I'm always interested to see what people think there bikes are worth. I've often wondered how the sellers get to this price. Probably the nearest you can get to a comparison is looking at 2nd hand car & motorbike sales. It gives a guide but with every sector comes it's own quirks.
In the late 90's we'd often get customers wanting to trade in their old bike for the latest & greatest machine. At the time it was mainly MTB's as this was a boom period. As a trade in, that the store would have to sell, we came up with a format that allowed shop manager or Saturday boy a rough calculation to work on, even if you hadn't seen the bike.
Technology was the driver for this format & hence the calculation was brutal. For those not riding at the time it was like a MTB arms race, each year the manufacturer bringing out better, lighter, more this & less that. I think the MTB in that period had an advancement injection not seen before & I'd doubt if we'll see again. So to the formula.
Normal retail price / 1/2
Then for each year old it was 10% would be taken off that price.
Of course there was exceptions as condition of the bike influenced whether it would decrease rapidly or if it would approch the 1/2 New Price.
This worked for the shop as we needed to re-sell & make some money. Often the shop didn't cone best off out of the deal. The New Nike customer & the 2nd Hand customer came off best, both getting a good deal.
Road bikes on the other hand are a little more tricky to work out. In the same late 90's early 00's the arms race had not really started. Frames & component groupsets didn't change that much, so making Road bikes hold value much better than there MTB counter parts.
So is there a solid formula for working it out then? My answer is no. This often causes a raised eyebrow when scouring the pages of the Comic because of this. It's probably the reason why I've often undersold items, & why eBay is popular with cyclists as the end price ends up being a true (or truer) price.
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