Observations from 2nd hand bike hunting

I have an eye out for a road bike for myself a decent hybrid for Mrs RL. I have spent a lot of time on Gumtree and eBay as a result, which is a faintly dis-spirting experience.

Above all else I have noticed two things:

1. There are an inordinate number of people having a larf with what they are asking for in terms of second hand value.

2. There are seemingly more Specialized bikes for sale than any other brand, particularly Allez’s for the road – is it because people hate them or they simply sell in greater quantities in the first place?

If anyone wants to sell a decent hybrid or road bike for a fair price (i.e. what it’s broadly worth) I’d be delighted to chat 🙂

Buying second hand requires patience if you want good value. There do seem to be a lot of people over-estimating the value of their things for sale but it was probably once their pride and joy plus ebay/ Paypal fees eat a lot of their profits. A nice person on STW is your best bet for value 😀

Agreed – I got the deal of the century last year on ebay by being patient, but I’m keen to hurry it along this time to sort the Mrs.

Nowt wrong with second hand Allezs in my experience (NB sample size = 1, may not be representative!) – bought one off Ebay back in 2008, then 18 months old, still going strong today.

Probably down to people buying first road bikes last summer during the tour/Olympics who are now selling them and expect to get what they paid as they’ve hardly used them.

New bike (Specialized Allez 2013), about 25% discount:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-specialized-allez-compact-2013-54cm-virtually-new-never-used-outside-1

More than happy to have a chat 🙂

Nick

a keen negotiating skill is essential when hunting in the classifieds. i’ve had many offers turned down before getting a cheeky offer accepted.

3. When someone says “clearout”, what they actually mean is “more than one item”.

my first road bike was an Allez, i liked most things about it, but couldn’t fit sensible tyres and mudguards.

and i grew to hate it’s looks (too many logos for me).

Have been to look at a few used bikes and they usually fall into one of these categories:

1) One or more careless owners
2) Hideous shed that’s been coated in superglue and ridden through Chain Reaction
3) A once decent bike that has been ‘upgraded’ beyond its abilities
4) Has been thrashed/raced/uplifted to within an inch of its life but the OEM bits have been refitted to try and disguise it
5) Wildy ostentatious blinged-up money pit, rarely used, just waiting for some jewel-encrusted doo-dahs to made by a team of unicorns & then it’s ‘finished’

There’s never any shortage of bikes on ebay fitted with “hydrolic breaks”.

That’s odd. Just done a search on Ebay for “hydrolic breaks” and nothing comes up… Most disappointing

Or folk trying it on when trying to buy something for nothing.

We’ve currently a horsebox for sale, at £13500. Someone earlier PM’d with an offer of £9000 for cash.

I said sorry, its £13500. Then they re-PM’d with an offer of £9200, saying it was there best offer…

b r – That’s how buying and selling works. Besides the 20 seconds it took you to reply, is there a problem?

OP – the other problem is that bikes seem to be large, XL or farm-gate size. I’m 5′ 8″ (not particularly tiny) but most bikes FS are too big!

I saw a frame on here 2 months ago, just missed out to some guy who appears to have ‘pimped’ it up and is trying to sell it for a over inflated price, the guy in question is now looking to split and ‘open’ to offers, I have offered what he paid for the frame but he has not come back to me…

Sometime there are some crazy bargains to be had but I think there are lots of people who buy and sell to make a few quid.

Another example is when I saw a very nice BFE, hardly used with revs hope tech 2 brakes etc, £650 the guy sold it for (just missed out again) next thing it was on here and PB for £1000 ono. I put an ad spoiler but got warned by a mod !!

Buying a bike from eBay?

Check out my ‘I’ve bought a stolen bike’ threads. Latest instalment to follow soon….

Peoples interpretation of ‘great bike in full working order” differs GREATLY to mine.

I went a look at a Santa Cruz last year before going to Morzine… god DAMN it was pitiful !!! Noises, bearings, rubbing, rust and looking very sorry for itself. Astounds me how little people look after their bikes.

