Profiteering

[My_Teenage_Self]

That's a fallacy. Shipping is a service and is mutually exclusive of an item's worth. Eg: If something like say an Explosif frame get's bought and sold a couple of times, and everyone counts shipping towards their "total", pretty soon that used frame is worth a couple of grand. Apparently the person I dealt with doesn't see it that way. Item was $65 shipped. Postage was $20. Net was $45 in pocket. It's being sold for £55. I'm guessing domestic shipping would be about £5, so a net of £50, or $78, almost double. Even if you (erroneously) factor in the shipping as part of the price, he's looking for near another tenner from another member on top of that (hence the profiteering label). I find that aggravating enough to stop selling parts on here and just bite the bullet, pay the fees, and let the stuff ride on ebay.

I mainly agree with you.

But, shipping here is criminally expensive, and is likely to be costing him £15-20. so he might see £40 of that. Plus if it's up for £55 he'll probably get haggled down to £50-45.

I don't know who/what frame you're talking about, and profiteering bugs me too, but I doubt he'll see as much as you think. Just saying.

 

[Yorkshiremike]

Happy new rear to all,


I joined Retrobike this year after a ten year stint away from mountin biking. Marriage, kids, career and before you know it you haven't spun your legs off road of a long long time. And I have to say that buying parts off here has been mostly a positive experience and I've had some great correspondence with with most of the people on here, really helpful advice and with good banter.

Anyway. There was a specific plan, which was to buy the bike that I rode rode for most of the late 90s right though to 2005ish and the bike that I lusted after but knew was an impractical.

I wasn't bothered whether they turned out to be complete builds by myself or I bought them as bikes restored by someone else and in the end I got both. One was a pace RC200 team issue which was basically NOS and had been owned by a guy in London, who never took it off road and only rode it a couple of times a year down canal paths. I maybe paid a little over the odds for that one (£900.00) but seeing is believing.

Having sent a couple of pictures over to Adrian at Pace, he asked me if I'd be willing to let him take a look at it next time I was up at Dalby, due to the astonishing condition of the bike. It's a late 1999 team issue so not a rare early serial number or anything, just basically new.

The second purchase was where the fun started to to speak. That was a Pace RC500F2 and was in great shape cosmetically but un ridable. It had been stacked ten years ago and front wheel was knackered, having been stood for so long the brakes didn't work and neither did the gears. On the plus side it had been dry stored in an outbuilding that was dry and it had been kept out of direct sunlight so the frame was still a lovely deep anodised red.

Cost was £670.00 off eBay which I thought was a reasonable price. There was only three bids on it but I put that down to the fact that it ended at midnight on a Sunday night.

After a full strip down the horrors started to appear. It'd had such a heavy frontal impact that both fork stanchions where bent and had to be replaced and the bolt that held the main suspension linkage to the rear swingarm had snapped.

All easily rectified which left me with the task of finding the period correct parts needed to build it back it up into a team issue.

Most of those parts where located on here in the For sale 1998> section and everyone was really helpful.

I'd generally strike up a conversation with the sellers and we'd sort out postage costs and agree a price etc and then I would ask them if they had any of the parts that I was still looking for or knew anyone that did. The response always that theyd have a look or that they know of someone else on retrobike and would get back to me.

And they always did get back to me to let me know either way.

It's been a great experience with like minded people and there has even been talk of a few rides with a coule of guys over in West Yorkshire so I'd like to think that I've made new friends also.

So to the negative......

There's been two parts that have eluded me but luckily that's now down to one.

I needed a 50mm Pace downhill stem and potentially a set of Ringle downhill wheels to finish off the build and I couldn't find them anywhere. In the end I decided to post a couple of topics in the 1998> Wanted section.

That was a big mistake.

It would appear that the Wanted section of the forum is where Retrobike's vultures circle. Within a day of posting the topics I'd had half a dozen private messages from members who said that they had the various parts that I was looking for.

It was all a bit flakey and nobody would talk money. What a got was a few tantalising pictures at sporadic intervals or no response at all.

Why reply saying that you have something that might be for sale and then never ever reply? Seems odd to me.

And then the prices started being put forward but it wasn't a simple - this is what I want for it price.

What I got was a "Well it's not mine and I'm only looking after it for a mate and he wants this much for it and there's nothing I can do about it and if you need it to finish off your build then you need it and that's that so that's the price"

In the end I told told most of them where to ram the parts that I was looking for and in the end the right parts do eventually turn up at the right price.

And as previously stated in this topic, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

There seems to be a few shifty characters scanning the wanted sections who want to make a profit but my experience is that everyone else is happy to trade at cost to cover the price of whatever part they may need and are looking for.

