Flipping bikes side hustle

Morning All

So need some advice is there any money in buying cheaper bikes and tidying them up and trying to sell for small profit ? Does anyone do it ? Any help tips advice would be really appreciated. I really enjoy tinkering with bikes in my spare time and fancy doing a couple and trying to sell them.

thanks

Tom

I doubt it.

Where will you be sourcing these “cheaper bikes”?

I have often wondered if the sheer number of lightly used Brompton’s for sale are being flipped.

Buy discounted on CTW and then sell at c. 20% profit?

Assuming you’re PAYE, it’s unlikely to be worth the hassle of having to do a tax return.

Possibly worthwhile for new bike parts fund, but when you factor in your time, no.

Flipped, no – fenced, yes

There’ll be a highly active seller(s) in your area and you’ll wonder just how* they get their hands on all those bikes in the first place without them ever being advertised

I am self employed and paye 20% tax so not definitely not worth it for me

The best way to have a little bit of money from selling bikes?

Start with a lot.

I occasionally pick up the undervalued stuff for non bike friends and their kids, but not a business. Just using up my parts pile and geting them a decent entry point to cycling.

See a few regular ads from people that flip them, but they seem to take a while to sell. One seems to break them for the cream of parts and sell cheap average spec whole bikes.

Given the current state of the 2nd hand market, the overstocked warehouses glut and the buy one new bike get one free offers (Kona) you will be spending more on parts to fix the bikes than the whole bike is worth

Unless you can get it cheap, wash it, and punt it. No.

Time

Parts (assume chain, pads, cables and grips.

All add up surprisingly quickly.

If it’s the tinkering you like, find out if there’s a shop/organisation near you that repairs bikes for needy folks. Our local shop (backcountry.scot) in Aviemore does this. Folk donate bikes, parts, tyres, their time etc and the bikes are sold on a “pay whatever you can afford” basis to fund the programme. Some have been given out to Ukrainian refugees.

Someone on the local active travel group talking about doing this. My initial response was what @rocketdog said, and that seems to have been borne out.

Flipped, no – fenced, yes

There’ll be a highly active seller(s) in your area and you’ll wonder just how* they get their hands on all those bikes in the first place without them ever being advertised

There’s a chap near us that does it, and has done for years. Manon bought a cheap bike from him (she comes from around here) for one of the GCN videos, and a thousand comments appeared about how he must be stealing them all. I really don’t think so – he parks them all outside his house every day and everyone in the area knows that’s where you go for a cheap(ish)-slightly-fixed-up bike. I’m pretty certain that (a) the police are aware of him, and (b) anyone who does have a bike nicked anywhere around here would keep half an eye on it appearing there.

Given that he’s been doing it for at least 16 years – as long as I’ve lived here – if he is a criminal mastermind to not get caught in all that time, especially working in public, then he’s wasting his talents for the very slim profit margins he must be working on. It’s just that everybody knows that if you want to buy or sell a BOS around here, he’s the quickest/easiest way to do it.

Editted to add: here you go, pick a bike: Google maps – bikes!

Hi guys

Thanks for the honest feed back definitely put a different light on it.  I quite like the idea of maybe volunteering my spare time to help others I’ll see what’s in my local area.

Agree with scotroutes. We have a local bike recycler that started during the lockdowns. Takes donations, and either recycles the parts or fixes them and resells in their shop. Nice bunch of people. Loads of cheap kids bikes mainly, but their window is always worth a look as the odd retro road bike, MTB or BMX pops up.

https://www.farcycles.org.uk/home

Tarting up bikes probably isn’t the way to go, but splitting for parts could make you a few quid. Plenty of oddly specced bikes out there that only really work for the people who own them. You’d want to go higher end to avoid dealing with unbranded wheels worth naff all or £8 worth of derailleur etc.

Obviously a bit of volunteering is a brilliant thing to do if you can.

It’s worked well for me over the past 2 years but it was probably due to CRC problems. I built a few bikes out of very cheap parts and returned around 30% net margin before tax. I also picked up a couple of ridiculously priced nice bikes off eBay that needed cleaning and properly marketing to return a very high margin. I also bought quite a few parts at silly prices for resell.

I have also done the odd asset stripping job.

I wouldn’t do it as a main job but I am retired and already do self assessment. Not that it takes very long any way, it’s very simple.

On the fiscal front, any tax is offset by pension tax relief so not an issue.

It’s a nice side hustle for me, a hobby with profit if you like.

I’ve found it works better the other way around.  Finding bikes with a good spec, buying them whole and splitting for parts and selling in bits.

And then wondering what to do with all the shitey bits that no one wants… So keep them just incase…

I tried doing this years ago in a spell of unemployment; it’s not really worth it.