I admit, my Spearfish paint has fallen off in parts due to the taping up and removing… a couple of scuffs from clay on the chainstay, but the rest is immaculate… but i’d sell for less than others because of the marks if i were flogging it.

Or folk trying it on when trying to buy something for nothing.

We’ve currently a horsebox for sale, at £13500. Someone earlier PM’d with an offer of £9000 for cash.

a keen negotiating skill is essential when hunting in the classifieds. i’ve had many offers turned down before getting a cheeky offer accepted.

Isn’t it all part of the process? You could see it as someone trying it on, or someone stretching their budget and chancing it.

b r – Member
Or folk trying it on when trying to buy something for nothing.

We’ve currently a horsebox for sale, at £13500. Someone earlier PM’d with an offer of £9000 for cash.

I said sorry, its £13500. Then they re-PM’d with an offer of £9200, saying it was there best offer…

Nothing wrong with that… worst they can do is say no.

Lots of overpriced crap out there, I agree that you’re better off on the classifieds here or pinkbike etc. Try CTC also.

I recently overpaid on ebay for an 8 year old frame for the wife, but I’d been looking for a while and this was one of the few colours she’d accept so I had little choice really.

Regarding the amount of Allez(‘)s out there, my first road bike was a second hand Allez and it was great. I think it’s a good starter bike for those that know bikes and don’t necessarily want to come in at entry level (I think it’s one up from that?). You’re probably seeing so many because they sell so many as opposed to them being rubbish. Plus a large proportion of those sold are probably seldom used and sold on quickly.

Yep – in the future, I would always go with classifieds ads over eBay or Gumtree any day. eBay = full of borderline fraudsters especially in sales of motors and bikes. Gumtree = full of scams.

As soon as the weather is good bike sales go through the roof on eBay, and check it when the Tour de France is on – it’s open season for hyper-inflated sales.

Beware of vintage racers – most often being sold by scrap sellers who have no idea what they’re selling. I probably wouldn’t buy anything over £100 without going to look at it and ride it first. Or decide whether you could get something new with a warranty from Decathlon for a few quid more.

As for second-hand, stick to surfing the classifieds on here, on retrobike, bike radar, etc. And don’t be hasty – something will come up in your local area, it’s just a matter of time.

Nothing wrong with that… worst they can do is say no.

it is £4500 under the asking price or about 35% off

There is cheeky and there is futile.
I guess the first is cheeky but then upping it by £200 as a final offer is just futile/stupid

junkyard – exactly.

Don’t go into a Merc showroom if you’ve only Kia money.

eBay is a nightmare because stuff seems to sell for loads more than it does elsewhere, although there are bargains to be had. I recently picked up a mint set of old school Z3 Lights for a tenner because they have a threaded steerer. A replacement one is only £18 from UK Bike Store. The same forks with a none threaded steerer sold for over fifty quid!

I’m a bt wary of Pink Bike because there does seem to be a lot of tat on there that is totally nailed. I’ve been stung once on a pair of forks.

People on here and Retrobike seem to be pretty good.

As for there being loads of Allez’s for sale, I think its because they are the road bike version of the Rockhopper – as in loads of people start off on them. A lot will get moved on once the bug sets in and they want something better or those that were inspired by last summer and have realised that its too much like hard work! I don’t know a huge amount road bikes but I quite like my Allez Sport although the wheels are a bit poor.

You should try the Retrobike scene. Early/mid 90’s konas – sellers wanting £250 for a Fire Mountain, £200 for a Hahanna. Parts prices daft just cos its old stuff. No one buys it but newbies get in a huff because they see the adverts and think their bike is worth the same. Don’t get sold and probably chucked back in a shed to rot instead of going to a new owner at a reasonable price.

Junkyard – lazarus

Nothing wrong with that… worst they can do is say no.

it is £4500 under the asking price or about 35% off

There is cheeky and there is futile.
I guess the first is cheeky but then upping it by £200 as a final offer is just futile/stupid

35% is slightly cheeky but not ridiculous for a second hand vehicle. My last Ducati purchased was up for £4250, i offered £3000, i ended up getting it for £3450. I sold it for £4400. I should have kept it… i could sell it today for £6000.