My build will be finished for the end of January any then I'll be posting up all the spare parts that I have for sale (first refusal going to people who have sold me parts to help me compete my build). I have all sorts in he garage dating back to the early 90s and also NOS parts bought for my build that I've decided not to use. in the end and I'd rather see it go to people on here for a couple of quid to people who want it to finish off a build.

I wonder if Once I've sold my parts they'll turn up for sale a few weeks later at inflated prices...

I hope not but I think that we all know the answer to that question.

P.S. If anyone has or knows where I there might be some Ringle DH rims or wheels for sale. Don't contact me!

They look the part but in reality the are total crap so I'm sticking with my D321's

Mike.

 

[joss]

Re:

I have bought a couple of bikes and a few parts from our members.
In the main I have paid top dollar but the purchases have been top dollar.
One member starts his conversation with why? It stands him in so much, sometimes there is good story. Other times the price has been on the money. I have had a couple of bargains.

C'est la vie!

So what! He might make a profit, he might not.

The point is, I trust him, I like him, and I enjoy doing business with him. I now have some of the most collectable bikes around in terrific condition, all were as described.

One example, I bought a bike, that he bought and it was the wrong size, he paid way over the odds on dly from the USA. It stood him in a lot of money. Now the point, I paid him his cost, I rode the bike the pain went away. It was everything he said it was. I now sleep with it.

Offer and Acceptance is the essence of any transaction.
Profit is OK, so long as the transaction was truthful.
What happens next is up to the new owner.

 

[dyna-ti]

Then you have the ones who buy say a frame on here for £100 posted. A few weeks later its back up for sale with "frames too small so I'm letting it go for what I paid. £120 which covers my postage costs and the petrol for the trip to the post office." Do these people have no shame?

Well hang on a sec :? its cost him 100 quid but by the time its landed on your doorstep its cost him a total of say £120.
So he is 120 quid down is he not ?.
But you would have him sell it to you for 100 thus he loses £20 to keep a smile on your face :?

If you think it too much then dont buy. Or perhaps look for something inside your budget and if nothing appears stick to your morals and do without.

 

[Fudd]

Then you have the ones who buy say a frame on here for £100 posted. A few weeks later its back up for sale with "frames too small so I'm letting it go for what I paid. £120 which covers my postage costs and the petrol for the trip to the post office." Do these people have no shame?

Well hang on a sec :? its cost him 100 quid but by the time its landed on your doorstep its cost him a total of say £120.
So he is 120 quid down is he not ?.
But you would have him sell it to you for 100 thus he loses £20 to keep a smile on your face :?

Exactly. The chap who originally sold the frame for £100, assuming it was posted, only saw £80-85 after the deal was done. If we keep adding on the £15 or so for postage every time it changes hands then does that increase the value of the frame?

 

[Fudd]

What a cynical bunch.

Guilty as charged .

But then this thread pops up - http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... p;t=296203

:facepalm:

 

[shedobits]

Re:

To clear up on a point made earlier: You won't pay input duties if you buy anywhere within the EEC.

 

[velomaniac]

Re:

We live in a market economy, buy low and sell high, that's how it works. Profits are only made if a buyer can be found who will pay, its not an automatic certainty. Cant see the issue that has taken 4 pages of debate.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

My personal take is there's no problem picking up the odd bargain bike on ebay then splitting it for profit on here or anywhere else as long as the price you sell the parts for are at or below market value. I'm sure most of us have done it. I've quite often found that I could buy a bike, take off a couple of parts I want then sell the rest and come out even.

I do have a problem with the sellers that go in to business using the above method and then resell the parts at well above market value. These chaps took all the fun out of the retro market for me.

I also have a problem with what FMJ mentions in the original post. I've sold stuff on here then seen it listed back up in no time at a huge profit. I always try to sell at market value and if I've had a good score on ebay I'll sell at well below but to my mind this place is not for profiteering, it's for people with the same interest passing around old bike bits to keep the interest alive. If you want to see retrobiking as a way of making money stick to ebay/Gumtree etc.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re: Re:

We live in a market economy, buy low and sell high, that's how it works. Profits are only made if a buyer can be found who will pay, its not an automatic certainty. Cant see the issue that has taken 4 pages of debate.

I guess the point is that this isn't the place to make money, it's a place for people that share an interest and a place where people do each other favors. If you take the community aspect out of a site like this and replace it with the colder aspects of the real world then the site will lose a huge amount of appeal. I don't know, maybe that's why certain members seem to have withdrawn to their own sections and others aren't as bothered as they used to be?