Used bike price police
#76
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...I see bicycles all the time on the local CL that I could assume as projects, full dismantle, repaint, decal, and reassemble with new wheels to result in a classic frame that is a fun ride. But they are often too expensive in their asking price, because someone has the idea it's a nice bike, in spite of the current condition. I now presume they are doing me a favor, because I can only do three or four complete repaint projects a year. Otherwise it's not fun any more.
I will probably strip and paint it, because the paint is a little rough, and I always like the lilac ones. This one is silver. there is no chance in the world I'll eventually be able to sell it for what I will have into it, but I always wanted one, and this one seemed to be there with me in mind.
I realize not everyone is in the demographic of people who spend $280 for a project bike. But if you want the nicer ones, they're still showing up out of the dark corners of attics and garages.
#77
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#78
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Yeah, I junked my old van and now think, geeze maybe it was worth spending 2000 to put in new tranny? (I did find one advertised just like it for 1500) But well its long gone, Even have my brother looking in So Cal for one with decent mileage. Thought we had one but at his mechanics the guy told him it was leaking out every hose and seal it had, said a definite pass.
I wish I could drive a manual, but the old left knee isn't up to it. And finding something with less than 150000 miles for 5000 is all but impossible. Heck I see vans with 300000 for almost that now. Nope, rather do without that have a nickle and dimer (more like hundred and thousands now). LOL Starting to think a small Electric car might actually fit my bill. I've heard you can replace the battery with a newer one for better mileage. But I am in no hurry, I have my bike, I have bus service. And there is always the local taxi.
I wish I could drive a manual, but the old left knee isn't up to it. And finding something with less than 150000 miles for 5000 is all but impossible. Heck I see vans with 300000 for almost that now. Nope, rather do without that have a nickle and dimer (more like hundred and thousands now). LOL Starting to think a small Electric car might actually fit my bill. I've heard you can replace the battery with a newer one for better mileage. But I am in no hurry, I have my bike, I have bus service. And there is always the local taxi.
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#79
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Yeah, I junked my old van and now think, geeze maybe it was worth spending 2000 to put in new tranny? (I did find one advertised just like it for 1500) But well its long gone, Even have my brother looking in So Cal for one with decent mileage. Thought we had one but at his mechanics the guy told him it was leaking out every hose and seal it had, said a definite pass.
I wish I could drive a manual, but the old left knee isn't up to it. And finding something with less than 150000 miles for 5000 is all but impossible. Heck I see vans with 300000 for almost that now. Nope, rather do without that have a nickle and dimer (more like hundred and thousands now). LOL Starting to think a small Electric car might actually fit my bill. I've heard you can replace the battery with a newer one for better mileage. But I am in no hurry, I have my bike, I have bus service. And there is always the local taxi.
I wish I could drive a manual, but the old left knee isn't up to it. And finding something with less than 150000 miles for 5000 is all but impossible. Heck I see vans with 300000 for almost that now. Nope, rather do without that have a nickle and dimer (more like hundred and thousands now). LOL Starting to think a small Electric car might actually fit my bill. I've heard you can replace the battery with a newer one for better mileage. But I am in no hurry, I have my bike, I have bus service. And there is always the local taxi.
In Bikelandia, I'm on the hunt for certain hybrids that happen to have vintage touring bike geometry numbers (ok, Trek's FX pretty much exclusively), and that market fluctuates considerably. Drop bar conversion and all of a sudden, it's not just some random fitness/commuter/forgotten bike.
#80
Senior Member
TV shows like Antiques Roadshow and American (Nose) Pickers have everyone thinking that the contents of their attics and garages are a gold mine, and most of the time, that's simply not the case.
Last edited by WilliamK1974; 06-15-21 at 12:10 PM. Reason: Spelling error
#81
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-Kurt
Last edited by cudak888; 06-15-21 at 11:20 AM.
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#82
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Is there also a number for the used car, used jet ski, used boat, used kayak, used motorcycle, used house, used snowmobile price police.
