes I have listed under my name on the left, I paid for every one with profits from selling bikes.

oddjob2

Bob’s ability to discover deals is 2nd to none, except perhaps to @wrk101 and @Danbianchi881.

jimmuller 

Interesting responses.

I have never sold a bike but did sell one bare, not very good frame for peanuts just to get rid of it. I've been building because it is fun. I never intended to be a collector or seller but a rare or really nice bike is fun to work with and ride. So now I have sort of a collection.

Shortly after I joined BF some flipper who was a BF noobie posted a For Sale note in a non-For Sale thread. He claimed to be an expert because he sold on average some huge number that amounted to (IIRC) 4 to 6 bikes a week. But he didn't know the difference between a PX-10 and a UO-8, had made his judgment on pics he found on the Internet. He apparently didn't realize that many of the C&V members were world-class experts who might know far more than he did. And he didn't have the perception to realize that you don't offer to sell brand A in a thread started started to discuss brand B and named accordingly. He didn't stick around long. That post ticked me off because he insulted all the real experts here by assuming his knowledge was equivalent to theirs, and more importantly because it raised the possibility that he might pass it off to a less-informed buyer misrepresenting what it was even if unintentionally. Just because a car wears a bow tie and the name begins with a C doesn't mean that Corvair is a Corvette. With cars, the buyer will know. With older bikes, maybe not.

Anyway, that story is not pertinent to anything except the general issue of flipping. Some do, some don't. It takes some knowledge and patience to do well. I have neither.

rjhammett

I neglected to mention that I have given away many bikes. For me much of the enjoyment I get from working on bikes is to get bikes back on the road. Most everything I work on is from the '70s - '90s.

BlueDevil63 

Pretty much the same for me. I am pretty sure if I sold all the ones that are in the "private" collection I would probably end up ahead a fair bit because I bought a lot of them back when things were still pretty cheap. But in general break even on actual costs is a good outcome for me. No way I get paid anything reasonable for my time.

Unkle Rico

I try and buy / flip as much as possible but even then, maybe only a few bikes a year. Just depends on what i come across on CL and how much funds are available to play with. I always aim to get something that i want and that fits me because.. i might want to keep it for myself.