Bike Forums - Has CL gone crazy (2024)

I've been checking out my local CL and prices are higher than ebay. Now, I understand it's cycling season but Cleveland, OH isn't a hot market. The flippers are asking ridiculous prices for really pedestrian bikes.

I'm finished thanks for listening.

Well I live in a town noone has heard of but same thing here... how can they get it when bikes brand new are so cheap? You can buy nice aluminum bikes at big box stores for next to nothing so why would you by a bottom of the line "vintage" bike for an inflated price.

Eh on the other hand its a sign that bikes are becoming more popular, gotta look at the good :)

Are you in the Dayton area? Considering how high unemployment is in Cleveland, I thought prices would be less. I guess it's not the case.

There is a hign demand [ which means high prices ] for bikes in my area. See Craigslist link below.

http://gainesville.craigslist.org/bik/

Screamin' deals here, but not on C&V...and, of course, some overpriced baloney.
Compared to entry-level new bikes, though:

Motobecane w/brifters for $120
Cannondale Six13 for $300
Discovery Channel full carbon, custom wheels, $1100
US Postal Service full carbone, $1100
Trek $1500 Sora for $200

None are lasting long, however, as you would imagine.

Still, the flakes are out there, too:
Bontrager Race Light rear $50.
I emailed, offered PayPal $55. He accepted, I paid.
10 minutes later, he refunded, asked me to call.
I called, he was freaked I hadn't bothered to come and see it.
He demanded $70, said he had other buyers (now a common CL tactic)
I paid the $70 by PayPal. The next day, he refunded.
I emailed "no deal." He called, emailed, wanted to start again.
I bought a Mavic.

Prices seem to fluctuate. There are still some good deals out there, but you have to look often and be quick. Then there are the people that think a Schwinn Letour II that is rusty and beat is worth $600.00 because it is "vintage". I thought this was a decimal error when I first saw it......Nope. He is for real

Schwinn Le Tour II - $600 (hamburg)

Date: 2010-07-11, 7:15PM EDT
Reply to: sale-xvagh-1837718120@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

i have a Schwinn Le Tour II made in japan. Not sure what year it is but has all original stuff, chain, tires, cables,rimes, everything. Not in best condition but not in worst condition but is in good rideable condition. Has some rusty spots but not many and the seat is tearing a little bit tooWhating 600.00 but mght take best offer, no trades. You can contact me at skaterchaos@yahoo.com or call at 704-219-6549. If i do not pick up im sorry but leave you name and number and i will get back to you. thank you

• Location: hamburg
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

http://images.craigslist.org/3m83o03...1e5b5c1c07.jpghttp://images.craigslist.org/3k03ob3...3f1b311383.jpghttp://images.craigslist.org/3n53k23...5c976111f9.jpghttp://images.craigslist.org/3k23m33...0be3f01e8d.jpg
PostingID: 1837718120

Selling old bicycles is no different than selling old anything . . . . . . . there's always going to be sellers who see whatever they've got as a legitimate get rich quick scheme, or have some inflated value to their item. I've run across the same thing in the motorcycle section on Craigslist all the time. Automobiles are about the only thing that seems to be exempt from this price inflation, probably due to there being more web sites and other information sources on car values than anything else.

Now, if somebody would come up with a long run, legitimate bicycle equivalent of edmunds.com, and got people to believe in it, then we'd probably see the asking prices get more realistic. I'm not holding my breath.

+1

Gainesville looks pretty good compared to south Florida, CL is mostly department store bikes down here. Another nice G-ville deal: http://gainesville.craigslist.org/bik/1844081739.html

Yeah I am kinda in between Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Everybody and their brother is trying to sell an old beat up lower end Schwinn for $150-$125. Also for some reason lots are also thinking a Huffy is worth something.

Of course the high priced bikes that the flippers have on the Cleveland CL have been for sale since, I don't know April or May. I have gotten pretty good prices for the bikes I have sold thus far, but no where near what many of the flippers who have dozen's of bikes listed.

I generally have one bike to sell at a time, and the longest it has taken to sell something has been about week. A few have gone out in a day or two.

LOL, they were tearing his billboard down the next day. He was an avid cyclist. Did a lot of charity work for kids in Akron. Everyone wanted to ride with King James.

Has Craig's List gone crazy? Not around here. I've actually been seeing some really good deals lately, much better than a year or even two years ago. Picked up three off the local and nearby Craigs List in the last week. There have been several other good deals that I passed on, as I just have too many bikes right now. You still have to scoop them quickly.

it seems like more people are actively selling items that have been sitting around unused for a while. Since many people don't know how to value a bike, many are overpriced, others are pretty good deals. Each bike I picked up had been sitting idle for several years.

In the greater Los Angeles area, CL might as well be 'Toon Town.

My guess is prospective sellers see prevailing asking prices and use those as the floor.

The mayor of LA just broke his elbow on a bikepath in Venice Blvd, got clipped by a cab, maybe we will get better bike paths. I just want to know how he found a cab in this town.

This season I’ve seen relatively few bargains. The ones I’ve found have been GREAT, but most people now seem to know that road bikes are not worthless, and while a few ask exorbitant prices, the majority are just high enough so that they make an unattractive prospect for a flip. :(

Of course, ALL of them have been sitting forever and require and complete overhaul, and cleaning to various extents. As a flipper, I am now competing directly with these sellers. - The difference is that I am selling a clean, completely refurbished road bike, and considering the cost of of tires, tubes, SS cables, bar tape (and the occasional saddle, seat post, DR, and pedals), I am at LEAST $50 into every bike I buy above and beyond the purchase price.

This means that I have to find the (increasingly scarce) deals at the low end of the bell curve just to break even.

Buying big brand name bikes ameliorates this situation, since I can ask (and get) a premium for a steel Trek or Miyata, since people are seeking these and they are hard to find at any price. Not so, for a Shogun, Nishiki or a Maruishi - even if they are equivalent in quality.

CL has always been a bit crazy, and now the professional flippers have figured there's value in old bikes, so they've moved in on the market. They always want to squeeze every last penny out of anything they have, it's how they operate.

That said, on the local CL there's a price point at which stuff often just sits. It tends to be right around 200$, maybe a bit higher. Thus, a 75$ free spirit might move quickly, while a nicer bike that is a relative bargain will sometimes just sit. For example, this sat for four days:

http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...yclones001.jpg

Before I spent 200$ on it as a bike for my GF. I would have picked it up quicker, but I was out of town and surprised to see it show up.

The fact is a lot of people are looking for cheap; and a lot of sellers overprice their stuff, hope someone bites, and then slowly decrease the price if someone doesn't.

I have noticed the total crap on the local CL now outstrips the good stuff by at least 10 to 1.

If priced too low, a legion of flippers attack the the listing.

If priced too high, the listing sits forever and clutters the daylights out of CL.

There are some incredible values that still show up on a weekly basis.

You have to watch the listings like a hawk and never blink or tarry when you want one of the items.

I've learned the sweet spot for this odd little game, and we do ok.

$650 is nuts! http://annarbor.craigslist.org/bik/1850171054.html

In Chicago's CL, there are ton's of used bike shops, out of state junk lots, out of cellar sellers flipping bikes that clutter up CL. But, the good news is finding the jewel in the in the garbage, like my latest find! 97 Litespeed Tachyon! Takes patients and relentless perseverance to plow through the crap, but their out there! Gioscinelli:thumb:

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