Resale value on Ebay of Cervelo (or similar) bikes

Triathlon Forum
1

I find it interesting that on Ebay, say, for example, you have a Cervelo Dual you bought for 1800 (2 years ago), or a P2k, or something like that, I think you can get 1000-1100 or more for it, RIGHT NOW, and that’s without tricking it out with expensive tri wheels.

Its amazing. Those bikes get bid all to hell up there. So, if you take care of it, you are basically only buying 45% of it for 2 years. Same thing but add 700 bucks for the P3, I think you can get back 60-70 percent or more for it. I guess the same would apply to QRs in that range and some Javelins or whatever in that league.

And what I don’t get is why someone would pay 1100 bucks for a 2 year old Dual, when they could just save up 400 more dollars for a brand new one. Just boggles my mind. Somebody will pay 1200 for it on ebay.

2

Half of the new stuff on e-bay can be purchased for less at walmart or other stores every day. Add “shipping and handling” and you are a sucker. Right now look at the price of a Garmen 201. Buy it now for $160 + $16.99 shipping. Go to Amazon.com and the same unit is $114 and free shipping.

I don’t get why people shop e-bay unless you are looking foe some collectable you can’t get in a store.

Now being a seller on e-bay is the way to go.

Dave

3

I have a 51cm P3 that I listed a few months ago, the bids barely broke $1000 and the bike is still in essentially new condition. Could have something to do with me not having any feedback but how does someone get feedback without actually selling anything? Seems like one of the pitfalls of eBay.

Still have the bike should anyone be interested. Bought new in Dec. 2002 but is a 2001 (yellow).

Chris

4

Yeah, no feedback will kill your auction. You really need a lot of good feedback to sell big ticket items.

5

You should buy a bunch of stuff to get it up, at least that will show that you are an honest person and that you follow through with your transactions.

6

I’m in your boat! I have a 2003 55cm P3 I would like to sell later this yr so have started selling smaller items to build a track record. Interestingly my first auction was a new triathlon DVD which sold for more than retail plus shipping. Good luck…

Paul

7

I just sold a P3, DA, CarbonX, and Zipp 404’s on Ebay. The eventual selling price was roughly $3400. The customer told me that he could get the bike from a shop for roughly the same price with the regular wheels so he felt it was an upgrade - Free 404’s.

The bike was basically in new condition so I am sure he is/will be happy.

2 things stuck out to me:

  1. I have never used Ebay and that did not deter anyone.
  2. I had 5 people who bid over $2900 for the bike.
8

I have read that “parting” (selling the individual components) your bike is much more profitable can anyone elaborate?

Paul

9

I have sold 15-20 items on Ebay…some that I bought there in the first place. On 1/2 of all the items I sold on Ebay, I sold them for more than I bought them for in the first place, whether in the store, from mail-order, or from Ebay itself.

On the other hand, the best deal I’ve gotten on Ebay was a 2002 Specialized Allez Comp (E5 aluminum frame/Ultegra 9spd)…I bought the bike in November of 2001…YES, that’s before the actual model year…the bike was listed for $1999MSRP in stores. I got the two week old bike for $800. The owner bought it and decided to sell after just two weeks, which was highly believeable since the bike had JUST barely hit the market in the first place. He had decided to just order a Seven Ti frame, or something like that…at any rate, I got a BRAND NEW Ultegra 9spd bike for $800. I swapped the crappy Shimano 540 wheelset, bought a Cosmos wheelset at my LBS, and sold the 540s on Ebay for more than I paid for the Cosmos…making my total expenditure even LESS than the $800…more like $750 for a super bike.

I guess what I’d say about Ebay, is that it takes patience, and an understanding of the dynamics of how to list items…you have to know the types of mistakes people make in listing items…for instance…on the bike above, the guy had it listed in such a way that I was the ONLY guy to find the auction…hence the ONLY bidder…I waited…asked a couple of questions of the seller to determine the veracity of the listing, and, yes, sniped it for the $800.

If you REALLY understand how to list items, you can reap huge $…its annoying, but listing a Cervelo P3 as "Cervelo P3 P2 52cm TT aero (Trek,Litespeed,Guru) will get you hundreds more looks than simply “Cervelo P3 52cm”…remember…the whole idea is to get folks to LOOK at your auction…the more people that find it…the more bidders you get…and more bidders means a better bidding war at the end…

But when looking for deals…if you WANT a Cervelo P3 52cm…you aren’t going to get a deal on bikes listed as “Cervelo P3 52cm”…let alone if they are listed as I suggest…you are going to find the hidden deals by searching for things like “aero bike” or “TT bike”…although bidders are savvy to these searches now…it is getting tougher and tougher…so try misspelled words like “airo bike”…“airo frame”…etc…its all about finding the auctions that fewer bidders will find. And frankly, it is nearly impossible to find deals on Ebay for the absolutely most popular items…try getting a Dura Ace 10spd crankset for any sort of deal…and for that matter…Cervelos of any sort are nearly impossible to get super deals on. That doesn’t mean most of the Cervelo auctions aren’t worth most of the $ they go for…but you aren’t going to find a Cervelo going for less than 50% of the original price if it was made in this century…

Above all, PATIENCE is needed…it might take several months or even a year to find a deal on that highly coveted item that you simply can’t pay full price for…only you can answer whether or not that is worth it to you.

