The big sales slowdown

[amoto65]

I tend to do a lot of swapping or p/x with bikes now as it seems people ( myself included) are a bit short financially.

 

[stevet1]

Remember the classified ads in the back of mbuk? Scouring the ads and sending a cheque off into the ether without even a photo and waiting for that miraculous delivery of a part in good working order a week or two later.

 

[Once A Hero]

The reliance on cash is more noticeable at (UK) bike jumbles - where the majority of private sellers may not even have a smart phone let alone an app to make payment through...wonder if they'd accept a cheque

 

[brocklanders023]

Think there's two different discussions here really.

1st one is that pretty much the whole bike industry is struggling and the biggest driver of that is that most people are skint and have cut back on luxuries and hobbies IMO. Retro sales are slow but so are modern. Good luck trying to sell your two year old bike for any more than 30% of RRP, especially as the current version is probably available for 40% off!

2nd is retrobike in general. Ultimately, as LGF said the golden days are long past and I doubt they'll come back but the site ebbs and flows. It probably won't be long before another few really keen people find us and everything picks back up a bit, just as it has before.

Must admit I don't spend much time on my old bikes anymore, don't have any real desire to add to my small collection and don't expect that to change much. I seem to have weened myself off ebay which it turn means I miss the bargains I used to buy when I said I wasn't buying anymore! I'm pretty happy with my modern fleet and have other places to spend spare cash so I don't really need to search sales pages. It's not just here though, plenty of FB pages that used to be busy have become much more quiet.

 

[vtwinvince]

I've pretty much given up on selling to Europe, as they've gone nutso on import duties.

 

[W7Ford]

I still check the sales section here every day, the number of items listed in the post 98 bit seems to have slowed, so there has been less that I'm interested in. I suppose as my builds get closer to how I want them, I'm looking for less parts too. I'm wary of facebook unless I can collect in person, prefer to check the users feedback on here and make sure they have a decent length of post history.

 

[dirttorpedo]

I've noticed that locally the bottom has fallen out of used parts and frame prices over the last couple of years. Same with vintage bikes.

I've also found myself veering more towards the 8 speed hyperglide side of things in my personal acquisitions.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Remember the classified ads in the back of mbuk? Scouring the ads and sending a cheque off into the ether without even a photo and waiting for that miraculous delivery of a part in good working order a week or two later.

I sold a 90’ Fire Mountain frame in MBUK in about 93’ - my parents got so fed up with answering the phone for that! I think they counted 60 calls!

 

[Splatter Paint]

There are so many scammers on Gumtree, you can see their message tactics trying to get personal information from you. Gits.

 

[enigma]

People were asking too much for what some stuff was. Lots of us have also been around here for years and have built what they wanted to or indeed have space for. When I started here prices were reasonable, then more people started to realise what their old stuff was worth on here and prices went up. Loads bought at those prices but are now trying to sell for the same in a very different market. It’s not unlike the housing market.

Postage prices have gone way up. Stuff that used to cost £2 to send, now costs £4. I think that really affected small part sales.

Postage is an issue for sure, but cycling is seeing social divide widen just like everything else, most people I see riding are on ebikes or silly money bikes, even the more expensive retro bikes cost relatively little compared to new stuff .. however as people have said we most of us have several, building more etc is a luxury.. for me I keep looking here, joining in with chats etc.
If I was really skint I would avoid coming on, as I wouldn't be able to resist considering parts for sale!!

I personally dont. I tried facebook, but im not in this for money and tbh the waste of time on that platform just became a pita.

For every thing I sold I probably got 1 scammer and 20 "is this still available" (read "im only pressing this button because I'm a time waster with nothing better to do than be a pain") requests.

I gave up ebay when they decided to become an unlicensed bank and tbh, the stuff i sell is often low value, so its not worth it imho.

So...I am only selling on here....and....I see it as helping out a community of interested people first.

What's worrying about the obvious slowdown is that its a insidious creature, because the more I dont sell the more I won't be bothered to list....the more that doesn't get listed, the less people will look. That's no good for the forum in general. The sales page may well be the life blood of the site? Im not sure, but the lack of sales does seem to be going hand in hand with a perceived general slowdown in traffic.

I think the more we chat about the healthy side i.e planning rides , builds of real world bikes as I have been splitting my builds with , more affordable aspects of the hobby the better, and using them not all this wallhanger nonsense the better.