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Anyone else having trouble selling 2nd hand parts, seems like nothing is really selling lately, I advertise on Facebook marketplace and eBay, try not to sell on forums these days as I've never had any luck selling on them
All items are reasonably priced using eBay sold prices as a guide, items range from small parts like saddles, pedals up to complete bikes, in the case of some items they are advertised for less than half the original purchase price with best offer options and have had significant upgrades compared to the original spec
I've noticed this with other sellers, on Marketplace there was a Hope 200mm rotor with little use advertised for £25 for weeks, seller dropped it down to £20, a friend messaged him about it and the seller said it had sold the day before and he took £15 for it
Chatting to a mate who works for a UK bike distro and they are massively discounting their MTB bike range trying to get rid of 2025 stock before the 2026 stock comes into the country (the 2026 stock has been ordered at significantly lower numbers compared to the 2025 stock to stop this issue happening again)
It definitely feels like its a buyers market at the moment, luckily I'm not in any rush to sell any of my parts but my MTB fund bank account is looking pretty low at the moment which means ill hold off on buying anything new for a bit
they are massively discounting their MTB bike range trying to get rid of 2025 stock before the 2026 stock comes into the country (the 2026 stock has been ordered at significantly lower numbers compared to the 2025 stock to stop this issue happening again)
The entire industry is over-valued and over-supplied and is re-setting these days. ^ this is the kind of thing that suggests we're doomed - don't clear out '2025' bikes to make way for fewer '2026' bikes. That makes no sense .. the more discounted stock you force out the lower the accepted value of things is, for longer - because the 2026 bike won't do anything significantly better enough to justify full RRP vs all the other discounted bikes that are available. What they could have done is delayed the 2026 bikes ETA. Reduce the over-supply which is the #1 problem. They don't, often because they're stuck in a 'gotta be first with X' race with other brands, and so the cycle continues (exacerbated by the way most bikes don't retain much value when sold S/H)
For new bikes the fact is you need to take around a third off the RRP as a starter because many people buying them use cycle to work. Thereafter deduct the usual premium that anything new loses as it leaves the showroom.
No wonder second hand values crash.
A bit of topic but I would scrap the cycle to work scheme and just zero rate bikes up to a reasonable cost for commuter bikes.
I think it’s more that the market is rejecting the spiralling increase in prices that have happened over since Covid. I’m sure some of them are driven by genuine increases in costs but I’m not convinced it all is.
I've noticed this with other sellers, on Marketplace there was a Hope 200mm rotor with little use advertised for £25 for weeks, seller dropped it down to £20, a friend messaged him about it and the seller said it had sold the day before and he took £15 for it
£15 for a second hand rotor with undetermined wear or contamination strikes me as a reasonable price. It amazes me how high people value second hand bikes and parts.
I’m sure some of them are driven by genuine increases in costs but I’m not convinced it all is.
If you’re suggesting bike brands and retailers are increasing their margins, you’re simply wrong.
Using the phrase 'fair' is wrong.
The value of something is what people are willing to pay. what you paid for it has no relation to its value, eBay isn't good for price indicators I have found as it seems to be a total guess. Something will go for an additional 50% one day than am almost identical item the day before
Agree, with above. Using ebay sold prices is a rubbish comparison as there's often little consistency. The fact is that it you're smart you can get brand new parts for massive discounts so why would you pay 80-90% of the new cost for something used.
I would argue that it's often amazing how much people are trying to sell 2nd hand parts for. As always, if the price is right then it will sell.
If you’re suggesting bike brands and retailers are increasing their margins, you’re simply wrong.
If you look at the accounts for specialised uk the most recent filing to year end December 2023 shows a drop of £7m in revenue but and improvement in margin of £3m. Yes it’s a smaller loss but group accounting with the parent company is hard to find the real cost of that.
£15 for a second hand rotor with undetermined wear or contamination strikes me as a reasonable price. It amazes me how high people value second hand bikes and parts.
It was a nearly new Hope floating rotor (current design) which currently sells for around £56 new, ad said it was used a couple of times, pictures showed no wear and if my mate had bought it then it would have been checked and trued if needed then cleaned with isoprol alcohol to remove any contamination before use, £15 was a steal for that rotor
The value of something is what people are willing to pay. what you paid for it has no relation to its value, eBay isn't good for price indicators I have found as it seems to be a total guess. Something will go for an additional 50% one day than am almost identical item the day before
I stuck a few bits on eBay on Friday night and two items sold for asking yesterday. Ebike cranks and a nice nukeproof stem. I think realistic pricing is the key!
People want too much money for used parts. I've been watching DH bikes and dual crown forks for a while. It's just the same bikes and parts going week after week, month after month.
Anything reasonable gets snapped up.
I'd rather buy brand new with a 40% discount on a 0% CC.
I’ve sold a load of stuff, mostly on eBay as I can’t be bothered with here, and Pinkbike is full of people with no money to buy anything.
I would say I price stuff on the higher side, and just leave it there until it goes & it generally always sells. The high value bits have been the easiest to shift recently.
I dug a load of cheap bits out of the spares box (SLX / XT cranks, brakes, etc) which I stuck up for sale recently for not a lot of money at all, as I just want to clear them out, they were probably the cheapest on eBay, yet they still hung around for ages.
Yet expensive, new carbon wheels, Trickstuff brakes, ‘26 Fox 36 Factory forks, Reverb V2 AXS, etc all went for loads more than I expected.
Conclusion isn’t much, other than run of the mill stuff is squeezed for most people buying stuff, yet those with money are happy to spend still.
If you’re suggesting bike brands and retailers are increasing their margins, you’re simply wrong.
