I have been addicted to watching E-bay recently. I have watched Litespeeds either not sell of sell for ridiculously low prices. There have been two Serotta CSi frames in the past week: one sold for 600 dollars with only one bid over a 7-day auction and I think the other one was about the same price. Waterfords never seem to command much, even the 2200 with 753 steel that did not sell a couple weeks ago. Another Waterford R-14 sold for about 700 dollars with an Alpha Q Sub 3 fork, Alpha Q seatpost, and Chris King Headset (granted, it had a ding). And a slowtwitcher had a Yaqui frame with an Ouzo Pro fork that went for 400 dollars a day or two ago. And these are pretty standard sizes (54-58) with pretty standard geometry.
Then you see all the Specializeds and Cannondales that get bid up to ludicrously high prices. Put a Specialized Roubaix carbon fram on Ebay and you’ll have 40 bids and sell it for 200 dollars under retail.
Is it just that the masses don’t know the high-end bikes? Who wouldn’t take a Serotta CSi frame for 500 dollars.
Thoughts?
I’ll keep looking out for a Serotta Colorado III in a size 63.
As a sometime seller I must agree, although you might not agree that what I sell is “high-end.”
A couple months ago I offered a Giant TCR Advanced frameset in T-Mobile livery that got no serious bids, even though I was willing to let it go for far under the retail price AND the frames were (and still are) very rare. I relisted at a lower price, got 550 hits, and zero bids.
I would have barely made a profit at the price I listed, yet I got flak from people in emails. Maybe now’s a better time for the market. It’s hard to figure.
People looking for high-end bikes don’t mind paying full price as long as they are getting exactly what they want. Hence, they tend to buy new bikes rather than used. Plus, there simply are more ‘Low-End’ than ‘High-End’ buyers. Take a look at Mercedes or BMW, these cars depreciate tremendously as soon as driven off the lot. However, take a look at a Honda Civic and it retains its value a lot better.
Also, don’t forget marketing. Specialized and Cannondale are well-established brands and you know what you are getting. Unless you are big time into biking, you won’t know what a Serotta is. It could just be some garage operated frame builder, so bidding on one of those frames is ‘risker’ to a regular consumer.