Why is it new riders have such a strange habit of seriously over valuing their bikes when they go to sell?
Rewind a minute with me.
I was riding home last year on a group trip to Sunrise here in AZ. One of the newer riders in the back of the bus had been bitten by upgrade fever during the day. He decided that he wanted to run out when he got home, sell his bike (some POS from Performance Bike, maybe $700 new) and all the upgrades including "a six month old XT der that I've barely used" for $1000 all in. When those of us who this was not our first bike rodeo chimed in that he was high on crack and ride stoke, and that at best his bike, with "upgrades" (because c'mon kid, Welgo pedals are not upgrades) was maybe $500, he got all butt hurt and went on an hour long diatribe about how it was worth more.
Fast forward to this morning.
Decided to sell my Intense SS. Want to get into a new SB66, its sitting at the shop waiting for me, just have to send the cash-e-money. Went over to look on Pinkbike as I've had really good luck selling bikes there in the past (realistic values tend to get things moving) and I run into four or five SS's at damn near retail value.
When I looked at the ads, and more importantly the people who were selling them, it hit me immediately that these people were new to the sport, this was their first "big kid bike" and that they were letting emotion and a mean case of the raw stupids get in the way of a real appraisal of what their bike's value was.
Is this just because they're new? Do they not understand that in being this dumb they drive sales towards people like me who can get rid of bikes for what they're worth, not what I *think* they're worth.
Sorry, taken to ranting in my old age.
/rant.
Rewind a minute with me.
I was riding home last year on a group trip to Sunrise here in AZ. One of the newer riders in the back of the bus had been bitten by upgrade fever during the day. He decided that he wanted to run out when he got home, sell his bike (some POS from Performance Bike, maybe $700 new) and all the upgrades including "a six month old XT der that I've barely used" for $1000 all in. When those of us who this was not our first bike rodeo chimed in that he was high on crack and ride stoke, and that at best his bike, with "upgrades" (because c'mon kid, Welgo pedals are not upgrades) was maybe $500, he got all butt hurt and went on an hour long diatribe about how it was worth more.
Fast forward to this morning.
Decided to sell my Intense SS. Want to get into a new SB66, its sitting at the shop waiting for me, just have to send the cash-e-money. Went over to look on Pinkbike as I've had really good luck selling bikes there in the past (realistic values tend to get things moving) and I run into four or five SS's at damn near retail value.
When I looked at the ads, and more importantly the people who were selling them, it hit me immediately that these people were new to the sport, this was their first "big kid bike" and that they were letting emotion and a mean case of the raw stupids get in the way of a real appraisal of what their bike's value was.
Is this just because they're new? Do they not understand that in being this dumb they drive sales towards people like me who can get rid of bikes for what they're worth, not what I *think* they're worth.
Sorry, taken to ranting in my old age.
/rant.