Second hand is great if you know what you’re doing.

It’s a fluid market and so those with the most knowledge should be able to use this to get the best value.

I picked up an unused GR Agressor XCR from a guy on Ebay who’d claimed he’d ridden it loads, but it was just to make himself look good. The chain had zero wear, the halfords sticks hard no marks, and it had the bobbles still on the tyres. Easy to see on ebay pictures. £300 for £1000 of new bike (included decent pedals and computer).

Also part of the skill is to spot the dog that’s been oversold as new and shiny… Unless the price is great!

Other times I’ve been unsuccesful because my competition have the same information to make a purchasing decision at the price I want or above.

Wow horseboxes are £13.5k?! Do they have fitted kitchens and stuff inside them for the horse to use, I just assumed they were more like sheds on wheels. I’ll be much happier sitting behind one at 40mph on an A road if I can picture a horse sat down watching TV or something.

Must admit people making stupid offers annoys me – particularly when they persist.

I was selling some Dura Ace STIs a few years back, virtually unused, were on at £200 or something, someone sent me a message to say he was “prepared to give me £50”, as if he was doing me a favour! He was quite rude when I (politely) said no! They sold for what I wanted.

Re: all the Allezes(?) it’s because there’s so many of them in the first place! I dislike mine fairly intensely frankly, but it does a job!

what i noticed after posting a wanted add recently….

TRADERS

i get emails through my profile from someone offering me something at absolute top doller and linking me to a pink bike – where i look through and they are selling loooooads of blatently stripped down bikes.

traderes or stolen bikes anyway didnt even dignify them with a response.

obviously not allowed to post on here ….. wonder if its freeform5spot up to his old tricks !

I’ll be selling a road bike shortly.
53cm effective top-tube.
Built with pretty new parts and less than 6 months old.
And very low mileage – the wheels have done more as they were on another bike.
10 speed
Ultegra 6600 chainset
Microshift shifters
Shimano Tiagra / Tiagra derailleurs
Shimano RS10 wheels
Scor saddle, bars

Email in profile – if you’re interested.

Wow horseboxes are £13.5k?! Do they have fitted kitchens and stuff inside them for the horse to use, I just assumed they were more like sheds on wheels. I’ll be much happier sitting behind one at 40mph on an A road if I can picture a horse sat down watching TV or something.

You can pay +£100k for a big one, or £1500 for a 7.5t shed. Ours is a 3.5t which anyone can drive on a car licence so more wanted.

Equally annoying is when you’re selling a bike on Ebay and various muppets send you PMs saying “£600? You’re having a laugh mate, you can buy these new for only £650 on such-and-such a shop’s website”.

Recently we sold an immaculate bike, starting at £600 and got several of these irritating messages. It went for £720, which was more than we expected.

People on eBay often seem to get caught up in the “it’s on eBay it must be cheap” mentality, and pay daft prices.

I personally find selling on here good if you want to sell things quickly, but if you’re prepared to hold out for a decent price it’s the last place I’d sell stuff!

Or folk trying it on when trying to buy something for nothing.

We’ve currently a horsebox for sale, at £13500. Someone earlier PM’d with an offer of £9000 for cash.

I said sorry, its £13500. Then they re-PM’d with an offer of £9200, saying it was there best offer…

+1, selling a frame recently, £300 (which is a fair price)

One guy £180, £200, £210, with bullcrap excuses as to why it was worth even less than his offer, I then started ignoring him as I couldn’t be arsed responding to his internet expert oppinions on why a stone chip meant he needed to get it completley reprayed at Argos and new stickers etc which meant he was actualy going to pay more than it was new. Like crap he was going gto get it reprayed!

That’s how buying and selling works. Besides the 20 seconds it took you to reply, is there a problem?

20 seconds, x lots of idiots, x several offers.

I almost always offer low. Love a bargain me. If you don’t ask you don’t get, etc etc. That said, I’d only throw in one cheeky punt.

If it’s something I need then I’ll pay the going rate quite gladly though.