What can work though, is scouring the local Facebay, Gumtree etc for the stuff, particularly retro bikes, that people either don’t know what they have or just want rid of. Clean up and sell off the interesting stuff, possibly bin the rest. You won’t make a living at it, but you can get some good pin money out of it.

It can work but you have to buy at the right price and know what to look for. Cheap bikes will always be cheap bikes so not really worth it. Still plenty of retro bargains about that you could make money on and splitting usually brings greater returns but you definitely need to spend some time learning what’s desirable and what isn’t.

My brother in law did this. It’s tough but not impossible. Being hard nose and keeping it as a side hustle might be better than main income.

He bought from the tip and sold on his website and eBay . Started out easy to buy at £20 and sell at £50. But it’s all time and costs. Travel to tip. Travel home. Do a few bits on the bike. Photograph and list it. Answer questions. Post it or be in for collection. You might be up £30 but at what cost in time and money

Some times he made way more. But got caught up in “if I did this it would be worth more”. Suddenly it’s renting space for the bikes and they are piling up.

However it’s cheap to try

The comments section here should give you a good idea of some bike projects to go at if you want to volunteer your time: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/back-from-the-dead-our-bike-shop-doesnt-run-like-yours/

There’s a chap near us that does it, and has done for years. Manon bought a cheap bike from him (she comes from around here) for one of the GCN videos, and a thousand comments appeared about how he must be stealing them all. I really don’t think so – he parks them all outside his house every day and everyone in the area knows that’s where you go for a cheap(ish)-slightly-fixed-up bike. I’m pretty certain that (a) the police are aware of him, and (b) anyone who does have a bike nicked anywhere around here would keep half an eye on it appearing there.

Given that he’s been doing it for at least 16 years – as long as I’ve lived here – if he is a criminal mastermind to not get caught in all that time, especially working in public, then he’s wasting his talents for the very slim profit margins he must be working on. It’s just that everybody knows that if you want to buy or sell a BOS around here, he’s the quickest/easiest way to do it.

Editted to add: here you go, pick a bike: Google maps – bikes!

This took me back. There was a near where I grew up who always had bikes for sale outside, and I got at least one from there as a kid. May even have been my first 26er, though it might have been 24″. I remember some of the gears skipping, and that’s how I learnt that chains and cassettes wear. And what a cassette is. And subsequently how to replace them. This was at least 25 years ago. Doubt he made much money, but the world needs people like this (maybe slightly more mechanically diligent).

Looks like he’s still going, and may have branched out into lawnmowers (actually I think he might have always had them, now I think about it):

https://maps.app.goo.gl/redwrDpGgJ3JbK3C8

Nope..

there is absolutely zero market. I’m trying to sell an ultegra equipped  hydro braked road bike at the moment, advertised for 300 quid. Zero interest.

I also have a couple of mountain bikes worth thousands sitting in the garage which I refuse to sell for buttons, which is what I’d get at the moment

So it’s an income source to be declared 😈

The only time my dyslexia has become an advantage……I was searching for a 2nd hand Rohloff hub on eBay. Found one and couldn’t work out why I was the only person to bid on it and got it so cheap. Then I realised both the seller and I were muppets and couldn’t spell Rohloff.

Subsequently saved half a dozen searches for alternative spellings. I ended up buying another two and made a couple of hundred on each. Always wondered how ethical that was – a better person would probably have messaged the seller and told them the issue.

I’m trying to sell an ultegra equipped hydro braked road bike at the moment, advertised for 300 quid.

I’m sorted now, but I might have been interested for the groupset alone…

The comments section here should give you a good idea of some bike projects to go at if you want to volunteer your time: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/back-from-the-dead-our-bike-shop-doesnt-run-like-yours/

Its a pity that that thread is now closed to replies……..

I also have a couple of mountain bikes worth thousands sitting in the garage which I refuse to sell for buttons, which is what I’d get at the moment

No you have a couple of bikes that cost you thousands. What they are worth is what someone will pay. Which is buttons.

Splitting can be profitable but postage is going up all the time. I’m just at the end of a huge clear out of various things bike and non bike. Always send tracked so you are looking at a minimum of £3.39 with Royal Mail. There’s also what to do with all the parts that don’t sell. I recently built up a new frame using parts from my last build. Ended up left with a frame, fork and the non brand finishing kit. Sold it all for what the forks were worth alone just to get rid of it all quickly.

Nope..

there is absolutely zero market.

Sounds like that’s a view based on your experience of one item.

My net margin for the tax year 23/24 was 51% over 140 items sold. A mix of bikes, clothing, spares, new parts etc etc

It’s still small beer at around £200/month profit 😂 but it’s good fun, practically zero risk, little cashflow, probably works out at £40/hour of work. There is a market and it’s not that difficult to capture it as a modest side hustle.