Originally Posted by
cbrstar
I don't know how road bike guys manage, but in vintage BMX collecting often the value is in the parts. It can take years to find the correct parts to show up and if you need it well you are going to pay through the nose for it. With BMX most of the guys don't ride them anymore anyways. So I think selling a road bike it is much more difficult because you have the added problem of size and fit. I noticed my friends who are into road bikes and flip them often sell theirs to University fixie kids. They find a road bike for under $100 cad, hose it down and then sell it as a "fixie project" for $200cad. It's kinda sad to see so many beautiful vintage bikes end up mangled this way.
I bought pretty really nice Campy-laden Trek from a guy about an hour north of ATL a couple years back. He was listing kinda high and it wasn't selling, when it dipped into my range I bit. Drove out to grab it, BMX was his thing, he had BMX frames and parts all over. We talked about price, he mentioned how the Campy crank on the Trek bike was actually something BMX guys would pay out the nose for, at least 2/3 what I was paying for the bike. I was shocked until he showed me what he was making parting out BMX, guy was making a high 5-figure income with his parting activities.
Closed out our chat with him offering some free road shoes. Nice guy. But yeah, that interaction opened my eyes to what BMX stuff is worth and how little I know about that scene. I was into skateboarding around the time BMX & Freestyle was the "in" thing. I always wanted a GT Performer or Pro freestyle (they always had the best colors) or maybe a Haro Master. Needless to say, I couldn't afford either. Skateboarding was cheaper. I absolutely destroyed the cheap-o BMX bike my parents gave me hitting dirt jumps we made around the neigbhorhood.