Tim
Tim
#83
Junior Member
On the other hand, the prices some people will offer these days is equally nutty (to me!!). My girlfriend just had a garage sale, and had an old, really really lousy adult tricycle she put out to sell. She didn't put prices on any of the stuff she was selling, it was a neighborhood garage sale that she decided to participate in last minute and she said I'll just toss a bunch of stuff on tables and in my driveway and see if I can make a few $ and clean out the garage/basement. I had looked up prices on those tricycles a few years ago and they seem to go for around $40-$50 in decent ride-able shape. (Sorry, can't remember the brand.) Hers had dinged paint (not too bad), hadn't been serviced in 10+ years, tires starting to dry rot, grips cracked. I told her to take the first $10 somebody offered her. Guy offered her $75 the first hour she was selling.
A few hours later... She's got 4 bikes hanging in the back of the garage, outside the sale area. Guy spots them, asks if they're for sale. 2 are her kids bikes from when they were about 10-15 years old (12-15 years ago), beginner mountain bikes, Treks. He says he's looking for bikes to keep in the garage for when his grandkids come into town. My girlfriend calls one of her daughters and asks her if she wants to sell her old bike. The daughter says she hasn't ridden it in forever so yeah, how much does the guy want to pay. Guy offers $100, sold!
Both those bikes are going to need a whole lot more than just pump up the tires and lube the chain and pedal away.
A few hours later... She's got 4 bikes hanging in the back of the garage, outside the sale area. Guy spots them, asks if they're for sale. 2 are her kids bikes from when they were about 10-15 years old (12-15 years ago), beginner mountain bikes, Treks. He says he's looking for bikes to keep in the garage for when his grandkids come into town. My girlfriend calls one of her daughters and asks her if she wants to sell her old bike. The daughter says she hasn't ridden it in forever so yeah, how much does the guy want to pay. Guy offers $100, sold!
Both those bikes are going to need a whole lot more than just pump up the tires and lube the chain and pedal away.
#84
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Craigslist Price Police: 1-800-BLY-ACHE,
Facebook Marketplace Price Police: 1-855-BSY-BODY,
eBay Price Police: 1-888-GET-LIFE,
Yard Sale Price Police: 1-877-GRU-MBLE,
OfferUp Police: 1-844-NAG-FUSS,
Catchall line: 1-800-ART-FERN.
-Kurt
Last edited by cudak888; 06-15-21 at 01:24 PM.
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#85
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Bike Forums.
The place where you can learn about lubricants, metallurgy, classical physics and now the microeconomics of supply and demand.
what’s next? Quantum mechanics?
The place where you can learn about lubricants, metallurgy, classical physics and now the microeconomics of supply and demand.
what’s next? Quantum mechanics?
#86
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#87
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#88
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{voiceover} Tonight's episode: The Broken Promise
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I forgot about that. Makes me laugh every time.
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#89
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#90
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You know what is going to happen..... Soon as things get back to normal and bikes are once more being mass produced and there is enough to go around plus extra. The prices will fall back to or nearly back to the prices were before. Simple supply and demand. Right now is a bad time to be a buyer and a great time to be a seller. Unless you want to pay the money, wait. Right now its the covid prices.
#91
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I'm constantly amazed by all the beat up worn out crap bikes that sellers are asking for significantly more $$$$ than my completely refurbished bikes. Absolutely nuts!
#92
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Since this has deviated - I work in the car industry and human nature is interesting and often VERY irrational. When the price of gas goes up $1/gallon people go nuts and sell their car that gets, for example, 20mpg and they think they need to buy a hybrid or electric car. Unless the purchaser drives A LOT the annual cost would increase a few hundred $$ but said purchaser is willing to take a financial bath in order to achieve those precious MPGs. I could write a doctoral thesis on this mentality but people are what they are so they can part with their $$ if it makes them feel better.
Bringing this back to bikes - a Varsity, et al, is never worth more than $100 to me. I paid a bit of $$ for my recently acquired Legnano but the components justify what I spent. Also, old Legnanos are cool so I feel fine with what I spent. BTW - if someone has one of those old crappy Campy Sport rear derailleurs (1013/3), PM me!
Bringing this back to bikes - a Varsity, et al, is never worth more than $100 to me. I paid a bit of $$ for my recently acquired Legnano but the components justify what I spent. Also, old Legnanos are cool so I feel fine with what I spent. BTW - if someone has one of those old crappy Campy Sport rear derailleurs (1013/3), PM me!
