Over valuing of second hand bikes ?

RandG

Here is a thing I'm sure most folk have come across, is folk over valuing what they are selling. Like most folk I scour ebay etc looking for the odd pick up here and there, but it seems the more expensive the item, the more folk seem to think it's value....or am I alone in this and just being a miserable git ?

A couple of weeks back I was on gumtree looking for another mountain bike, guy was looking for....wait for it...£680 for a two/three year old bike. Told the guy I was interested but he was having a laugh at the price.....

Anyway, after a few txts he relented and said, ok £600 :roll: despite me telling him is was only worth around £450 - £500....a few days later he txt me and said.....will you meet me half way..£550 :roll: nope I said, £500 max.....nah you're ok he says but thanks for your interest.

10 minutes ago, it finished on ebay, for £440

So, do others find this common that folk think other folk are stupid and don't know the value of things ??

Chunkers1980

Things are only worth what someone will pay. Simple.

MountainMonster

Depends on the model of the bike,could be worth more than what you think, age doesn't mean cheap necessarily. That is saying if the bike was under roughly 2k over 3 years ago,I tend to stay away anyways.

RandG

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Things are only worth what someone will pay. Simple.

Try telling that to the clown who thought his £450 bike was worth £680

mcnultycop

RandG wrote:

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Things are only worth what someone will pay. Simple.

Try telling that to the clown who thought his £450 bike was worth £680

It was only worth £440 a few posts ago.

Inflation.

MountainMonster

RandG wrote:

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Things are only worth what someone will pay. Simple.

Try telling that to the clown who thought his £450 bike was worth £680

What you are willing to pay and what a bike is worth are two completely different things. That said, some people do take the mick a bit.

RandG

mcnultycop wrote:

It was only worth £440 a few posts ago.

Inflation.

No, you misunderstand, I valued his bike at £450, the top bidder only valued it at £440

omegas

People make a living out of selling over priced bikes on ebay and best of luck to them.
Lots of people don't have a clue what they are buying and will pay more for a secondhand bike than what you would pay for it new , I sure we have met people who have done this and had a little laugh to ourselves.

DanDax1990

RandG wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

It was only worth £440 a few posts ago.

Inflation.

No, you misunderstand, I valued his bike at £450, the top bidder only valued it at £440

Did he really? He may of also valued it at £680 and may sell it on for a profit?

True say though, Some people over value stuff, parts/accessories aswell.

mcnultycop

RandG wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

It was only worth £440 a few posts ago.

Inflation.

No, you misunderstand, I valued his bike at £450, the top bidder only valued it at £440

So it is worth £440; what some one was willing to pay for it.

supersonic

What was the bike?!

nicklouse

RandG wrote:

No, you misunderstand, I valued his bike at £450, the top bidder only valued it at £440

but as you did not bid for it you did not. But if you had bid at 450 it may have sold at 500. or more.

cat_with_no_tail

The one that boils my plss is people basing the value of their 2nd hand goods on the original RRP.

Or selling a bike and listing all the parts of it with an RRP for each, then calculating the value of the bike based on that.

AARGGHHHH!!!!!

Clank

Cat With No Tail wrote:

The one that boils my plss is people basing the value of their 2nd hand goods on the original RRP.

Or selling a bike and listing all the parts of it with an RRP for each, then calculating the value of the bike based on that.

AARGGHHHH!!!!!

This^

Plus, chumps who haven't done the research first and will try and sell 2nd hand for what you can buy new for at Pauls Cycles. It seems to be a fashion with lights at the moment - 'it's a year old and it's 250 quid'. Yes, mate, Evans are doing them new now for 255. Hook, sling, your: rearrange to suit.

rockmonkeysc

Buyers on ebay also over value bikes. I sold an 18 month old Giant Trance X3 last summer. You could buy exactly the same model from Pauls Cycles for £1250 at the time yet someone paid £1290 for my used bike!
The bike only cost me £1600 new.
I also sold a Giant Reign X2 this summer for £1540 on ebay which was also more than Winstanley was selling the bike for though mine did at least have some nice suspension, transmission & wheel upgrades which cost me over a grand.

Tiggerboy

Sorry, removed :?

cat_with_no_tail

I'll give you 37p and half a pack of Jacobs crackers.

Please read the forum rules, we're not a valuation service. If you want to know what it's worth, look in the classifieds or on ebay.

miss notax

I've sold a couple of bikes on Ebay - started the auctions at 99p and both bikes have 'found' their end value pretty well (in the right ball-park). Like anything, you win some you lose some, but overall it works for me

This may be because I am selling tiny little bikes though which are going to have a more limited audience than medium blokey sized ones - but if you're a shortie like me and you see a bike that fits, you'll probably pay a bit more and fight a bit more for it

cooldad

Tiggerboy wrote:

Given there is no 'glasses' guide for valuing bikes, to avoid me becoming one of those annoying T@%T's, what could I realisiticly expect for my Lapierre Zesty 714, 2010, with reverb dropper, all in excellent condition, which I am about to sell. Cheers

Rule 15
viewtopic.php?f=40034&t=12846748&p=17546828#p17546828

cat_with_no_tail

Also, it's a well known fact that Hope products only ever go up in value. This is because "dey is Britis and da bestest".

