£80 for a Kona Kilauea!

[Huntso]

My old mum who was 70 at the time decided to give up riding her moped. The rotter in the local shop said it was old, couldn't get spares and gave her 20 quid for it.

Drove up next day to see what he had to say, tried to tell me the same thing,but when I said they seemed to fetch considerably more s/hand he looked rather sheepish
Still took some persuading to cough up another 130 notes, but a showroom full of shiny bikes very close together and a man who mentioned how easy it would be to stumble on his way out changed his mind somewhat.

Its not only door to door callers that prey on the vunerable

 

[MCsanandreas]

Interesting point! Would it be considered 'wrong' to have simply asked "how much do you want for that?" and paid the required sum

nope, not if he was happy with £80.

seller was happy,it had sat gathering dust in his garage for years. mate was happy too!

there must be loads of bikes out there in the same condition.just luck and being in the right place gets a deal sometimes.

i can think of at least 4 old British motorbikes sat doing nothing in sheds too. theres all sorts out there.

 

[Corduroyboy]

You don't happen to know where there's a RHD Porsche 356a hiding in a barn that the owner wants to get rid of cheaply do you?

 

[XTSTIMAN]

Just think that ad in a local paper "mountain bike for sale, very good condition £...." may be a great classic just waiting for a retrobiker.

It should be our quest to check these ads out to save a great bike from being trashed as transport!

Better look in the local paper for that Cindercone.I can dream can't I?

 

[crankhead]

everyone's a winner! 'nuff said

 

[Err]

Just think that ad in a local paper "mountain bike for sale, very good condition £...." may be a great classic just waiting for a retrobiker.

It should be our quest to check these ads out to save a great bike from being trashed as transport!

Better look in the local paper for that Cindercone.I can dream can't I?

what with the price of petrol that really would be a labour of love. I call some of them up just to check. Whilst there's bound to be many gems lurking out there, the man on the clapham omnibus normally has a not so mint apollo he's trying to flog.

 

[Anthony]

I think the discussion may be slightly missing the point. If you're a bike shop owner and you trade bikes, my guess is you'd never pay more than half of what we might think a bike was 'worth' (defining that as average realised on eBay, or whatever), and maybe less. After all, in order to sell it in your shop, you'd have to service it, give it a warranty and give it shop space and still have some profit left over to pay you for the time you've spent on buying it and selling it and dealing with subsequent issues like 'No madam, pushing with your thumb makes it change down, but not on the other side. Yes madam, I know it's confusing.' etc.

It's still the case, however, that if somebody trusts you because of the position you're in, such as 'reputable bike shop owner', then the question of whether you would take advantage of that trust to rip them off if you could is one measure of what kind of a person you are.