Often I see on the for sale forum nearly new stuff for sale, and today is no exception:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2016-yeti-sb55c-turquoise-xl-frame-fox-float-x-shock

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trek-farly-98-195-less-than-150-miles-on-the-bike

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2016-giant-defy-advanced-2-carbon-road-bike-xl-heavily-upgraded

I for one like to get my money’s worth, so not only keep stuff but also take a bit of care when buying but other folk seem to just buy stuff (and expensive stuff at that) and then almost immediately sell it at great loss, is it just bad planning on their part or that they just don’t care?

I’m a serial bike swapper. I’m on my seventh in five years. Don’t even want to think about the money I’ve lost. Maybe people’s circumstances change meaning they have to sell? It’s great for the likes of me who are addicted to swapping bikes and parts at random though.

A few guys I know that spent out on things with the impending arrival of a new child then realised they weren’t using it and either sold it on or left it in the shed. Funnily enough a mate with a Yeti that cost a small fortune and I bet hasn’t seen the outside world for 4/5 years now aside from when he moved house and moved it from one to the other.

Stress response, I’m still young, my money is still my own!

Even my own FS came from a guy who was selling as his girlfriend wanted them to move in together so his bikes and car were up for sale.

In my experience there are a few serial bike swappers who really don’t care, a shiny new rig every 6 months makes them happy and fair play to them, better that than coke and hookers.

However the majority of these nearly new bikes popping up tend to be incidents where the household finances have faced an expected squeeze:

“Darling I’m pregnant”
“I want a divorce”
“The Car’s crapped itself”
“You’re fired!”

etc etc

And in these instances swanky bikes are high value, non-essential and easy to sell so they tend to be first in the firing line if you need a bit of quick cash to cover the mortgage for a few months whilst you sort things out. Better that than pay-day loan vampires.

The obvious alternative of sticking your kids on Ebay in the hope Madonna or Angelina Jolie will stick a bid on them also tends to be frowned upon by society in general.

I’m all for it, I rarely buy new so anyone selling un used bike stuff at half the new price is a good thing

Seriously what’s the issue? If it’s something that brings pleasure to someone then go for it! For the first time in my life I have some disposable income and after years of buying knackered old bikes I can now afford to buy new. I have just finished building my new bike with all new parts. It is the second bike I have bought this year and we(my wife and I) will probably buy another two. We both work our nuts of, so why not? It’s what I love.

It’s not the buying of the bike, it’s the buying then not using and selling on at a big loss.

Some people just dont get enjoyment out of using their bikes, they prefer to talk about using them

Christ I wish I hadn’t seen that yeti

The first advert… “Should retail at…” Would suggest that it wasn’t purchased at retail.
Bike parts are like beer…worth more than hard cash in exchange for services!
people will take bike stuff in contra as payment for all manner of things, then turn around and sell them on.
Yeti marketing Dept: if you do a photo shoot, will you take a bike as payment?
You: sure, do I have to ride it or can I sell it?
Yeti: stuff it up your nose for all we care. We just saved a bunch of cash.

Seriously what’s the issue? If it’s something that brings pleasure to someone then go for it!

But don’t begrudge the OP the pleasure he gains from sneering at others!

With the examples given I’d guess the Yeti (as above) was not bought at RRP, the Trek is, as mentioned a casualty of fatherhood (same happened to me) and the Giant is owned by some one that doesn’t see a few thousand as a lot of money.

All kind of reasons, all kind of answers. What botheres me more is when you research the value of an item, post it up for market value + a bit of wiggle room then someone comes and offers 50%. 😐

Well compared to the many more thousands of people who throw away many more thousands of pounds by buying brand new cars and then selling them after a year or 3 I don’t think the odd bike here and there is much of an issue.

And this forum is hardly representative of the bike riding and buying public in general, more a snapshot of the most affluent* and/or committed** people who like to play with bikes for fun 😉

* I am not this
** I maybe this, some might say I have a problem, I disagree 😀

My local BS has a customer who comes in every year without fail to buy a brand new top of the line mtb, which he then just uses to tootle about on the road. Every year the BS tries to talk him out of spending quite so much as he knows its massive overkill. But he insists.

He trades his “old” bike in, so on the plus side we all know to expect that there will be a pretty much an “as new” bike being sold off cheap and can pounce quickly! 😆

money is good for 1 thing.

If it wasn’t an XL I’d be going for that Defy right now. And I hate road bikes.

ton,

coke

AND

hookers

Well compared to the many more thousands of people who throw away many more thousands of pounds by buying brand new cars and then selling them after a year or 3 I don’t think the odd bike here and there is much of an issue.

Amedias has it. Dropping a few hundrecd quid on a bike is trivial compared to the depreciation drop on new cars. If a new bike makes you happy?

Though rather than sell bikes a bigger shed has to be the answer.

I rarely sell bikes, because their value to me is worth way more than the money they’d fetch.

I haven’t ridden XC for years but still have my XC race bike. Because if I decide I want to start again, all I need is to dust it off rather than find a grand or whatever.

My local BS has a customer who comes in every year without fail to buy a brand new top of the line mtb, which he then just uses to tootle about on the road. Every year the BS tries to talk him out of spending quite so much as he knows its massive overkill. But he insists.

Substitute MTB with off-roader/4×4/SUV or whatever we call things like Range Rovers and this story is repeated thousands of times across the entire country!

I am okay with bikes but dreadful with musical instruments. One month I want a synth, then a guitar, then a bass, back to guitar, then a different guitar, back to bass, synth again etc,. I seem to have a mental block where I can only have one instrument to learn at a time and sell it to buy the next. Had about 7 different instruments so far this year. Maybe if I was any good at playing one I would stick to at least the same type of instrument….

It’s some kind of money laundering scam 😉

I am always surprised at the ££s people waste spend on MTB. From the cost of bikes to basic kit. Oh a pair of MTB shorts for 3-4x the price of a pair of shorts….a must have.

I used to think “tri” was short for rip-off but “MTB” beats it hands down

At that price (£000s) this bike is perfect for upgrading – people swallow that stuff????

Now now tmh, my BFe cost £2,300 and that was with Rockshox and no dropper, make it a Soul and Fox and you get to £3,000+ for a hardtail.

As above many reasons to sell a bike, unexpected change of circumstances or a “lets try this” purchase that didn’t work out .. As above there are plenty here who get discounted / free stuff and sell it on and why not.