10

My wife purchased a new frame and drivetrain last year, so I had to get rid of her old frame and drivetrain. Since I wanted to get a good rating before selling the frame (which I anticipated to net the most money), I sold off pieces. I sold the drive train all at once. I was very happy with my results on the drive train. In some cases people paid almost as much as similar items that were new.

But I made a mistake. I should have sold the frame at the same time as the drivetrain. The biggest reason is that you can cross-list your items. So, I made sure to mention that along with the crankset, I’m selling a bottom bracket, rear and front derailluer. I got tons of action on those items since I was basically advertising across many different categories.

The frames especially get lumped into very specific categories, so it is more difficult for people to find them.

So, in my opinion, the best thing to do is to part the bike as much as possible, then make sure to mention everything you are selling in each ad. Then put everything at $0.01 starting bid, no reserve, and let the fun begin. You’ll get a ton of action.

In the end, I don’t think having a good rating is all that important as long as you are accessible, make a good ad, and are honest in the ad with good pictures. The biggest thing that deters people are reserves and high starting bids. I only have a rating of 8, and this is after I sold the drivetrain and frame in pieces.

11

I was about to sell 20 kid videos one at a time… Now I’m going to sell them all and cross link them…

Thanks for your comments very helpful.

Paul

12

My only word of caution to you is that as far as auctioning videos, I’m not so sure that starting with a low bid and no reserve is as wise. I’ve never sold anything other than cycling stuff. I know for a fact that cycling stuff does very well. No way someone is going to let a frame go for a penny. People see the low price, add it to their watch list and then bid the price up until they get emotionally involved. But in your case, if the market is flooded, you might get hosed.

I just want you to know that I’m not an expert on Ebay and your results may vary. I think the cross listing is an excellent idea as it saves time at shipping in addition to the increased exposure. Just do your research - if similar items have no trouble selling, don’t worry about the opening bid, if there are a few items that have sold for next to nothing, maybe be a little cautious. Of course it’s a double edged sword. If you set the bid too high and no one buys it, you’re out the ebay fees. If nothing else, be sure to pad the shipping a little to make sure if you sell something for next to nothing with a low opening bid, you at least get something for your trouble.

Oh, and I have found shipping via USPS to be much cheaper than by UPS.

Good luck…Jack

13

I have read that “parting” (selling the individual components) your bike is much more profitable can anyone elaborate?

Yep, takes some patience and dismantling, but it works just like through your LBS, it’s always more expensive to build up a bike from parts than to buy the complete bike. You get better exposure on e-bay (cross promoting items, make sure to state this in all of your auctions so that people make sure to see what else you’re selling), and some parts fetch ridiculous amounts of money (e.g., 9 speed Ultegra seems to be quite expensive, due to lack of stock in stores), and people are getting what they specifically want (not everyone’s looking for a complete bike).

A few other tips: You need to consider your fees when pricing. Remember that e-bay doesn’t charge you based on shipping amounts. A lot of people pad the shipping amounts to limit e-bay fees. Smart bidders will keep this in mind. Make sure to have good feedback built up before selling bigger ticket items. You can do this by selling off a bunch of smaller stuff first. Takes time, but it’s worth it. Always take photos of the items you’re selling, and make sure they’re good ones! I’ve seen identical items go for much different prices due to one having a crappy photo. Clean your bike and parts before taking photos. Always accept Paypal. You might not like their fees, but most people on e-bay nowadays won’t bid on an item where you don’t accept Paypal. Start at a low bid, especially if you know you’ve got a high demand item. Reserve bids scare off bidders. Have bids end at a reasonable time, like Sunday evening, not 4 am on Tuesday morning. Search ahead of time to see when other identical items are ending. Avoid conflict by not having your item end exactly when another one does. Similarly, space out your auctions by at least 5 minutes each, so that if, for example, someone successfully bids on a crankset, they have a chance to outbid others on the bb auction that ends shortly afterwards. If you’re out of the US, allow shipping to the US. I’d guess about 90% of e-bay transactions occur in the US.

Experienced e-bayer,

Chris

14

Really?? I was always under the impression that nobody wanted to buy a bike in parts. Does that leave you with a bunch of parts you can’t sell?

This is somewhat timely as I was going to list a ’05 Giant TCR composite size med with a ’05 Record group (complete, saddle, post, wheels, etc.), but maybe I should part it out? Just curious, if you had this bike http://tinyurl.com/7wytj but built with Full 05 Record (not carbon cranks), would you part it out or sell it whole?

Thanks,

Adam

15

quote "And what I don’t get is why someone would pay 1100 bucks for a 2 year old Dual, when they could just save up 400 more dollars for a brand new one. Just boggles my mind. Somebody will pay 1200 for it on ebay. "

I agree that the used market for bikes on ebay is quite strong. The bikes that I am surprised by are the QR kilos, which are routinely bid up above $600. Yet preownedbikes has had brand new 2003 kilos on ebay forever for only $795. With this years kilos priced at something like $1300, this would seem to be a reasonable deal, yet there are no takers. I don’t understand this one.

16

Just curious, if you had this bike http://tinyurl.com/7wytj but built with Full 05 Record (not carbon cranks), would you part it out or sell it whole?
It wouldn’t hurt to see what you could get for the whole sha-bang but if you can get a decent price for the frame and have the patience, part it out. Just my 2 cents: if I was spending 3-4K on a bike I’d go new unless the used one was a ridiculous deal and just what I wanted.

17

The size of the frame/bike you are selling matters a lot. 51cm=you are screwed if selling on eBay. At least compared to someone selling a 55cm bike.