economics of used bikes

why are people so weird about their ideas of what a used bike should cost / is worth / etc?

i'm trying to sell a specialized tricross pro. these go for what, around $1500?

but it seems like everyone thinks bikes divide into two ranges: consumer and pro, and as a consumer bike they should pay what they would pay for a crappy globe or trek ($400-$500) and if they're looking for a "nice bike" then they're trying to score a $2500 bike for like $1000 or something.

so if you're in that middle range you're kind of fucked?

(i'm trying to get $650 so i switch to an allez double steel before the price goes up from $600 to $725.

ha, yeah i get this feeling a lot down here that 95% of people think any bike worth their time 'should' cost them max $400.

it's amazing how fast bikes depreciate.

after another depressing weekend corresponding with craigslister about the bike i'm ready to take 575 out of fear of the fast-approaching price hike

interestingly in the road bike review forums in the allez double steel thread there's an interesting discussion about how access to internet forums has sort of messed with the market for parts, for example it's really really hard to sell sora or tiagra parts because everyone there's so much snobbery on the board about 105s ... what is acceptable to weekend warriors is getting more and more ridiculous (i am always shocked at the people i see on s-works bikes around here) and i guess that pushes down the rest of the market?

are there other secondhand markets where this sort of thing happens?

this may have been what you were getting at w/parts, but:

there are plenty of "nice" bikes ($1500+) that have the same gruppos as lesser bikes---they just have better frames/forks. so once a nice bike is up for resale, potential buyers are quick to devalue it---the "consumers" are skeptical of why yr fancy bike costs more than a BRAND NEW consumer bike w/same kit (what difference does a ~frame~ make anyway), and more savvy buyers figure they merit a better gruppo and might opt instead to cop a frame/fork and hang stuff on it they already have until they can afford better (because they could strip the parts from their lesser bike, and sell their old frame...maybe not for much, but old parts + new frameset at least ~feels~ like spending less money than selling old complete bike + buying new complete bike)

also there's maybe this weird sliding scale at work?

feel like it's CW among bike ppl i know that "this year's RED/RECORD/DA is next year's FORCE/CHORUS(i actually don't know)/ULTEGRA" and on down the line. however, along with this there is maintained a clear bifurcation between prosumer and "w/e" groups

which maybe keeps prices up for last year's XXXX but then radically devalues anything older? consider if that truism were true: a two-year old DA gruppo would be "functionally equivalent" to a brand-new 105. so where do you get off trying to sell old shit at a luxe price when there's cheap new shit? etc. at some point the question of "how used" something is will trump how fancy it was when you got it (busted campy record from the 80s is still busted), and components just become commodified. brakes are just brakes, who cares who made 'em, and so on.

most bike nerds i know seemed to have settled into a consumer pattern like this:

make a complete bike purchase--->upgrade stuff on it, and hoard whatever you replaced--->part out the tailings of the old bike as needed (quick cash, beer money, trades, favors, gifts)--->acquire a frame, hang old stuff on it, now have second bike OR acquire a fancy frame and hang upgraded parts on it and rebuild old frame with old parts OR w/e

cf computer nerds ("thought i'd build a server out of an old HP"), musicians ("i have all these ~pedals~"), car/truck/motorcycle heads ("BLOWERS"), ~photographers~, generic outdoorsy dorks (i personally own seven 'technical' backpacks and each one is a snowflake that has v specific indications for usage), etc.

basically if you go to a forum and there's a FOR SALE/TRADE/BUY thread and it's not uncommon for someone to post up about "lol well $LIFE_SITUATION and it's time to get rid of some stuff, take a look" and then list like 20+ items, then there is at work the kind of secondhand economy that you're looking for, baja

I think I'm getting an S-Works Tarmac SL next year lol.

gbx consumer pattern pretty damn otm.

veloswap in 3 weeks- where its prosumers vs. $LIFE_SITUATIONs in the world series of bike love

Hmm this doesn't bode well for me trying to sell a bike equipped with 2005-spec Tiagra and 105.

i don't understand anything on this thread

then again my used bike cost 80 pounds o_O

Any hipsters with shallow pockets want a cheap Charge Plug? Down to £299 at Wiggle:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Bike_Sale/31/Charge_Plug_2010/5360039090/