Is there money to made buying and selling bikes

[Gravity Aided]

What about the manure for roses?

That's about all the horse gives. The rest is outgo. Food, lodging, veterinary care. About as big a money pit as a boat. (acronym for Break Out Another Thousand) Whereas, with the bicycles, it makes the cycling self-supporting. Keep the best for yourself, and keep improving the stable.

 

[midlife]

That's about all the horse gives. The rest is outgo. Food, lodging, veterinary care. About as big a money pit as a boat. (acronym for Break Out Another Thousand) Whereas, with the bicycles, it makes the cycling self-supporting. Keep the best for yourself, and keep improving the stable.

I didn't suggest buying one, we have been there lol .just a suggestion to try something new. The horse thing popped into my mind as I looked out of the window and saw one

 

[Slick]

There's money to be made buying and selling anything. If you don't know or understand your market, you won't make anything. I find with most things, every pound you don't need to spend is pressure off the requirement to bring it in. In other words, you have to get it cheap.

 

[biggs682]

thanks @vickster

@johnnyb47 i have been buying and selling bikes for over 12 years , started off buying anything and selling anything then realised that you can buy bikes from loads of places new for peanuts ok they are bso but for a non cycling person they are fine .

i never use to factor in my time spent doing repairs or cleaning in to the cost of bikes but i have done for last few years , so i now get a more honest figure re profit level .

Avoid cheap 2nd hand bso's as they are normally a nightmare to get anywhere near right

I normally ride at least 100 miles on any bike i sell so i can honestly say how it rides and i also know then that it should provide hassle free riding for the new owner , but remember anything can go wrong when it wants to so at the 102 mile mark an expensive part can fail and the buyer will come marching back or slag you off somewhere so be warned .

In the last 3 years i have noticed loads of people buy what is to me an expensive new bike ( ie £500+ ) and ride them half a dozen times and then leave them unused for a while before they sell and i have found these good to buy and sell . On these low useage ones i normally try them on a couple of 15 - 20 mile sirdes before selling so as to keep the miles down .

I have found kids bikes to be a waist of time and money

Try and find bikes that are different and pleasing on the eye

Feel free to get i touch if you want advice

@Drago that old Bentley has gone now

 

[Globalti]

I tried this when I was helping out on Saturdays at a friend's bike shop. I was surprised at the amount of repair work he turned away so I took a couple of bikes home to fix up privately, just as an experiment. I quickly learned a few things:

Unless you've got a work stand and proper workshop with all the correct tools, bending over a bike and trying to make do with poor tools will kill your back and waste a lot of time, especially if it's a cheap bike in bad condition.

Customers have no interest in a proper job, they just want the bike fixed up as cheaply as possible so when you present them with the bill for just the parts they say: "HOW MUCH?"

That's without costing in your time. How much do you think your time is worth? I'd guess around £100 an hour if you include overheads, setting up time and going to buy parts.

Finally there's nothing more dispiriting than working on other people's neglected bikes, especially when you know they don't appreciate your efforts and will just continue to neglect it.

That's why bike shops are reluctant to do repairs. In the end I gave that up and moved on to drug dealing, money-laundering and pimping, which turned out to be far more lucrative.

 

[roadrash]

@biggs682 replaced with a new one , got to keep up the standards you know

 

[Tin Pot]

All good sensible advice and anything more than this I’d agree. But you’d be spending more time figuring this out than knocking out a couple of bikes which will give you a real world example.

It’s a couple bikes and a fun afternoon doing them up. Hardest part will be selling them. Do it. Review.

If this is true then the answer to the question is almost vertically “no”.

Do it for fun. Maybe a beer.

 

[screenman]

If you have a disposable income of minus £20 a week and you can earn £40 a week, worth doing. Disposable of a few hundred and it becomes less so.

In my trade I know of very few guys that have much of an interest in cars, at least not once they have been making their living from them for a few years.

 

[buzzy-beans]

That's about all the horse gives. The rest is outgo. Food, lodging, veterinary care. About as big a money pit as a boat. (acronym for Break Out Another Thousand) Whereas, with the bicycles, it makes the cycling self-supporting. Keep the best for yourself, and keep improving the stable.

Patently most people don't know a thing about keeping horses!! When living in France, we used to rescue horses, we had quite a lot of them and they were all kept naturally, i.e. there were no rugs, no feed supplements, no shoes and whereas a horse that is kept in stables, is rugged, has supplements and regular vets visits might live to the age of 25 to 30, naturally kept horses are known to live significantly longer and to prove this point we knew of several that were approaching 40! Our horses cost us next to nothing to keep as we had enough land to graze them on and enough land so that we could cut superb hay for their winter feeding.

Just like with cycling, there are those who want to waste loads of money on techi bikes that don't actually result in them riding any better or faster and then there are those (like me) who love classic/vintage bikes that look divine, cost very little to buy and ride and handle superbly

 

[Heltor Chasca]

There was a guy who lives/lived in my village who used to do this. He would do them up, then prop them up with a stick on the green. Card with price and phone number. He only did it in the summer and I can’t remember if he did it last year.

 

[Saluki]

I was told about a bike for sale and thought of buying it to sell on. Went for a look and bloke wanted £300 for it. Err. Nope.

I have bought and sold a few things, on and off in th3 past though. Not huge profits but a bit here and there is nice.

 

[biggs682]

The biggest pleasure i enjoy is getting a previously unused bike back in service

 

[Smokin Joe]

If you have a disposable income of minus £20 a week and you can earn £40 a week, worth doing. Disposable of a few hundred and it becomes less so.

In my trade I know of very few guys that have much of an interest in cars, at least not once they have been making their living from them for a few years.

How to fall out of love with your hobby - go into business doing it.

 

[johnnyb47]

The biggest pleasure i enjoy is getting a previously unused bike back in service

Here Here Biggs@682.
It's that why I would want to do it ,and.not purely for financial reasons. It would be just nice to have something to do in the garden shed when the weather's or tv is rubbish and get to grips with bringing an old bike back to life. Obviously I don't want to make a loss on doing this or end up stuck with a bike i can't sell. If a small profit can be gained for a few beers out of it, and make buying/selling bikes financially sustainable that's all I would be hoping for. :-)

 

[biggs682]

Here Here Biggs@682.
It's that I want to do it purely for financial reasons. It would be just nice to have something to do in the garden shed when the weather's or tv is rubbish and get to grips with bringing an old bike back to life. Obviously I don't want to make a lose on doing this or end up stuck with a bike i can't sell. If a small profit can be gained for a few beers out of it and make buying/selling bikes financially sustainable that's all I would be hoping for. :-)

It is do able , but i would advise that you follow the buy 1 sell 1 rule other wise who knows what will happen