Tips on selling a bike

[asterix]

Reluctantly my not very old, lightly used, quality steed has to go to make way for something more suitable.

What selling tips can more experienced traders offer? My ebay efforts have been very limited and reaped only a single result (am waiting for the other to finish). Both nowt to do with cycling.

What other methods get good results and how much depreciation should I expect in %ge terms?

 

[biggs682]

awlays a hard question , try and come up with a figure you want for said beast and then try either local gumtree or friday ads for local sellers , e bay is great for bargains and also great for seeing just how much some stuff sells for , when clearly not worth it .

if e baying just give as much info as poss

you could always try on here

 

[Hacienda71]

Don't sell it until the weather is a tad better.

 

[PaulSecteur]

Always consider when the auction will end. For example, make sure something "blokey" doesnt end when a top footy match is on, most of your last minute bidders will be in front of the goggle box instead of bidding againt each other and pushing the price up.

Wait for better weather (unless its a winter commuter).

Link to lots of photo on photobucket or flickr

Give a list of components, espicially things you have changed from original spec.

 

[accountantpete]

It might pay to split the bike up and sell the components separately.

Otherwise - a good pic and an accurate description of the usage will do.

For auctions I'd recommend starting a 7day listing on a Sunday night to end the next Sunday around 8pm.

Also make sure you don't charge £3 to post a heavy item which will actually cost £7 -use the postage tool on eBay or

http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

 

[Yellow Fang]

Several weeks ago I tracked some Bromptons on ebay to see how much they sold for. Several things I noticed:

1) A full description in a big, friendly font seemed to push up the price, compared with a few lines of terse bullet points.
2) Reserve prices and unclear prices seem to deter buyers. I saw one Brompton that would probably have sold for £200 more than the last person bid for it, but people gave up.
3) Likewise, buy-it-now prices seemed to deter buyers. The only three Bromptons I saw listed that no one bid for at all had buy-it-now prices. One of them had a buy-it-now price of £99,999, which seemed a bit unnecessary.

 

[asterix]

Cheers guys. All good stuff and I'm going to hang on to it till May!

 

[Moodyman]

Avoid personal feelings like 'lovely bike' or 'beautiful colour'. Keep the description to facts.

Use language that most keen cyclists will understand, but don't get too techical that you put off a newcomer.

Describe age/mileage of any parts that you've changed / added. Most people know nothing of maintenance, so if the item is ready to ride, let them know.

Bulletpoints work well if you've a long list. Also, easy to read font and colour - i.e mid-blue works better than a black font

 

[Moodyman]

Cheers guys. All good stuff and I'm going to hang on to it till May!

May is too late. Early April would be better. You've got Easter holidays and weather will be nice. Would-be buyers more likely to be looking for a bike before or during the holidays.

 

[Moodyman]

Another thing, if the item is very specialised - say a high-end titanium bike, ebay is probably not the best place.

Try selling on a dedicated bicycle forum like here

 

[Ludwig]

Try your local paper, Loot, Gumtree, Craigslist or a picture in a local newsagents or supermarket noticeboard. You could consider donating it to a charity that will provide work and it can be exported to poor parts of the world. On ebay a good photo is vital and a good technical description and history with lots of accessories should get a result.

 

[swee'pea99]

Some good tips here. Let me reiterate the crucial importance of good photos - they make more difference than anything else. Use something like photobucket (if you don't know how, find out) and make your photos 1200 pixels wide. Do lots. Eight, say. Think about what you'd like to see close ups of if you were buying.

Since you have a couple of months, use them to do some homework. Track 'similar' bikes and see how well they sell, then see if you can work out why this one fetched £100 more than that one, and use what you learn to guide your listing.

Oh, one last thing. The conventional wisdom is that the best time to end your auction is at about 8pm on a Sunday. So have your listing start at 8pm on a Thursday, running for 10 days. That way you have two (peak time) weekends for people to find you. Start the listing 'now' at 8pm on Thursday, or do it earlier and set that as your start time - I think it costs 6p or something.

 

[tyred]

Be honest in your description and give all relevant information like frame size bb - top of seat tube and length of top tube.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people advertise bikes in the local papers and don't put in essential info like frame size or apparently don't even know the size and will give you the wheel size instead if you ask. Or the Viscount Aerospace I saw on Ebay lately where the seller insisted it had 25" wheels