HELP! need advice on prices

george1990
george1990 Posts: 5
edited June 2011 in Commuting general
Hi i bought a marin muirwood 29er in october 2009 for £600, hardly used it since, probably covered 100 miles in total. Now I'm looking at buying a marin shoreline trail disc but dont know how much my bike is worth if i were to sell it and where is the best place to sell bikes??

Thanks in advance

Comments

  • RufusA
    RufusA Posts: 500
    Welcome to the forums. Seeing as no-one else has responded I'll have a punt!

    Firstly to state the obvious, a second hand bike is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

    Looking at ebay a couple of *new* 29er's have sold for circa £400. With that in mind it's unlikely to sell for anything more than that!

    Given the stated age and condition I'd be extremely disappointed if it sold for under £200 (HMRC's FMV not withstanding).

    So somewhere between £200 and £400.

    The maximum price it will sell for depends on many factors. Is it in demand, is it a common size, how close is the bikes location to plenty of potential buyers, how well is it described / photographed, how trusted are you as a seller, the weather etc.

    I'd suggest deciding on a fair price, and posting in the for sale section of a few bike forums you are a trusted member of. If there are no nibbles after a week, plonk it on ebay with a reasonable starting price (but not one you'd be gutted with if it sold at) , no reserve and to end on a Friday / Saturday to make it easy for people to collect at the weekend!

    It does beg the question if you've only used the bike for 100 miles, why buy another one!

    Good luck - Rufus.
  • Headhuunter
    Headhuunter Posts: 6,494
    Out of interest, why are you selling the bike? You clearly don't cycle that often and you appear to be downgrading to a cheaper bike. Surely you would be better off keeping the Muirwood a little longer? Why do you need a new bike when the Muirwood must be in essentially new condition if you've only done 100 miles?
    Do not write below this line. Office use only.
  • george1990
    george1990 Posts: 5
    Thanks for response, the reason I'm selling is I thought the 13.5 mile commute to work would be ok to do but havent really got the commitment to do it and someone from work does a bit of off roading just through forests etc and I'm quite interested in starting that, so that's the reason for selling, I've actually started looking at specialised hardrock disc which is cheaper.
    Thanks for all help!
  • Headhuunter
    Headhuunter Posts: 6,494
    Ah OK.... Perhaps you could make the Muirwood more offroady - into some kind of flat bar cyclo cross machine? May be a stronger set of wheels and perhaps a set of tougher tyres? Might be cheaper than selling and buying again, then if you really find you like offroad riding, you could invest in a decent MTB at that point. Doesn't sound like you have done much offroad riding either and may just end up wasting more money. Anyway, just a thought... Up to you in the end of course...
    Do not write below this line. Office use only.
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    Plenty of people ride MTB on rigid 29ers. I'd stick some 29" MTB tyres on it, maybe some *cough* hydraulic disc brakes.... and that would be fine on most off road trails. If you then wanted to get an MTB and get a bit more 'aggressive' in your riding you could do it knowing that the money wouldn't be wasted.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • george1990
    george1990 Posts: 5
    That sounds alot better and cheaper than selling and buying a new bike to discover i may not enjoy it, thanks for all the help guys!!

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