What's the used vintage bike market like where you live?

[Ingola]

I'm in Vancouver and don't see this. Everyone who is asking pre-covid prices on their vintage bikes don't seem to be selling them. People were asking $500-600 on CraigsList for good quality Apollos and I can't get $200 for mine at the moment.

Sorry eastern Canada some are even lower

 

[DB24]

Is that the same Apollo as we have? Apollo was not a good brand over here

 

[dirttorpedo]

Is that the same Apollo as we have? Apollo was not a good brand over here

No, the Canadian Apollos were built by Kuwahara for a Vancouver business man when he had trouble sourcing bikes from England. They are considered moderate to good quality Japanese frames.

 

[DB24]

No, the Canadian Apollos were built by Kuwahara for a Vancouver business man when he had trouble sourcing bikes from England. They are considered moderate to good quality Japanese frames.

Thanks, did not know that!

 

[Retro_Roy]

here in vancouver we have our swap meet coming up in 1 1/2 weeks.
it will be interesting to see how prices are there. as dirt said, tough go
selling locally. since i am not selling much i hope prices are low.

 

[bikeworkshop]

The trouble with low prices is that nice stuff ends up butchered or thrown away.
Although that of course increases scarcity and helps prices rise again

 

[dirttorpedo]

Thanks, did not know that!

No worries. Its interesting how Brits and Aussies have such a different perspective on the brand name to Canadians of my generation.

Here is the thread I created on my 1980'ish Apollo (Kuwahara) Gran Sport

Apollo Gran Sport (Canadian brand by Kuwahara)

So I've bought an old Apollo Gran Sport of eBay. When you say Apollo to a Canadian on the West Coast many of us get misty eyed as these were very popular Japanese sourced 10 speeds when I was growing up which had an excellent reputation for design and construction. The North American...

www.retrobike.co.uk

This is the bike I'm trying to sell with no luck. Back in the hipster fixie conversion day this would have sold in days for well over $300

 

[madjh]

Low prices? were, I need a steel stem like a tioga o Ritchey and it is a bit overpriced. Ok, I´m always looking for NOS condition or near.

If you look for midd or low end bicycles, prices are quite low, I agree but if you look for a Expolosif, a Marin Team, , Fat Chance, Klein etc top quality brands, in very good condition or NOS prices are still quite high. Kooka is too expensive today, even the Avid tri align has increase the price more tan 100% since pre covid or the XTR M900... prices of special parts are crazy expensive. The well known parts that every body whants are still spensive.

 

[minor_LEGEND]

I've been needing to make some space in my garage/bike shed and have been trying to sell a couple of vintage bikes and the market seems completely dead. Or the prices have dropped so much that I'm waaaaaay overpriced at 60% of what I paid for the bikes originally 5 or so years ago. And these are very good condition vintage bikes.

Is this the same all over? I'm getting to the point where I might just donate them to the local bike charity.

You pose a great question.
I'm always keeping an eye on the used market either for our beloved retro MTB's or just for bargain road bike finds. For the last couple of years it's very apparent it has become a buyers market. The used listings are utterly saturated with 2nd hand bikes. Of all conditions, types, sizes & ages. The retro boom from 4-5 years ago is over, the arrival of disc brakes on road bikes has brought about a surge in people flogging their 'old' road bikes to make room for the new gravel bike & the aero-disc-uptodate road machine & everyone is content with what they have & too skint post cost-of-living crisis to buy anything else, hence the industry downturn.
So yeah I would say the market is pretty much stagnant. A bike you might have sank a couple of grand into pre-pandemic could be almost worthless (caliper braked carbon road bike) & likewise those nostalgic retro MTB purchases - anyone that wanted to rekindle their offroad youth has done so. Most of the retro stuff left on the wider market places is the big frames & the lower tier models. Muirwoods aplenty.

My 2pence worth.

 

[bikeworkshop]

I think when you're looking at rarities, you mostly see the hobbyists who don't need to sell, so put stuff up at a crazy high price.

It took us over a year to sell a yo eddy xtr for a bit over 1000 - would have been 5x that new in real terms.

I recently bought the complete explosif off ebay auction for £250 - a frame alone that quality is 800 new, so I think top end kit is cheap, as long as you find a seller who actually wants to sell.

In the antiques world you get a phenomenon where something has been almost totally "collected" - and then the collectors hold out for top prices (they don't need to sell) until the general public loses interest (because its expensive) and the value collapses.

It's not that bad though...

I mean, you can't ride a genuine Staffordshire flatback figure round the woods, can you?