Best place for selling a second hand bike

carlstone

Due to one thing and another I am going to have to sell my Planet X Procarbon . I was wondering if anyone had had any experience of selling their bike and what is the best place. I've thought of ebay as my first choice, putting a post on here, ad in cycling plus, ad in other cycling mag etc. I don't really want to post it but would be prepared to hand deliver it within 200 miles of where I live (i.e. Edinburgh to London).

Anyone any ideas?

Cheers.

heavymental

Try websites first. Here, roadcyclinguk, veloriders, ACF, cyclechat. Sure it'll go through one of those as they get alot of viewers and Planet X are popular bikes.

meagain

But ebay the biggest audience, surely? Especially as you are prepared to deliver so far - covering well over half the population at a guess!

andyp

carlstone wrote:

Due to one thing and another I am going to have to sell my Planet X Procarbon . I was wondering if anyone had had any experience of selling their bike and what is the best place. I've thought of ebay as my first choice, putting a post on here, ad in cycling plus, ad in other cycling mag etc. I don't really want to post it but would be prepared to hand deliver it within 200 miles of where I live (i.e. Edinburgh to London).

Have you thought about breaking it down and selling the frame and components on Ebay? You solve the posting issue and you're likely to get more for it than selling it as a complete bike.

FWIW, Parcelforce will charge around £20 to send a bike via their 48 hour service. I did it with one I sold on Ebay last year. I sourced a cardboard box from my LBS then dismantled the bike and wrapped it in bubblewrap. It arrived unharmed at the other end.

carlstone

Thanks for the replies. I really don't want to break it up. Its done less than 1000 miles and is really like new, never seen rain (thats why it has done so few miles, last years weather was terrible).

fatbee

Ebay will get you the biggest audience and thus, very likely, the highest price. And I completely endorse the breaking down of the bike and selling the bits individually : Someone trying to buy a particular bike secondhand, is unlikely to want the exact finishing kit that you're selling. They may want to change any or all of the following: Bars, stem, tape, saddle, pedals, chainrings and rear cogs. And they will therefore tend to budget lower so's to allow for sourcing replacement componenets of their choice. You thus get a lower price. Stripping-down and selling bit by bit is much more of a pain, and I completely understand you wanting to see a much-loved machine go to a good home as-is. But if you want the best return, I can tell you from experience that breaking is the way to go - I have twice bought a whole bike on ebay just to get my hands on a particular out-of-production component, and then split and sold the rest of the bike for much more than I paid for the whole thing in the first place, thus getting my desired bit for free, and making a tidy profit! Takes time, but worth it IMHO.

michaelm

Oh go on then..

What size is it? How much are you after for it?