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

[d8mok]

Good quality , mint condition high end parts still sell very easily and for good money. The hobby is very much alive still for the hardcore collectors and builders.

All the mid to low end stuff needs to be almost given away.

Theres very little on the market as rather giving stuff away people just prefer to keep it. I’ve drawers of cheap stuff but it’s not worth the time to list it on here.

It’s simply back to 2020 and prior with slight drops increase for the rare stuff.

 

[al-onestare]

Echoing many, pricing overall has reverted to pre-Covid levels but it's saturated with absolute crap from the Covid-era, just like the brand-new market!

 

[Titiritero]

In my local market (central Germany in a densely populated area next to a big city) the used market is slow due to excessive supply. Everybody is jumping to ebikes and dumping their non motorised bikes.

However in the classic market, the ones from "iconic" brands or models still sell well and at good prices. There seems to be a trend, started by the "xbiking" subreddit and the many YouTubers restoring retro MTBs, of getting cult 90s bikes and performing a"retro-mod" (butchering original bikes to convert to 1x with tan wall tires). Then put them a catchy name, like "cafe racer", "burrito slayer", "gravel monster" or others I don't even understand, and post it in your preferred social media...

So if you have a lesser brand (here would be Winora, Kettler, Checker Pig,...) selling is hard, but the Rockhoppers and Singletracks sell as good or better as ever as a fad, not really from retro collectors...

I had a Multitrack I didn't really want to sell but should, so I tried the old trick of putting an ad at an absurd but still feasible price, and to my surprise the buyer did not even try to negotiate.

 

[legrandefromage]

If you are like me (fat and hairy) and like whollowing in the random ebay/ carboot purchase, all is well. Its a buyer's market

If you are trying to do a period correct high-end catalogue build, you are screwed.

If you are trying to sell, you are screwed, unless, of course, you have all that high-end stuff for that period correct catalogue build...

But hey, who wants Retro when (in the UK) Argos sell such wonderful bikes?

Look at it! Such quality! Who'd want an old 531c frame when you can have this delight and wonder for £136

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9433788?clickSR=slp:term:bicycle:73:199:1

 

[PanoIgano]

In my local market (central Germany in a densely populated area next to a big city) the used market is slow due to excessive supply. Everybody is jumping to ebikes and dumping their non motorised bikes.

However in the classic market, the ones from "iconic" brands or models still sell well and at good prices. There seems to be a trend, started by the "xbiking" subreddit and the many YouTubers restoring retro MTBs, of getting cult 90s bikes and performing a"retro-mod" (butchering original bikes to convert to 1x with tan wall tires). Then put them a catchy name, like "cafe racer", "burrito slayer", "gravel monster" or others I don't even understand, and post it in your preferred social media...

So if you have a lesser brand (here would be Winora, Kettler, Checker Pig,...) selling is hard, but the Rockhoppers and Singletracks sell as good or better as ever as a fad, not really from retro collectors...

I had a Multitrack I didn't really want to sell but should, so I tried the old trick of putting an ad at an absurd but still feasible price, and to my surprise the buyer did not even try to negotiate.

The above applies to Belgium almost verbatim... What I take from yours is the names they give to bikes... I wasn't aware of that but hell, coming up with a name such as burrito slayer for a retro mod it's something!

 

[dirttorpedo]

Back to precovid levels here in Canada often lower. If your buying awesome selling not so good.

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.

 

[fennec]

I live in indiana close to chicago, home territory of oldschool Schwinn
So ive got access to basically every schwinn model ever made, they make up half the craigslist easily
refer to the images, i could just keep scrolling and theres more schwinns, they dont end

otherwise theres some cool small production stuff that shows up from time to time, like this zebra empire mtb

 

[fennec]

Like man, if this was my size? I know these hard rock ultras are 10/10 stuff, but im tall so 19" is not enough.
Every time 90's MTB's show up on craigslist its usually something cool, i dont see a whole lot of random mid tier stuff. Its either walmart bikes or cool stuff like this

 

[Russell]

What a lot of people failed to realise during the bubble is that the vast majority of this stuff is just not rare. Shimano produced thousands of groupsets at every level. There are plenty of M900 rear mechs on the front page of eBay now… you have to question why anyone would pay more than £30 for one.

I feel for anyone who bought into the hype and spent thousands on old bikes, but you bought during a bubble and now it has burst.

The sad thing is that a lot of people who overpaid are holding on to stuff in the hope that prices will go back up. They won’t, and a lot of kit will now rot in damp drawers.

 

[DB24]

it is fairly quiet tbh, I have only just got back into it after 10ish years, and just started looking again.

I didn't even realise there was a classic mtb bubble, totally missed it.

It isn't too difficult to get a decent bike for sensible money round here.