As such, adding a Hope seatclamp and skewers to your Hardrock automatically makes it worth at least a grand. Only if you state these items as being "upgrades" though. This also means you can advertize it as being "custom" and put "HOPE" in caps in the subject line of your ad. There is no need to list anything else in the ad. The age and condition of the bike as a whole is irrelevant.
The value increases further if you can add something like a carbon seatpost or stem. Carbon Bars will double the value again.

Chunkers1980

cooldad wrote:

Tiggerboy wrote:

Given there is no 'glasses' guide for valuing bikes, to avoid me becoming one of those annoying T@%T's, what could I realisiticly expect for my Lapierre Zesty 714, 2010, with reverb dropper, all in excellent condition, which I am about to sell. Cheers

Rule 15
viewtopic.php?f=40034&t=12846748&p=17546828#p17546828

TBF - he didn't actually contravene that rule.

cooldad

Chunkers1980 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Tiggerboy wrote:

Given there is no 'glasses' guide for valuing bikes, to avoid me becoming one of those annoying T@%T's, what could I realisiticly expect for my Lapierre Zesty 714, 2010, with reverb dropper, all in excellent condition, which I am about to sell. Cheers

Rule 15
viewtopic.php?f=40034&t=12846748&p=17546828#p17546828

TBF - he didn't actually contravene that rule.

Really? - you must be an awesome lawyer.

mikewoods

True - he posted a reply asking, not a topic.

danlightbulb

Its not just bikes and components that are overvalued on ebay.

Personally, although I use ebay occasionally, sometimes its really frustrating. I know for a fact that people have multiple accounts, and will 'bid up' their own selling items.

Then there is the whole issue of artifically inflating your P&P to cover some of the selling loss.

I was looking for some new handlebars a while back, and 2nd hand ones on ebay were more expensive than brand new ones off chain reaction. People were still buying them! Great for the seller, not so great for the buyer. I have rarely found what I would call a 'good 2nd hand bargain' on ebay.

The Rookie

I once sold some Bomber forks on ebay, figured they were worth £65ish, went for £80, the winning bidder then complained they weren't worth £80, I pointed out that it was HE and the other bidders that had valued them at just that, I made no estimate of value - he shut up after that!

Ebay is a poor way to judge though, bought a Voodoo bantu the other day in an auction ending at 3pm on a Friday and some Recons the week before in an auction ending about the same time, reckon if they had been ending at 7pm on a Sunday they would have gone for at least 20% more.

Point to note, an auction 'values' something at one bid increment more than the second highest bidder was prepared to pay, now what the winning bidder may have been prepared to pay!

MountainMonster

The Beginner wrote:

I once sold some Bomber forks on ebay, figured they were worth £65ish, went for £80, the winning bidder then complained they weren't worth £80, I pointed out that it was HE and the other bidders that had valued them at just that, I made no estimate of value - he shut up after that!

Ebay is a poor way to judge though, bought a Voodoo bantu the other day in an auction ending at 3pm on a Friday and some Recons the week before in an auction ending about the same time, reckon if they had been ending at 7pm on a Sunday they would have gone for at least 20% more.

Point to note, an auction 'values' something at one bid increment more than the second highest bidder was prepared to pay, now what the winning bidder may have been prepared to pay!

Very well said on the last bit, this is why I hate people saying use ebay to determine a value of a product. For one thing, if someone is the only one who has seen a item and noticed it, and bid up to say 20 when it is worth 100 use, just because it sells for 20 to the highest bidder does not mean the price was true to value.

cooldad

mikewoods wrote:

True - he posted a reply asking, not a topic.

Split hairs much?

The Rookie

MountainMonster wrote:

For one thing, if someone is the only one who has seen a item and noticed it, and bid up to say 20 when it is worth 100 use, just because it sells for 20 to the highest bidder does not mean the price was true to value.

The best bargains are those that are poorly listed so only those who truly look find them! (X9 rear mech, nearly new, the listing title was for "X5 shifters and rear mech" - once I'd sold the shifters and front mech the X9 had cost me MINUS £5)

"Second hand Simon"

stuisnew

Noticed a trend on eBay of bikes deliberately giving no detail on condition other than 'used' presumably so there is no comeback.

Apart from occasional local pick up only items or very badly listed items there aren't many bargains around, or certainly not that I can ever find!

EdW

Clank wrote:

Plus, chumps who haven't done the research first and will try and sell 2nd hand for what you can buy new for at Pauls Cycles.

In this situation the seller is not the chump, he can ask what he likes. It's up to the buyer to do the research & discover that he can get it brand new for the same price. If he doesn't do the research then he is a chump.

Chunkers1980

They can be. They know and are trying to hoodwink.