Is this worth a fiver plus collection fares and new tyres?

Cafewanda

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Childs-Raleigh-Racing-Bike-/290556959060?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item43a68b5954

Despite being busy packing for the office move I felt the need to browse for a few mins. Yes, I've got it in mind for me as I'm a titch @ 4'11.

rolf_f

If you get it for a fiver, how can it not be worth the money?! How far above a fiver is it worth is another question.

Cafewanda

Now that I'm having a proper lunchbreak and the sun is streaming through my office window, you make valid points.

EKE_38BPM

I reckon that will go for £30 to £50 and it would be worth it. It looks in good nick.

Add in another £25 for the train (Balham to Winchester) though, plus ~£30 for tyres and that bike is now looking like a ~£100 purchase. Still not a bad price in comparison to what £100 would buy if you were thinking about a new bike.

If I were you, I'd probably go for it.
Bid your absolute maximum and then forget about it for until after the auction has ended. If you don't get it, at least you didn't get hung up about it. If you do, then you won't have paid more than you originally wanted to. People do get a bit excited if they get into a bidding war.

I don't put my maximum bid in as a round number e.g. £50, I put in something like £51.01
I think people say "Right, £50.00 is my max" so bid that and see they have been outbid so think "OK, £51.00, but that is REALLY my max." and they are still outbid so they give up not realising an extra 2p would have secured the item.

If you get it and it needs fettling and you don't want to pay for you LBS to do it and you fancy a trip to Barnet, I'll fettle for ya for the price of a pint. Lots of 'ands' in that sentence!

Horizontal dropouts also make it a candidate for conversion to fixed, but you then have to factor in the price of a rear wheel or at least a hub and some spokes.

EKE_38BPM

I'm glad to say I vastly overestimated the price the bike would go for. With 3.5 hours to go, the price is £10.50. I hope Cafewanda goes for this.

redvee

I reckon £50 come the end but tyres might not be cheap.

EKE_38BPM

£50 would me at the upper limit of my prediction, but it may happen. £27 with just over an hour to go.

Do you know if CW has bid?

EKE_38BPM

It went for £40. Slap bang in the middle of my £30-£50 estimate.
I seem to be getting better at guessing what old Raleighs go for on ebay.

optimisticbiker

the seller must have thought they were going to have a field day with all those watchers lol

EKE_38BPM

300 watchers but only 12 bids from 3 bidders.
I think its fair to assume that some of those watchers were from here (400+ people have viewed this thread), so the numbers of watchers vs bidders vs actual bids may be a bit skewed.

I've just bought a mixte for £43 on ebay. Add £12 for train fares and a few quid for various bits and pieces and the whole thing will come in at well under £100 for a ~30 year old bike that has done less than 100 miles*.



*My estimation of its mileage based on the perfect condition of the chain, bearings and races after congealed grease was removed as well as the condition of the tyres and brake blocks.

rolf_f

Lets hope CW got it and gets to find out what a proper bike is like!

EKE_38BPM

Rolf F wrote:

Lets hope CW got it and gets to find out what a proper bike is like!

+1