Flipping as a business and who does it
I've seen several notes about the karma of flipping as if it's good, bad, a sin...bottom line, there are only a few out there that have the skills to do the necessary work on a bike to make it flippable (not withstanding those out there that hunt for bargains and resell intact). I do the opposite: I buy decent, generally higher end bikes right, break them down and resell the components. I do okay--enough to feed my habit of nice bikes. When I buy a bike I tell the seller up front what I do--sometimes even sharing the spreadsheet I put together ahead of time with the estimate of what I can sell the parts for. And I tell the seller they are welcome to do the same. But most, well, all of the sellers, don't have the skills or time or place or desire to do it. And the buyers of the parts I sell seem delighted to get good parts cleaned, brought back to original specs. I believe I am a functional part of the landscape.