ppg677

I was very much into buying/selling classic&vintage bikes in the mid 2010s.

Has demand dropped off? I recently decided to thin the herd and am surprised at the lack of bites for what I thought were reasonable prices based on my recollection from the 6-8 years ago.

Listed a Cinelli quill stem on Craigslist and FB Marketplace for $35...zero bites.

thinktubes 

Yep - good time to buy stuff

gearbasher

People like us are either getting too old or dying off.

SurferRosa

Demand? Drop? Pshaw.

What's that? "E-bikes"? What??

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Sedgemop 

I've been commuting by bike in Chicago since 2005 or so. Used to see lots of 70's/80's Schwinns, Pugs, Fujis, etc.; nicer vintage road bikes converted to fixies; and newer dedicated tourers with panniers. Still see some of the tourers, but almost none of the others. They've been replaced by e-bikes and scooters form our local bike share program and people on their own e-bikes. Way less bike traffic overall too with so many working from home now. This is purely anecdotal, but I do imagine all this has a big impact on bike sales. Parts seem to still do pretty well, but not necessarily on CL. Pretty dead over there.

TiHabanero

Yes, demand has dropped, craigslist is dead, FB Marketplace is now the place, and the boomers are getting old and older, no longer needing or wanting the vintage collection as in years past.
I have put into recycle lots of old vintage parts and spare parts over the last year after being unable sell or swap them. Cie la vie. Comes a time when the party is over, unfortunately. The next generation of riders/collectors will not see the beauty in lugged steel as the current gen does. Instead they will lust after the bikes of their youth.

ehcoplex 

Around me I see many, many listings with way out of whack asking prices that sit, and sit, and sit, and...... Even real junk that looks like it's been rotting away in a wet basement for 20 years will be listed as 'classic/vintage' or 'collectible' (...) asking $400, $500, etc... So demand may have fallen, but a lot of sellers don't seem to have figured that out!

jamesdak 

It seems to. Taking forever to move on a couple of nice older rides despite a full breakdown of the money put into them as well as my usual detailed pictures.

mpetry912 

for sure. the good old days of the early 2000s are long gone. That train has left the station.

now's the time to go over to Japan and look for some of the world class hoards over there. And there are some.

/markp

Kabuki12

I see a golden opportunity to buy bikes! Yes, I have seen the demand drop. I have seen prices way down on some very nice classics. But , if you have time and patience , you can still sell something for more than a couple hundred bucks. I had a really nice Medici Pro Strada for sale only because it was a bit small for me. It was 60cm so still a bit tall for a lot of perspective buyers. This bike was on CL for over a month and the highest offer I got would not convince me to let go of it. I would rather just display the bike on a wall and I’m not into that. As much as I hated to , I put it on eBay for more than I had it listed on CL. After a week or so , I finally got an offer for over 50% higher than the highest offer I got from CL. It was still , after fees , lower than I would’ve liked but it went to a good home.

LesterOfPuppets

This had sat on CL for a few weeks, originally priced at $100, then at $40 for almost a week, so I brought it home today. Imagine that happening in 2013!

icemilkcoffee 

If you’re selling a stem or some other small item, Ebay is the right venue for that.

georges1

People born in the 60's-70's-80's will buy some nice steel road, aluminium or titanium road bikes and mountain bikes from the late 80's-90's-00's which were some of their dream bikes.Ebay is also the place if you hunt well. Most of my builds will be neo retro except one. For the generation for in th 90's-00's , it will be carbon or aluminium frames that will await for them alongwith DI2 or SRAM Etap.

ctak

Supply chain kinks that eventually led to overstocking are impacting retail and c&v enthusiast alike. I get weekly emails from bike outlets with growing discounts, free shipping, other offers. IMO the strong buyer's market has less to do with c&v in particular... no doubt lots of folks with inflation-fueled confusion as to the value of what they've listed on FB, CL, OU or eBay. Wouldn't be surprising to learn cycling listings on eBay are at all time highs.

Atlas Shrugged

Where will the future demand come from to reignite the C&V market going forward. More C&V bikes and parts seem to continue to be found and existing items will exist in perpetuity.

If continued acquisition is the objective the upcoming years will be amazing. Myself I am still
on the hunt for a Teledyne Titan the one bike I regret selling.

mpetry912 

Sadly most of those have cracked if regularly ridden. They were neat bikes back in the day

/markp

chain_whipped

Demand has dropped across all market segments but among some, prices seem steady.

For city dwellers, vintage uprights / middle weight bikes with 3 speeds are once again selling. You couldn't give them away just five years ago. More remarkable its becoming fashionable cool with the gals. No need for mint or excellent cosmetic condition. Long as they're in good mechanical, clean and can still present character. $190-$290 range. Mixte's outsell the men's frame though both versions sell. Often fetch more money than skinny tired race bikes.

Another quirky used bike segment are older 26" MTB hardtail conversions to upright stems, drop bars, mudguards. Contrary, older road bikes converted to flat bars just don't seem to appeal buyers.

Other:
Vintage BMX still way strong.

Sleeper market.... older hybrids with ERTO 584 (aka 27.5 or 650b). Especially the forgotten Schwimn Suburban 1980's, three speeds. $200-$250 all day long.

Ps: Moved 400+ used in a 6 week ~weekend stretch during covid holiday. Lol

abdon 

I think there was an uptick during COVID and now there is a natural d downtick from there.

lasauge 

I got to thinking about this the other day after noticing how the offerings of Velo Orange have shrunk considerably, I don't see vintage bike projects on other parts of the internet like I use to, and the Tektro CR720 seems to be out of production entirely. Looking around the internet the blogosphere that promoted classic bikes seems to have disappeared as well. I would attribute this to the natural fading of the surge of interest in classic bikes that followed the fixie fad, as well as the maturity of the gravel segment which has filled the gap in the market for versatile drop bar bikes. Also, demand for bikes generally is soft right now everywhere due to the whipsaw aftereffects of the COVID years.

repechage

This software really is wonky. The reader's digest version:

demand for bike shops has dropped big.

demographics is going the wrong way.
But, this year will see the highest number of guys retiring ever.
next year? Will be buying parts, frame and services such as wheel building. Refinishing.
easier to bring in a frameset or parts into the house than a whole bike.
all those henpecked husbands.

kunsunoke 

The demand curve is back to normal. There's no lock-downs from Wuhan Coronavirus anymore. The hipsters that used to buy old bikes at inflated prices are either completely broke (having been cut off of the trust fund dollars) or have become respectable and/or have kids. E-bikes are the next big thing, since fixed gears aren't going to cut it when you've gained 20-50 pounds from inactivity and too much PBR.

eBay USA is no longer a good source for C&V items at reasonable prices. It has been supplanted by eBay.fr, eBay.it, eBay.es and eBay.co.uk in that regard. tldr - If you want to get good deals, learn a romance language.

USAZorro

I'm the world's worst salesperson to begin with.

Chuck M 

That is going to clean up so well. It even has the flick-stand and I'd wager possible the original saddle under that gel cover.

bark_eater 

I see the availability from Europe, but shipping prices have gone way up. I guess if you found an item for $100 cheaper, the extra $30 in shipping is still a win, but for a lot of bike bits that kind of puts a damper on finding the "deals".

brewerkz 

Yes, demand has dropped. A local bike shop indicated the manufacturers have been dropping prices which undercut their inventory. Holding off on 2024 model year purchases.

For myself, the local market is very soft, prices are down on good used bikes. Good time to buy. I am careful on what I buy these days. Especially very small or large frame bikes.