[Closed] Selling bikes and security

100% meet in a public place, preferably one with cctv.

I’ve always stated that bike kept in lock up at work too.

Always meet up. Never trust anyone with test ride without a good deposit. If you or them aren't happy then walk away. Try and get to know them via email or PM. You can usually get a feel about the ones who are time wasters or want an immaculate bike for a bargain price. Sold quite a few this year as well as a load of parts with no problems.
Its a sellers market still so you can afford to be choosy. Had more luck on Pinkbike than on here. Not bothered about other marketplaces.
Clean it up, plenty of photos and a realistic price and you shouldn't have a problem in selling it.

Before you take photo's turn off geotagging or even better photograph it out in a park or at work.
Work is also a handy meeting point as it's usually more secure and you have backup if things go pear-shaped. Keep any other bikes out of sight, don't even mention them if you can avoid it. If you can't meet elsewhere (it's one of the no-no's for a buyer after all) then keep them to the front of the house. If they arrive by car and want a test ride take their car keys or cash as a deposit. Most of all though trust your instincts when they contact you.

The vast majority of people are law-abiding and honest, it's the minority you need to watch out for so be sensible and pre-filter. Thieves are looking for easy targets, don't act like an easy target!

"I've given up riding due to a dodgy knee, gutted to have to sell my bike" 🙂 may be safer than
"Trying to make space for my new Santa Cruz"

In Covid times I think meeting out front but ensuring you are seen to come out of the house is helpful. I've not sold bikes but have sold power tools this year between lockdowns by doing the handover in person on the drive. I've had whatever I'm selling ready and in the drive out of sight.

Most of my face to face buying or selling has been somewhere mutually convenient like a service station, carpark, trail centre or at a bike race. Seems reasonable to me. No need to sell from your front door.

Thanks for the replies. All kind of echo what I've been thinking, but wondered if I was verging on paranoid, so nice to know I'm not the only one worried about this.
Has anyone ever had a negative reaction from a potential buyer when suggesting things like meeting elsewhere or taking a deposit? Worth mentioning it in the advert?

Interesting thread. I've done very little selling and was wandering the same thing.

Then realised that for the he kids' bikes I took no precautions at all. Just gave them the address.

I've done both, meet up somewhere and sold from home. If selling from home I always make sure the stuff is out of the garage and the door is closed before they come round.

I'm selective of who I sell to though, I recently refused to sell some Hope brakes to a couple of guys through stw as they didn't have any history of posting. Maybe a bit paranoid but I wasn't short of offers.

If you sell on here and the potential buyer has plenty of history, I reckon your pretty safe.

Don't think you have to give a reason for sale either, as people who are into bikes know people can't stop themselves buying new shit.

Edit: what bike is it btw?

I use Facebook marketplace and check out the prospective buyers profile before responding to their initial message.

I don't let people turn up at my house to buy bike stuff unless i know who they are or a mate can vouch for them.
Trail centres, car parks, shopping centres have all worked fine for me.You can normaly tell from emails/texts/ phone conversations if they're genuine or not from the questions they ask.
Last bike i sold I was a little unsure about the lad so he texted me a pic of his driving licence and a £50 paypal payment before I went to meet him.
Last frame I sold he came to my house as he'd bought a frame from me before.

I also once sold a bike and had to keep reminding the buyer they'd paid for it and might want to arrange getting it collected.😁

Sold a bike from my house no issue. Buyer didn't want to meet in a random place with pocket full of cash. Got the full amount off him before he test rode it. Not everyone is out to rip you off just be sensible and if you think they're dodgy they probably are. Or just think everyone is a serial killer and only sell to someone hundreds of miles away and courier it to them.

Last one I sold on Facebook, I took it to the buyers house as he was local. He didn't get any inkling about the rest of my expensive fleet, (erm...) and if he'd wanted a test ride, fine, I'll be at his house when he gets back. Obviously depends how far you are willing to travel.

I tend to put them on eBay, whoever wins you have all their details. Covid is a good excuse to avoid any visits to take a look (I offer more photos, video call, etc) before bidding but I never had anyone ask before then.

When they pick up, I have it ready in the hallway so I don’t have to show off the garage to them.

Interesting stuff.

I want to say this

I don’t let people turn up at my house to buy bike stuff unless i know who they are or a mate can vouch for them.

but appreciate this

Buyer didn’t want to meet in a random place with pocket full of cash

I realise the vast majority of people aren't out to steal from you, and I'm generally pretty trusting, but you don't know until it's too late really.

I wanted to avoid the hassle of packing and couriering the bike, but in some ways, as long as you only accept a bank transfer as payment, it does avoid all this.

I didn't want to turn this into a stealth ad, but seeing as @ads678 asked, it's a Nukeproof Mega and it's in the classifieds 😉 I listed on here and the Bearbones forum as I'd trust a regular poster. Was hoping to sell it via these or a friend who knows someone but it's a pretty small pool, and I've probably been ambitious with the asking price since I'm not in a hurry to sell. I don't use Pink Bike much but might be worth a try.

