jo_lacs

Hi all. While on an errand yesterday, I checked out a local habitat for humanity store because sometimes they have bikes. I saw 2-3 department store BMX bikes and, there was a yellow road bike. As far as I can remember, it had a yellow lugged frame and fork and had a mostly shimano 105 group with brifters. It had Mavic rims. (I know, should have taken a photo.) At the time, the brand was unfamiliar to me. It had blue decals on the seat tube and downtube - "M Rossin". The price tag read $299. I felt like this price was too much for something that I've never heard off. I told myself, who would put a modern-ish group on a vintage looking frame. I finished my errands, went home, had lunch and researched the bike. Realizing what it was, I went back to go and buy it. It was past 4PM and the place was closed (they closed at 4PM - COVID times). I came back this morning. Of course it was gone. So... with a price tag of $299, did I miss out big time? Or just a little bit maybe?

rickpaulos

maybe. could have been a bent frame, sew up tires, rusted inside the steel frame, everything just worn out. BIkes like that, at stores like that, priced like that, typically sell in minutes. I've bought stuff while others were standing there contemplating the buy. I'll wait until they set it down or walk away.... A couple time they bought it.

Someone called me about at nice bike at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. I got there in 10 minutes but it was already sold and gone.

some of my buys that would have been gone in minutes:
Trek 730 multi track $25 at a pawn shop. this one wasn't tagged and the seat and grips were so disgusting, no one would touch it. There was a $10 price tag in the spokes for what I thought was the tag for a replacement wheel. But that was cheap for a new wheel. It wasn't the pawn shops usual tag so I asked and the clerk told me $25. SOLD! He admitted the pawn shop paid $10 for the bike. That wheel tag was incoming tag that gets replaced when they are done logging in the purchase. The other clerk over heard us and said she would have bought it she had known the price. $100 in parts and it works like new. rapid fire, grips, seat, inner tube, some nice cnc pedals. One of my favorite riding bikes.
Spaceliner chrome $100 in pretty good shape at a swap meet while some old fart was looking at it. I went directly to the seller and handed him the cash. then took the bike from in front the gawker. SOLD dude!
these are just too tall for me but super bargains too good to pass up:
Zunow $120 at a pawn shop
Bianchi road bike with "cheap" campy parts $100
F Moser race bike $110
Masi Prestige with c-groupo $100.
Peugeot PX10 $40
late model bright red Specialized road bike $85. Priced cheap because it had those skinny valves few know what to do with. Aired up the tires, waxed it and sold the same day for $450. msrp was $800 ish. everyone was happy that day: the pawn shop, me, the buyers who saved $350 on a like new bike.

You can always flip it and get most or all or more of your money back.

rickpaulos

Parting out old road bikes is all the rage. You can make a lot more selling off every campy part, one by one. There are a lot of nice old frames around. Of course the flip side is if you buy a frame, you pay a lot to rebuild it as it was so newer, cheaper bikes are a good source for parts. You don't see many carbon fibre bikes more than 5 years old, so those are a good source for parts. So many aluminum frame bikes have no character so why not move the parts to a steel is real frame. Index shifting is certainly more convenient that the old school downtube friction levers and some riders think that having more gears on a bike will make them faster. You have to be pretty hard core to still ride tubulars.

steveanderson

Great.