1999 Caldera sold for £86
- Thread starter Anthony
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Geoff
Senior Retro Guru
I'd agree with Gump on this one- prices can easily get pushed up with a bidding war, but that price seems fair enough to me. It's not an Explosif or in mint condition, so Kona fanboys (sorry 
) won't queue up for it, and it's not something really flash to get the rest of the world excited either. Could be a basis for a nice bike though.
PS include myself in the fanclub...
) won't queue up for it, and it's not something really flash to get the rest of the world excited either. Could be a basis for a nice bike though. PS include myself in the fanclub...
greenstiles
Old School Grand Master
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Sorry as an ex bike shop manager...........that old Kona would still ride a lot better than some of the rubbish that is sold today, it is underpriced............if it were sold via a shop i'm sure it would have been up for sale at least £150-£175 if not a bit more.
greenstiles":3gg77pnv said:
And their profit margin would be what? If a shop was selling that bike for £150-£175, it means that they would have only paid (or given in part exchange) less than £100 for it. It would also probably come with some sort of short term warranty and have had a service/check up before being sold.
E-bay is a private sale, hence you get private sale prices, not marked up bike store prices.
greenstiles
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Sorry, most bike shops who do part exchange only sell it again for the price they gave the person in the 1st place. Sometimes if the bike was found to have faults.......most shops would of course ad on the price of parts. But not many shops will try and make a profit on a part exchange, only the difference in price. Why ? one reason is if you take a bike in and part ex it for say £100 and the next day you see it up for sale at £200 you might feel ripped off and never go there again ! Or tell all your mates, oh don't go there and they would lose business. It ain't like car/motorbike dealers who have to make a profit on 2nd hand...................did you know that the profit on a new motorbike is about 12% if your lucky, where as the profit on a new bicycle is about 33% or more depending on the quantity you buy them in. So cycles shops do it that way.................car/motorbikes have to do it a different way.
I'm not saying there aren't cycle shops who don't, but i wouldn't say it's the norm.
I'm not saying there aren't cycle shops who don't, but i wouldn't say it's the norm.
greenstiles
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In other words, just as long as the shop gets the same amount for the part ex bike, they have still made their 33% - 45% profit on the sale.
Well, I’m disappointed that you of all people are joining in with this facile abusive language Geoff, but to stick to the point this was the cheapest complete Kona to sell on eBay for some time, even though it is quite a high-end model, so obviously its price is not typical. The explanation is that it was sold on a collect-only basis, it wasn’t very well presented and above all that it needed some work (albeit easy). All these things deter buyers. It’s actually quite rare to see a bike that is well-presented on eBay, but when you do the prices are much higher.Geoff":1y4z9yqu said:I'd agree with Gump on this one- prices can easily get pushed up with a bidding war, but that price seems fair enough to me. It's not an Explosif or in mint condition, so Kona fanboys (sorry
PS include myself in the fanclub...
If you look here you'll see that the 99 Caldera frame is quite highly regarded. http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33476
The frame alone would sell for £75-100 on eBay if properly presented (a Hahana frame recently raised £75) and with Bomber forks and LX/XT parts I would have been confident of raising £250 on eBay for that bike, once it was in A1 condition and with a good description/photos. A 98 Kilauea is currently on sale on eBay and stands at £225 with a couple of days to go, despite being again offered on a collect-only basis. It’ll be interesting to see what that fetches, but somewhat more than £86 clearly.
I think one of the things that misleads people on here is that there’s a false supposition that retro is popular in the marketplace. This isn’t borne out by the facts - if it were, the prices for older and more historic bikes would be higher than for late-90s bikes, but they aren’t. I don’t think buyers in this country are much interested in the history of mtb, still less in buying bikes to be ‘garage queens’, so historic 80s mtbs don’t raise much money at all. Just look at this 1983 Stumpy, six hours to go and £34 bid. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-RETRO-MOU ... dZViewItem
In contrast, bikes like late-90s Konas are bought for their practical merits. If you prefer steel frames, as many do, they are excellent for commuting and still very good across country, especially if you take value for money into account. £250 for a smart and reasonably modern-looking double-butted steel bike with good quality parts is peanuts.
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Anthony":353hz2mr said:Well, I’m disappointed that you of all people are joining in with this facile abusive language Geoff, but to stick to the point this was the cheapest complete Kona to sell on eBay for some time, even though it is quite a high-end model, so obviously its price is not typical. The explanation is that it was sold on a collect-only basis, it wasn’t very well presented and above all that it needed some work (albeit easy). All these things deter buyers. It’s actually quite rare to see a bike that is well-presented on eBay, but when you do the prices are much higher.Geoff":353hz2mr said:I'd agree with Gump on this one- prices can easily get pushed up with a bidding war, but that price seems fair enough to me. It's not an Explosif or in mint condition, so Kona fanboys (sorry
PS include myself in the fanclub...
If you look here you'll see that the 99 Caldera frame is quite highly regarded. http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33476
The frame alone would sell for £75-100 on eBay if properly presented (a Hahana frame recently raised £75) and with Bomber forks and LX/XT parts I would have been confident of raising £250 on eBay for that bike, once it was in A1 condition and with a good description/photos. A 98 Kilauea is currently on sale on eBay and stands at £225 with a couple of days to go, despite being again offered on a collect-only basis. It’ll be interesting to see what that fetches, but somewhat more than £86 clearly.
I think one of the things that misleads people on here is that there’s a false supposition that retro is popular in the marketplace. This isn’t borne out by the facts - if it were, the prices for older and more historic bikes would be higher than for late-90s bikes, but they aren’t. I don’t think buyers in this country are much interested in the history of mtb, still less in buying bikes to be ‘garage queens’, so historic 80s mtbs don’t raise much money at all. Just look at this 1983 Stumpy, six hours to go and £34 bid. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-RETRO-MOU ... dZViewItem
In contrast, bikes like late-90s Konas are bought for their practical merits. If you prefer steel frames, as many do, they are excellent for commuting and still very good across country, especially if you take value for money into account. £250 for a smart and reasonably modern-looking double-butted steel bike with good quality parts is peanuts.
Well put, Anthony.
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