On the issue of getting car keys, make sure they are for that vehicle, AND block it in if possible. My mate asked for car keys while a lad took a test ride, popped in to his house for a second and the car screeched off. The keys in his hand were a random bunch and the lads mate was round the corner the test rider simply passed his keys over to his mate who calmly jumped in and away, no idea of reg plate and only vague descriptions as he was so engrossed in trying to sell the bike !

I wouldn't be happy handing over 1200 without an idea of where someone lived. Be gutted if bike turned out to be stolen and couldn't point out where you got it to the police... I'd want to see someone physically walk out the front door with it!

I've bought and sold quite a lot over the last decade.

I'll usually meet in a mutually convenient spot, having sounded them out with a bit of chat beforehand to make sure they are "proper" MTBers.

Do most of my buying and selling in Aldi's car park TBH.

I've sold more in the Costa carpark just of the M1 than they have sold coffee in lockdown.
Its down to trust both ways and as its a sellers market out there I wouldn't want a stranger to be visiting my home.
There are enough buyers out there at the moment to be choosy.
It costs nothing to put the advert on Pinkbike and you will be hitting a bigger target market than on here.
When I'm buying I only have delivery of bike stuff to work.

Sold a good few bikes over the years. All from my house or one from work. A lot of respectable buyers will only pick up from a home address anyway. I certainly wouldn't be meeting someone in a service station as either a buyer or a seller.

Yes there's a small risk but don't overthink it. Sensible precautions for sure around any test ride, not showing them the rest of your possessions etc.

“I’ve given up riding due to a dodgy knee, gutted to have to sell my bike” 🙂 may be safer than
“Trying to make space for my new Santa Cruz”

Surely "I've given up riding to pursue my dream as a MMA fighter, selling the bike to fund my next training camp in Thailand" would be better if you're as paranoid as some on this thread.

For an opposite view, if I was buying a bike or anything else that cost a reasonable amount of of cash and the seller would only meet in a layby, Aldi car park or whatever I'd probably avoid. I'd be concerned that either the item was stolen or I was going to get turned over for the wad of notes they presumed was in my pocket. I suppose you could mitigate the latter concern by making it a very public space, but as a buyer I prefer to see that the seller lives in a bricks and mortar property. I'm not interested in seeing inside his garage or house, but seeing him come out of the front door gives me some peace of mind. Might be a bit irrational but it's worked for me over the years. I've sold bikes from home too, but as others have said, do the deed outside, no need to show buyers inside.

having sounded them out with a bit of chat beforehand to make sure they are “proper” MTBers

This is important to me. A bit of rapport usually does the job.

I sell from my shop. Good for the buyer as they know its not nicked, good for me as they can't see what's in my shed.
Can you meet at your place of work?

All the bikes/frames I've bought and sold over the years have been with people on here. Might not have got top dollar, and I've travelled around the country a bit, but I've met some lovely people and never felt in danger.

Apart from when I bought a little pink Ridgeback Honey(?) from a regular poster at Trowell services late one night...probably about 10 years ago as my youngest is now a teenager and riding a Commencal 🙂

This is a tricky one last bike I sold on here the guy came around the house brought the bike checked the frame number on some website to see it was not stolen which it was not still never believed it was not stolen but did a bank transfer there and then only think he believed me when I got the shop to email all the details of the purchase to him yet I have sold 6 other bikes this year two from services of M4 by Newbury and 4 from my house three were local and 2 came from an ad in the local bike shop they knew those guys generally you get a good feeling about people just get the bike ready by house so that is the only one they see.

I've done both at home and meeting people and can generally tell from the chat beforehand if they are dodgy or not, as hopefully they can I.

Normally sold through here or word of mouth for expensive bike bits so always a higher than average chance of being just normal people.

The one time somebody tried it on was through Facebook selling. Sold a woman a set of road bike wheels for £450. She paid bank transfer and I went to meet her in a supermarket car park. Had a mobile number and she sent 'her brother' to collect them as she got called to school to go for a sick child. I thought it was suspicious at the time but the brother knew about bikes and answered a couple of sly questions he would only know if he truly was connected to the buyer.

Seemed odd that he didn't get into a car though and just walked off out of the car park. Heard nothing until my bank account was stopped 8 weeks later. When I rang them I had to speak to the fraud team and was grilled for 15 minutes as they had a report that it was me that took the money and didn't deliver the goods.

Suddenly all the actions sounded dodgy as hell but luckily I had texts, mobile numbers and I took a picture of the lad walking off with the wheels. Account was cleared instantly but it shows what can happen, even with bank transfers.

Won't use facebook to buy or sell now.

having sounded them out with a bit of chat beforehand

This is a tricky one last bike I sold on here the guy came around the house brought the bike checked the frame number on some website to see it was not stolen which it was not still never believed it was not stolen but did a bank transfer there and then only think he believed me when I got the shop to email all the details of the purchase to him yet I have sold 6 other bikes this year two from services of M4 by Newbury and 4 from my house three were local and 2 came from an ad in the local bike shop they knew those guys generally you get a good feeling about people just get the bike ready by house so that is the only one they see.

!!