I’m thinking about selling a 3 year old road bike but haven’t sold a bike since during COVID when it was a wild seller’s market. It’s a 61cm frame and we’re heading into winter in the northeast US so timing is not ideal. Am I setting myself up for a bad time?
I’ve sold a bunch of stuff (including a few bikes) on Pinkbike so I’ll plan to list there. People often suggest Facebook Marketplace but I don’t have a FB account. If I create one, I don’t know if people would be wary of buying since there are scammers everywhere, Do you think adding my Pinkbike link in a FB Marketplace post would help with credibility so they could see my history?
I’m also not sure about pricing. The bike and wheels were $6500 new and I’ve recently replaced some wear parts, so is $2500 reasonable?
Any tips are appreciated. If anyone has had luck buying/selling used bike stuff recently I’d love to hear about it. Thanks!
Just be prepared to take a beating…it is still a buyer’s marketplace.
May be worth asking the revamped Pro’s Closet for a quote. They are gonna need inventory once they reopen so they may be a bot more generous to start, just so they can stock their shelves.
Strip your bike of all upgrades and replace them with the original (or cheaper if you have them) parts. Sell parts separately. Be patient, set yourself a minimum don’t sell below. Ask a friend to make a bid. Occasionally delete advertisement and make new one
I think they went to just offering store credit before they collapsed…wonder what they’ll do now. Sold them a bike during covid and barely lost any money. The good old days
Without knowing the specific bike, $2500 for a $6500 MSRP bike 3 years ago is really good. I sold my bike yesterday through FB in two days. I made a super detailed description for it and found a great buyer. It really surprised me. I was really shocked. I also asked TPC for a quote, and they offered about 60% of the projected selling price. They do offer a slight bonus (I think 10%) for credit.
Happy to discuss this in detail over DM since I literally did all this in the last few days.
I hear that, but I don’t see that reflected in prices. Maybe stubborn sellers, but I don’t see it reflected in transactions. I guess I can only see eBay for the most transparency.
TPC is offering 2-3 options for purchases right now (a friend just submitted a road bike to them yesterday):
60-day delayed cash value
Consignment pricing
Store credit.
In my friend’s quote, store credit was 10% higher than cash value, and consignment ranged from 80% to 120% of the cash value price (they can only estimate).
Have you considered BuyCycle? They’re getting started, but the platform overall works well. It’s a marketplace, but their support is much better than PB or FB, and them selling and buying process is verified. They simplify buying too, because the prices they show buyers include shipping.
I sold one of my steel bikes on there last month. It took to get a buyer, but the rest of the prices was great.
You set your asking price - they make it transparent what you’ll get as a payout.
I just sold a 2022 Epic Evo on FB marketplace and did ok but it took over a month. In the old pre-covid days everything seemed to go for about half of original purchase price assuming it was a few years old and in pretty good shape. I’d look everywhere for listings of similar bikes and then price accordingly and be patient, it might take a while. ebay covers a much larger audience but the fees are brutal…
I do a LOT of selling of old gear because of how much crap I buy to try out.
Facebook works for this type of stuff. Not just Marketplace, but also all of the buy/sell groups. I belong to a bunch of those for a bunch of different hobbies (New England MTB Buy & Sell as an example, Online Swap Meet for Cycling and Triathalon another nationally) and oftentimes they’re the best place to unload stuff. Hard to give up FB just because of the group functionality - basically they’re more akin to forums like this than “social media” .
Pinkbike for anything MTB related although Road/Gravel doesn’t do as well - I have an Outside+ subscription so get Gaia, Trailforks, and 10 concurrent ads on PB. I haven’t found an equivalent forum for road / gravel type of stuff.
Ebay for stuff you need a wide audience or can’t sell elsewhere, but real expensive stuff or stuff hard to ship I don’t like it because of fees and shipping costs.
Have you had decent luck selling stuff recently? Wonder if people are waiting for Black Friday and they may not be riding much going into winter.
Thanks for the tips on FB. I’ll probably sign up and check out some buy/sell groups.
Do you get alot of random “Is this for sale” or “What’s your best price” messages? I guess that’s par for the course, but hopefully the groups help weed out some the flaky people.
I haven’t sold anything big lately, but I’m getting ready to list up a bunch of parts and spares. Most of that is MTB though so it’ll go on PB first.
Marketplace - yes, you get a bunch of tire kickers and garbage - the damn Facebook AI basically encourages those “Is This Available” inquiries. You have to know it’s coming so I get good at replying “Yes”. And either “Price is firm - please see details in the post” or I price it a little high on purpose and then immediately respond with the “Deal” that I’ll actually take. If it doesn’t sell or I get no traction, I’ll drop the price after a couple weeks until it sells, depending on how fast I want it gone. Set your expectations low and Marketplace isn’t so bad
Honestly, I’ve been in the same boat trying to sell a bike when the market feels slow. What worked for me was just making sure the bike looked well cared for — a proper clean, everything running smoothly, and decent photos in natural light. I also mentioned a couple of small scratches in the ad instead of hiding them, and weirdly that got me more responses because people appreciated the honesty.
I think the time of year definitely plays a part too. In winter it always feels like fewer people are buying, whereas once spring comes around, bikes seem to move quicker. So sometimes it’s just about being patient and keeping the listing active until the right person comes along.
I’ve worked in bike shops and guitar stores (expensive hobbies), and one commonality is that your pricey new toy is worth, at the most, half of what you paid new. A high end guitar will lose value over the first ten years, then start to regain value over the next ten, and then when it’s 20 years old and in mint condition, now it appreciates. Bikes? Meh. Used bike just depreciate unless you’re a collector with an obsession with curlicue lugs.
Trading in is a ripoff for you. Guitars and bikes both, the shop will sell it for a about half of the new cost, which means they’re give you somewhere between 25-50% of what they will sell the used gear for. Trade is viable only if you got a screamin’ bro deal to start with, or you’re just in a hurry.
I sold my 2018 Canyon Aeroad this way a year ago for a surprisingly solid price. I go super detailed because that’s what I look for and appreciate and I realize that for a higher end good, it’s better to do that to target those who understand the value of those things and want to trust. People who don’t are going to be the ones ignoring what you write and trying to low ball.
Unless it’s collectible, I think this phenomenon is explained by the ever increases prices of new guitars. Older guitars go up at a relative pace. Like you bought a new Gibson Les Paul for $1500 fifteen years ago and now that new ones are 2800 full retail you can get $1500-2000 for your used one in mint condition.
Of course, there is a lot of variability based on whether ti’s considered rare or collectible.
Bikes don’t have the 20-30 year lifespan so mostly they never get on the going back up in value unless they are collectible (very rare for bicycles).
Prior to covid, I was picking up really nice bikes at 25-30% off of retail. The covid price craziness threw a wrench in the price curves but I think we are back to normal.
Personally, I wouldn’t characterize it as a ripoff. It’s the cost for the service they provide. It saves you having to advertise, deal with tire kickers and scammers, etc. They take the bike off your hands and give you the money at that time. They store it, deal with potential buyers, and issues after the sale. A seller need to decide if that’s worth it.
Yeah, the value of your time / waiting and consistently promoting and handling around sales, learning the proper market price is significant, particularly if you are not good at or do not want to deal with people.
