gudwyn

1981 Mercian King of Mercia, 58cm center-to-top, excellent condition, original finish. What's it worth?

rustystrings61 

Out of curiosity, what is the builder number? Mercians will have two numbers stamped under the BB shell, a serial number that by this point ended in the last two digits of the year made, and a single digit number identifying the builder or workbench. I know that during this time frame 5 was Derek Land and 6 was George Bryan.

xiaoman1 

J.C., Would it make a difference in terms of quality.... if so why?

SurferRosa

I'd love to have those brake levers.

rustystrings61 

I seem to keep running up on Derek Land’s (no.5) frames. I also have a George Bryan-built (no.6) frame as well. Sometimes it’s nice to know who built it. I can’t imagine anyone who wasn’t excellent building for them.

jdawginsc 

I think mine is Derek Land. Where’s the number?

xiaoman1 

Mr. 66

There was a set with black hoods in excellent condition at Recycled Cycles, $45 a couple of days ago

rustystrings61 

It should be somewhere on the BB shell, a lone digit apart frmo the serial number.

For the full trainspotting experience, there's the Mercian Register on Flickr. Originally established by Chris Barbour, it's a cool trove of earlier bikes. At one point I had gone through the whole site and made up a listing of which years Mercian used the first two digits as a date code and which years it was the last two digits. It goes back and forth and started early on. You'll see some Mercians with the serial numbers on the dropouts, and I should go back and make notes about when it standardized on the bb shell.

SurferRosa

In that regular brake lever bin near the front of the store or in a glass case in the back?

jdawginsc 

Derek Land it is!

Mr. 66

These I saw were in the bin up front. They my have more in the basement, but you didn't here that from me...

SurferRosa

I looked through there for about 2 minutes and did not see them. I was speaking to the guys about it, they didn't know they were in there, but found them in about 10 seconds. :smh:

Mr. 66

Cool! They were buried in the the bin, I made sure I put them back where I found 'um.

habes78023 

I'm a little surprised no one is putting any values out there on these. I'm tempted to say we could have combined all of the gudwyn threads into one.

These all look very nice, but we do only have one picture per bike. They are all desirable and would have interested buyers. Boston is a decent market, not quite as strong as some, but definitely not going to be the worst.

If you are trying to sell them quicker, you can probably get around 5-700 on most all of these and they could sell within a week on local selling platforms. If you are looking to get closer to top dollar, you're going to have to put more work in. Ebay listing with detailed descriptions and photos. There's also going to be sold listings to compare to. I'd expect average selling price could be in the low 1000, and they could all be gone within a month. True top dollar? many months and up to a year and you could get your average sale price near 1500+. This factors in one or two who might sell for big 2000+ and some that might linger and drop below 1000.

Take this all with a grain of salt as I'm an internet stranger who hasn't personally sold any of these models recently, but has a somewhat decent finger on the pulse and looked at each bicycle briefly (one picture per, but taken from the drive side, so that is appreciated).

Now perhaps others will feel brave enough to put their estimates out there.

Mr. 66

Brave? Heck what is the parts list? I have values, but they are not what the op wants to hear about a Frankenstein bike.

all said I have my 80's Mercian all put together I spent about $200 and I know the op does not want to hear that.

So here is my Mercian with mostly Shimano 600 w/ xtr rear derailleur, branded Tange headset, Nitto stem, bbun-71, Mavic Reflex SUP Open pro rims, Concor saddle, newbaum's bartape, the bars are Winn Professional with some mar. Weighs about 22.5 lbs


Now the op Frankenstein bike about $300

habes78023 

I think it's a little brave to stick your neck out pricing given the circumstances. Especially with identifying the build with one picture. Very few people are going to be able to pic out the derailleur model, or know it's not original equipment. A serious buyer, and many of us will know right away it's not original equipment.

gudwyn does owe us parts lists for accurate pricing, pictures of the parts and more of the bike from different angles.

habes78023 

You've got a nice one there! Looking good, especially for 200

SurferRosa

Or just silly when so much depends on more info, detailed photos, choice of online market platform, timing, ...

habes78023 

Totally fair, and I said take my opinion with a grain of salt, given the circumstances. We repeat the same message on here often, need more pictures and breakdown on parts. If a poster wants a detailed price breakdown from us, then we need a detailed posting from them.

However, I have seen plenty of folks offer appraisals on worse though. The Trek 990 at the top of the sub forum right now only has two pictures. and while it is a bit more of a commodity and lower $ stakes, several people have been willing to chime in and verify its 'deal' status.

Mr. 66

Totally different situations, a familiar forum member's post, the 990 is from an add, with a link provided. Would I like more info? Sure, but that op has no other info to post because it's an add.

This thread's bike is from a newbie ones collection. Note the op has acknowledged response of need greater information and has not released the details that give me the ability to assess properly. Heck! With a parts list and well done photos will just about always get a higher assessment. No pictures and no details has shown it gets a request for such. One picture and no details does not show wear does not show alignment makes people guess at parts.

We, we, all see adds that say all is perfect rides great, maybe with good a picture even. Go take a look and it's a waisted afternoon.

I admit I'll post adds with no pictures, but I write detailed copy that gives a mental picture. I'll flat out say great paint, or tourched and dented, if that's what it is.