Lately I'm seeing pretty good deals on tandems on CraigsList. Some outliers, but on the whole, fair asking prices.
In general, a used tandem should be listed at near half of MSRP. More for a newer model. Less for older. Right now there has been a Co-Motion Speedster for $2,900 up for about a month. Pretty fantastic deal if it's in good shape.
I had been looking for a coupled tandem for a little while. In January I came across a 2007 Co-Motion Speedster Co-Pilot listed for $3,500. (MSRP of about $7000) I thought, "Oh, that's NICE and fits us. But a bit too high price." So I waited. Then a week or so later I saw it listed at $2,900. It was time to contact the seller!
I went to look at it. It appeared to be everything I was looking for. The seller had ALL original receipts, owner's manual, product CD, S&S wrench, both airline bags and packing material. Wow, the COMPLETE package! Before I scrutinized the bike, I offered him $2k. He said no way. So then I spent over an hour looking it over in detail. After finding everything in order, I offered him $2,500. He took it. I was pleased.
But I wasn't NEARLY as pleased as I was when I tore it down and rebuilt it. It's PERFECT! The seller was selling the bike for his mother and late step-father, so he didn't know much about the bike. The bike was almost 14 years old and had a lot of road grime on it and the STI levers were almost completely non-functional. So it wasn't prepped for sale and didn't look NEARLY as good as it should have. After a thorough cleaning & waxing, I found the paint was almost pristine. The wheels were perfect! Spoke tensions were as good as new. I was amazed. I got REALLY lucky to have found a diamond in the rough.
After six weeks of renovation, it's better than new and looking amazing. I couldn't be happier or luckier.
Given what I've seen lately, you too should be able to find a great tandem at a very fair price.
Good luck.
PS Caveats: I wouldn't look anywhere that would require shipping. That's too expensive and risky. No way would I buy a tandem sight-unseen. Also, I'm in the SF Bay Area which seems to be pretty blessed with ample used, quality tandems for sale. In fact, there's a guy in San Rafael who has about 10 tandems listed for sale. Seem to be pretty fairly priced and apparently most or all of them are new. (Just test ridden.)
PPS Right after buying mine, two Co-Motions, one of which was virtually exact same bike hit CL with an asking price of $2,500. So I probably could have gotten almost the same bike (not the same beautiful three-color fade though) for $500 less. But there's NO WAY it was in the excellent shape mine's in!
PPPS Duh, picture!
