2nd hand bike trading

I don't often buy the Comic, for lots of reasons which it itself would make an article on it's own. But when I do I always have a flick through the bikemart section.

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.

Posted via email from sprintingforsigns's posterous