xiaoman1 

I consider very high and very low selling prices to be outliers, the selling/buying will almost always follow some sort of a bell curve and be in the middle. Sometimes when folks are offering an opinion on a bike one may make a statement "I just bought one for XYZ", either a high or low number.

IMO, it boils down to 3 things....how wide of an audience does the seller want to include in the sale (Local vs. E.B) whether or not they are willing to breakdown, pack and ship and what the buyer is willing to pay and how long they are willing to wait.

The only way to test the market and the value of the bike as others have said is to put the higher valuation on the bike and see if it sells. if it does great, if it doesn't, then hold it, and wait for the "right" buyer .....or lower the price untill it sells. The market value at a given point in time.

I hope that the OP will report back to us with the selling price on the bike.

BTW ,high valuations can do the same dis-service to a new/uniformed seller, setting an expectation that might not be realizable.

FWIW, JMHF(free)O, Ben

SurferRosa

What's the big deal with someone paying a ton for a bike that they want, drunk or not?

And what's the big deal with keeping this thread open?

Chuck M 

To be fair, I did consider going back and editing my comment on the Raleigh post to make it clearer that my opinion was simply that, an opinion based on what I see bikes in my area being offered for but didn't get around to it. And I will admit that after looking at it a bit closer I would probably be willing to pay more than I had stated if I was looking for a bike and I can see where someone wanting this particular make and model paying even more. But I also asked the OP of that thread which side of the fence he was on, buyer or seller and they never replied. A buyer's offer and a sellers ask are usually two different numbers. If I had to guess by the photos, the OP of the thread was a potential buyer as I would hope a seller would take better photos (but maybe not).

But Killroy, you would also probably agree that the bike in the other thread was not on par with the eBay sale you cited. Although the eBay sale I suppose would help a flipper decide if it was worth the investment.

iab

I'm happy to offer some, if you quit being a pain in the ass.

SurferRosa

^

3alarmer 

SoccerBallXan

Weak attempt to stir the pot from OP. A fool knows better than to take a rabbit's advice. If people don't agree with free valuations on a free forum they need to free their mind from expectations.

E: Also, it's not a big deal to buy any bike. It's a big deal to cry about the bad advice you're giving on a free forum.

bamboobike4

I don’t even know what a Raleigh Portage is.
I didn’t even know Raleigh had canoes.
But this thread is great.

bamboobike4

Once you buy a bike, the price gets less relevant.
Unless you used the money that was better spent on a kidney.

bamboobike4

Hold it. What?
Completely lost.
But, also drunk, which is making this the best 10 minutes of my day.
So thank you.

iab

Yeah, pretty great, certainly entertaining. Never heard of the bike either and I wouldn't give a plug nickel for one. But I understand that is not a valuation. Many here don't.

bamboobike4

I think that was in the 90’s.

bamboobike4

A plug nickel. Now we’re talking.

MaxKatt

OP makes a compelling case.

As a service to this community, I will post grossly inflated and unrealistic internets estimates, thereby perfectly offsetting the low ballers and allowing Enquiring minds to know exactly how large their income will be.

bamboobike4

The abject sacrifice of your integrity will be in songs forever.

jon c. 

If you ask the crowd for their opinions, you will get what you asked for.

curbtender

That would fit in right here...

SoccerBallXan

Appraisals from previous threads on Raleigh Portage. I thought this was a bit fun.

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rgvg

Couldn't you buy a new 650b bike with 1800 though?

Kilroy1988 

Yeah, I personally only comment on appraisal threads for bicycles I actually watch the market for. Hence my finally bringing this up. I have seen and continue to see (witness last week's auction) Raleigh Portages sell for $1,000+. Someone here literally said they sold theirs for $1,000.

Is the fact that I like to point out that there's potential for some decent money from a bicycle that has a proven track record of selling for decent money somehow abhorrent?

-Gregory

jdawginsc 

But honestly, couldn’t you have simply disagreed with the opinions in the “valuation” thread, and given a different perspective based on the EBay comps?

I am thinking that each of those appraisal threads have different opinions about values as well, right?

The OP could have seen the different ways that a value was determined as a springboard to their own thoughts on what they should sell or buy it for.

Did the OP definitively say they were looking to sell the Portage?

Kilroy1988 

That goes back to the initial point of the thread - I was asking people to consider more angles than their local markets or guesswork that leads to often only a number of very low estimates being presented in that sub-forum. Do a quick eBay search, take some time to offer a more well-rounded opinion if you expect your appraisal to be objective, as the OP would certainly hope for. The guy offering the eBay high-end sale prices for consideration (such as myself) apparently isn't always around to provide that often useful bit of information. Way too many threads in there only have the low end cited, without thought given to the potential buyer or seller's circumstances and how the opportunity to make more via wider avenues might in fact be of interest to them.

-Gregory

SurferRosa

"You are asking about freedom. The very essence of all enterprise, especially free enterprise, and freedom could be considered, and is often considered, you know, to be just another word for being free. Therefore, there will be no train to freedom. The train has already left the station. How can the music be free when the people of White Lake are enchained? Huh? If one song is not free, then all songs are not free. That is why we are going to free all the songs in White Lake."

- Elliot Teichberg

philbob57

Xiaoman1/Ben, How do you build a valid bell curve out of 3 sales in a year? (My guess is that you know the answer to that question....).

I can understand loving a grail bike, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my quick review of ebay a moment ago says a buyer could have gotten a better bike for less money. The better bike might not actually be better for someone who wanted a Portage.

polymorphself 

People in collectors markets across the internet know well enough that everything on eBay sells for higher prices than you’ll get elsewhere. The best we can do in something like the C&V appraisals forum is assume those asking about their bikes at least know that much. We can’t do all the work for them.

We would also be doing a disservice to continue influencing people that bikes like a Raleigh Portage should sell for $1800. That’s a disservice to everyone interested in purchasing these bikes. Both sides of the coin are equally important for any collectors hobby. Do we want to shoot oursleves in the foot by continuing to influence eBay markups?

The appraisals forum does a good job, imo, of appraising something for the C&V sales forum, offerup, and Craigslist. eBay is an outlier and it’s own beast entirely. And eBay users can simply look up old auctions for a valuation if they care to go that route.

In my opinion, as hobbyists who really care about this thing and are not looking to just totally milk it for money, it’s our job to offer fair prices for the community to keep this hobby accessible.