Originally Posted by
unworthy1
I make money...just never made a profit!
Seriously the only way this works for me is my mindset that it's not a business, (for me), it's a hobby. I don't keep books cause if I did I'm sure I'd never fix a bicycle again and get into something with real potential...like day trading!
Most of my "flips" are not to strangers so I'm motivated to give these folks a good price which I arrive at by trying to cover the cost of the PARTS and usually none of my LABOR. This is not the formula to follow if you hope to make any profit (see Retailing 101). So follow me to the poorhouse, people!
This^. I explain it this way...Bikes are my jigsaw puzzle. Some people spend hours piecing together a cardboard picture and then throw it back in a box. I open the garage door, pull up a chair or two, and dismantle and rebuild bikes. My table is bigger, but about the same satisfaction of finishing a project. Neighbors and friends come by and grab something out of the fridge and tell me their stories. I try to make a hundred bucks on a bike, but that doesn't always happen. I pick up a lot of bike inventory at garage sales. If you tell people what you do, a lot of accessories come out. I guess if you wanted to make it a business you'd have a lot of write offs. Too much like work, lol.