“Groupset? – ageing XT/XTR 3×9 – not going to fetch a penny”
In the last year I have bought brand new XT 3×9 parts – would have been delighted to buy second hand had good condition been available when I was looking. [With hindsight I should have put the money towards upgrading, but I had most of a v. nice groupset and thought “why not spend the extra getting it spot on”.
And you might be surprised – some old guy locally might be looking for 3×9 parts to build up a commuter bike to sell on.
I have just posted a f’ugly silver aluminium MTB stem – £11 incl postage someone paid for something that was deeply unfashionable 10 years ago, unbranded, ugly, 25.4mm bar-clamp.
Sold a 9 speed shimano tiagra long cage rear mech recently – who the **** wants to build a budget road bike with a triple chainset? Someone!!! Sold a Dura Ace 3×9 triple chainset as well – who rides Dura Ace witha triple? No-one yet it sold for £50!
£22 after ebay, paypal and postage costs for a very old XTR 9sp rear mech a month or two back. Got hardly anything for it but even managed to flog a 26″ 7 speed wheelset recently.
SRAM 3×7 grip shifters anyone? Got a few quid for them recently!
OP – a spare bike makes a lot of sense if you have the space and cashflow… if not then try to sell complete, if that fails split it and flog the lot in parts on ebay. Prioritise selling the big bits (frame, forks, wheels), then list the smaller bits collection only if they are very low value (not worth posting), and with postage if they are worth posting. I used to use ebay as a last resort with 99p start no reserve… now I use it as my first port of call – very cheeky asking prices, free P and P, with ‘buy it now or best offer’… see what offers come in, relist lower if it doesn’t sell, with a bit of patience you’ll be surprised, it’ll all go for reasonable money.
Caveat – I do buy quite a lot of old bike, cannabalise, re-build, sell bits on etc and I do make a point of selling EVERYTHING I can however little money I can realise… arguably a fair bit of what I sell is utterly unjustiable from a time / money rational assessment, but its a hobby that complements the riding bikes one!