#93
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Since this has deviated - I work in the car industry and human nature is interesting and often VERY irrational. When the price of gas goes up $1/gallon people go nuts and sell their car that gets, for example, 20mpg and they think they need to buy a hybrid or electric car. Unless the purchaser drives A LOT the annual cost would increase a few hundred $$ but said purchaser is willing to take a financial bath in order to achieve those precious MPGs. I could write a doctoral thesis on this mentality but people are what they are so they can part with their $$ if it makes them feel better.
Bringing this back to bikes - a Varsity, et al, is never worth more than $100 to me. I paid a bit of $$ for my recently acquired Legnano but the components justify what I spent. Also, old Legnanos are cool so I feel fine with what I spent. BTW - if someone has one of those old crappy Campy Sport rear derailleurs (1013/3), PM me!
Bringing this back to bikes - a Varsity, et al, is never worth more than $100 to me. I paid a bit of $$ for my recently acquired Legnano but the components justify what I spent. Also, old Legnanos are cool so I feel fine with what I spent. BTW - if someone has one of those old crappy Campy Sport rear derailleurs (1013/3), PM me!
#94
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This was how my grandpa, who made a very modest income while supporting his family in the rural Midwest (yet who loved to 'horse trade' cars often, for good deals), was able to buy a slab-sided ('61-69) Lincoln Continental sedan for a song during one of the gas crises. From Ford/Plymouth/AMC level to Lincoln, just because people needed the extra mileage, apparently. Now if only people suddenly didn't care about Pontiac G8 GXP 6-speeds and Chevy SS 6-speeds............
#95
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Yeah, the used vehicle market has just gone crazy the last year, on top of already heading in that direction the last several years. There are the usual suspects still sitting at the bottom of the proverbial sea, cheap as ever, but there's been strong updrafts in other segments, some quite surprising. Truck market, especially in the NW, is just silly. I would like to think that I am not so hard up for a truck that I'd be willing to pay $10k+ for a 200,000 mile rig that's 25 years old and needs some work. So until things get their heads on straight (lol), I'll just keep driving my car. [also of note, looking for a manual transmission 4x4 requires patience, so I box myself in pretty good there--still, I look at the overall truck market without those stipulations and see a sea of hilarity!]
Our truck market is always nuts. After spending a year trying to find a manual pickup that wasn't beat, we found a new unicorn stick '19 Frontier in Puyallup. KBB/Edmunds now lists it's trade in at about what we paid back then..
#96
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I did a bit of that when I first got out of the Army making very little money with a new wife and a baby I bought fixed and traded my way to better/more reliable cars. About 5 years ago I started teaching car maintenance and repair classes at the auto skill center on post the cheap junkers that young soldiers buy aren't cheap if you can't fix them yourself. The sad part of all of this to me is no one taught them this stuff before they headed off to adulthood, parents/schools don't need to be as extreme as my parents were but someone needs to teach these kids how to do basic maintenance and repair.
#97
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And now we find ourselves starting the "back in the old days" comparisons. Glad you found something. Stick shifts in trucks beyond about 2006 are rare, though I would imagine much less so in the compact segment. I think Dodge was one of the last to offer a manual in the full-size segment, on their Cummins HDs no less. The car I bought over a year ago has not increased in value, even though it is quite nice. But hey, forgotten gems are special to those that find them and like them!
#98
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...someone just listed a far from pristine, but promising, 1976 Motobecane Le Champion about 15 minutes away from me, for $280. It is missing the original brakes, and when dismantled today had installed in it an undersized bar (shimmed, but just barely) and a seatpost that was .2 mm too small. It did come with a salvageable Brooks Pro, and most of the other original components, except the brakes, for some strange reason. But I have all that stuff in the garage somewhere.
I will probably strip and paint it, because the paint is a little rough, and I always like the lilac ones. This one is silver. there is no chance in the world I'll eventually be able to sell it for what I will have into it, but I always wanted one, and this one seemed to be there with me in mind.
I realize not everyone is in the demographic of people who spend $280 for a project bike. But if you want the nicer ones, they're still showing up out of the dark corners of attics and garages.
I will probably strip and paint it, because the paint is a little rough, and I always like the lilac ones. This one is silver. there is no chance in the world I'll eventually be able to sell it for what I will have into it, but I always wanted one, and this one seemed to be there with me in mind.
I realize not everyone is in the demographic of people who spend $280 for a project bike. But if you want the nicer ones, they're still showing up out of the dark corners of attics and garages.