Selling a decent mountain bike - Having no luck on Gumtree, or Freeads...Shall I try reluctant ebay?

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2004
Posts
22,589
Location
S.Wales
Hi all,

I am trying to sell a decent mountain bike, which is a mens 19" Full Suspension mountain bike (Diamond Sortie 1)

RRP Prices on these were around £1150-£1200, mine is 1.5 years old bought from new and has hardly been used, in excellent condition.

My main concerns is I dont want to loose too much money on this, however I do wish to sell it

I have had no luck so far on Gumtree despite dropping the price quite a bit so far, also free ads I have done the same with no replies yet.

There is the option of local facebook buy and sell groups, however I do not wish to take this option.

Ebay is my next option (although slightly reluctant) if there were better ways to sell I would do it, but there were a few questions I wanted to tackle when selling on ebay, hopefully someone here could give me some guidance.



1) Obviously if I sell on eBay, I cant ship the thing, so it will be local collection only, or I dont mind dropping off where or near where i live (I just stated South East Wales). But would have to add a small fuel cost if drop off - Does this sound reasonable?

2) With selling stuff like this, is it best to do a classified ebay add, or just stick to bidding only?

3) Say if I was hoping to get between £700-£800 for the bike, what would be best to start the bidding off at do you think? usually my listings start at 0.99p but I dont want it to take too long to get to the value I wish to sell at

4) 7 or 10 day listing do you think for this type of item?

5) Payments, Ideally I would like to try and cut paypal out of the equation due to fee's, but is this a good idea? or would cash on collection/delivery be better?

6) Do I put in a deposit notice? IE say buyer needs to pay a small deposit on winning, then the rest on collection/delivery?


Iv never really sold anything on ebay that is restricted to collection or delivery only, its always been items I can ship.


Many thanks for your help in advance.
 
I just sold my mountain bike on eBay and I made it collection only. The buyer paid with cash and agreed to me cancelling the sale on eBay so I didn't have to pay the fees.

I did a 7 day auction and started the listing at 99p with no reserve. If it looks like it's going too cheap just get a friend to bid it up for you.
 
Sorry to hear you're not having much luck. If it's any consolation, bikes tend to make quite good money on eBay, certainly more than they sell for on the forums.

DJMK4 said:
1) Obviously if I sell on eBay, I cant ship the thing, so it will be local collection only, or I dont mind dropping off where or near where i live (I just stated South East Wales). But would have to add a small fuel cost if drop off - Does this sound reasonable?
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You'll be limiting your sale potential on eBay if you don't offer to ship it. I'd think about adding it as an option.

You can ship it, but you might have to partially dismantle it i.e. take the wheels off and loosen the handlebars so it packs flat. Stick it in an enormous box and quite a few of the normal delivery companies will pick it up from your house or work on a 48 hour delivery and it's not that cheap. DON'T use Parcel Force because they are way too expensive. I'd have a look how much it will be on http://www.parcel2go.com/ and add a box to that if you don't have one. I think it'll help sell the bike.

DJMK4 said:
2) With selling stuff like this, is it best to do a classified ebay add, or just stick to bidding only?
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It's always that risk! With items that I want to guarantee a price for, I normally do it as a BIN.

DJMK4 said:
3) Say if I was hoping to get between £700-£800 for the bike, what would be best to start the bidding off at do you think? usually my listings start at 0.99p but I dont want it to take too long to get to the value I wish to sell at
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See above :D

DJMK4 said:
4) 7 or 10 day listing do you think for this type of item?
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You can put it on for something like 29 days if it's a BIN or classified. Otherwise, as an auction I'd do it as a 5 or 7 day with a higher start price and sweat it out.

DJMK4 said:
5) Payments, Ideally I would like to try and cut paypal out of the equation due to fee's, but is this a good idea? or would cash on collection/delivery be better?
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Yes, Paypal fees will rack up on that. If you can get local collection then definitely take cash on delivery. Otherwise be prepared to take the hit on the fees.

DJMK4 said:
6) Do I put in a deposit notice? IE say buyer needs to pay a small deposit on winning, then the rest on collection/delivery?
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Can be a good idea. If you don't get the deposit and you put it in as an auction, you can always do a second chance offer to the next highest bidder. With a bit of luck it'll be a last minute bid war and you don't normally lose too much by doing a second chance offer. Certainly cheaper than relisting it.
 
Thanks for the info I have thought about making it into a shipping listing however wasn't sure about the costing, and packaging, finding a suitable box big enough etc, but will concider it.if I decide against I just hope im not restricting myself too much with local only.

7 or 10 day listing sounds good.

I may try local, if it doesnt get up to what I want I can always end it early and relist with shipping I guess
 
The main question here is what is your asking price? Bikes lose an awful lot of money, very quickly. The standard for any second hand bike or component is to half what you paid for it, then knock off more for each year after that.
 
EBay with a buy it now best offer price and cash on collection. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere you still have a massive market in a drivable radius.

Comes down to price ultimately. Expect no more than 50% of retail regardless of condition as a general rule. Priced right it will sell. Some bikes and brands hold value well others drop like a stone so check completed listings.
 
Even if I done the above I would still be hit with a final value fee :/

I have done a 10 day listing, with an auction style advert, the ad has basically said delivery, but in description I have said I can do local collection or local meet with cash on meeting.

Hopefully someone will respond, I really cant be bothered with a potential large ebay fee, paypal fee etc.

However if thats a no go I will just have to suck up the fee, and have found a respectable courier which the bike shops use, who specialized in bike shipment, costing £22 I think.

Hopefully someone local will see it and contact me early.
 
DJMK4 said:
Even if I done the above I would still be hit with a final value fee :/

I have done a 10 day listing, with an auction style advert, the ad has basically said delivery, but in description I have said I can do local collection or local meet with cash on meeting.

Hopefully someone will respond, I really cant be bothered with a potential large ebay fee, paypal fee etc.

However if thats a no go I will just have to suck up the fee, and have found a respectable courier which the bike shops use, who specialized in bike shipment, costing £22 I think.

Hopefully someone local will see it and contact me early.
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You pay those fees because ebay gets you looooooads of eyeballs looking at your ad. Sure, you can advertise it free in Loot or wherever, but you get what you pay for.

I've kinda made my peace with ebay fees, because most stuff I sell through there has gone for a decent enough price that I don't feel bad about it.
 
Sell it on Pinkbike put it up for your asking price and be prepared to haggle. You are in a funny price range for bikes which could be putting people off, for the same amount of money they can get a top spec hard tail. Or for an extra £200 you can have your pick of 1 year old full sus bikes on pinkbike.

From what I have seen buying a 2nd hand bike this time last year, they generally loose about 50% of their value in the first year so you might need to accept a little less money. You can recoupe more of your money by splitting the bike for parts as they seem to hold their value better and it opens you to a larger market of people, but you will need to be patient as some bits will go quickly but wheels and drivetrain might take a while.
 
Amazing how many people spend hundreds even thousands on stuff they use for a month within the fitness industry and then try and sell it on a year later for what they paid.

I managed to pick up £500 worth of dumbbells for £200 once because of such a person.

So much stigma attached to second hand that a lot of people never consider it when it's usually the best option.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Amazing how many people spend hundreds even thousands on stuff they use for a month within the fitness industry and then try and sell it on a year later for what they paid.

I managed to pick up £500 worth of dumbbells for £200 once because of such a person.

So much stigma attached to second hand that a lot of people never consider it when it's usually the best option.
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SShhhh! don't spoil the ocean of barely used gear for the those of us in the know.:D
 
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