If you look at the accounts for specialised uk the most recent filing to year end December 2023 shows a drop of £7m in revenue but and improvement in margin of £3m. Yes it’s a smaller loss but group accounting with the parent company is hard to find the real cost of that.
Hard to know without figures, but this could also be down to a decline in mid to low end sales while top end (and higher margin) sales are more resilient because the people with the money to afford the latter are still spending.
The figures don’t necessarily show an increased margin for Specialised, more likely a reduction in purchasing reducing the amount of stock held.
More generally, brands and retailers aren’t hitting the wall because they are increasing margins. The price/cost rises aren’t just felt by end customers.
I think Spesh have been hit hard lately, I went past their Chessington HQ a few weeks ago and was surprised to see it has shut down, remember going in there for a tour and Q&A about the e bike range in 2020 , I know they had a fire there in 2021, did they ever open it back up after the fire?
The figures don’t necessarily show an increased margin for Specialised, more likely a reduction in purchasing reducing the amount of stock held
It’s hard to see how spending £6.5m less on administrative expenses, mainly payroll, than the previous year and another £2.5m less on distribution costs doesnt improve margin. Yes they have £1m less stock on the balance sheet than prior year but it’s on the balance sheet so doesn’t impact the p&l, just cash flow and the balance sheet. It will be interesting to see their 2024 accounts which are due in January
People want too much money for the stuff they want to sell.
I’ve experienced some weird things recently where people buy secondhand items as if they’re buying from a shop. Sold two items on eBay, both returned because they either messed up by not reading descriptions or got cold feet. Sadly eBay supports the buyer and I’ve had to refund nearly 400 within 24hrs of collection or delivery.
I've noticed this with other sellers, on Marketplace there was a Hope 200mm rotor with little use advertised for £25 for weeks, seller dropped it down to £20, a friend messaged him about it and the seller said it had sold the day before and he took £15 for it
£15 for a second hand rotor with undetermined wear or contamination strikes me as a reasonable price. It amazes me how high people value second hand bikes and parts.
couldn’t agree more. And in the fire sales rotors can be picked up for a tenner easily (not hope but shimano or sram to suit your wishes)
I pay £6 for new rotors on eBay and they're great. I think people increasingly see through the marketing BS.
I agree the C2W scheme is defrauding tax payers and needs scrapping, to be replaced by a fairer system that anyone can have access to whether they cycle to work or just pretend to.
Price is simply the result of the balance of supply and demand, sorry for stating the obvious 😂. I overpriced stuff too btw...
Depends what the market is like for what you're selling. Just sold couple of fairly high value component sets - AXS groupset sold surprisingly quickly on here; set of brakes (I think I priced them well) went on eBay within 24 hours. There are a lot of brakes on eBay too. So no, not really having trouble
Yet expensive, new carbon wheels, Trickstuff brakes, ‘26 Fox 36 Factory forks, Reverb V2 AXS, etc all went for loads more than I expected.
This seems weird at first glance, but I guess bike tarts need to keep getting their fix of trick kit and are resorting to used to save a few quid?
My experience selling mid-range kit on eBay is prices have stayed low-ish, but things are selling a bit quicker than they were.
I think bikes tech and geometry has somewhat plateaued and people can keep bikes longer without feeling they have to upgrade all the time. My bike is now 9 years old, still looks pretty fresh and works absolutely fine, even on 11 speed and a 142 non boost fork. I'm an outlier but I think the same thing is happening on a smaller scale everywhere. Especially with stagnation in wages and massive inflation. People are just making do.
Anyone else having trouble selling 2nd hand parts, seems like nothing is really selling lately, I advertise on Facebook marketplace and eBay, try not to sell on forums these days as I've never had any luck selling on them
All items are reasonably priced using eBay sold prices as a guide, items range from small parts like saddles, pedals up to complete bikes, in the case of some items they are advertised for less than half the original purchase price with best offer options and have had significant upgrades compared to the original spec
I've noticed this with other sellers, on Marketplace there was a Hope 200mm rotor with little use advertised for £25 for weeks, seller dropped it down to £20, a friend messaged him about it and the seller said it had sold the day before and he took £15 for it
It definitely feels like its a buyers market at the moment, luckily I'm not in any rush to sell any of my parts but my MTB fund bank account is looking pretty low at the moment which means ill hold off on buying anything new for a bit
Firstly, I'm amazed at what some stuff sells for on eBay - there are clearly people who don't search well enough for new prices before buying second hand on eBay, or who get carried away in an auction. I see stuff sell for 2nd hand for more that you can buy for new sometimes. Also, sometimes a few sell at a high price, then a few more people list but the few people in the country who were prepared to pay the high price have got the goods, and the price for the next customer is much lower.
Secondly, it's the worst possible time to sell bike stuff - the summer riding season is over, peoples riding trips are done, and most people are going to be riding a lot less for the next 6 months. I stupidly stuck a completely unused brake rotor on eBay auction this time last year and got less than a tenner for it, I took the second one off and resisted in spring and got near rrp.
If you're selling now you either £1 auction and accept very little money or put a reasonable fixed price and don't expect to sell it until March when everyone gets their bike out and starts servicing/upgrading ready for summer 26
All items are reasonably priced using eBay sold prices as a guide
Well that's just Averaging prices from the last 12 months or so isn't it? Basically an "AI" backed guesstimate.
Between economic downturns, Cost of Living Crisis and Seasonal adjustments you'll never get the asking price "right".
Stick it on for 99p no reserve and you'll get bids, but it's a gamble as to whether or not you'll get what you expected/wanted.
I'm increasingly in the "want it gone" camp rather than "want what it's Worth".
eBay want more business sellers now, FB marketplace is full of scammers, the various buy/sell pages are variable.
I tend to stick stuff on eBay now at a 'fair' Buy it now price above what I'd be happy with, if there's a few watchers after a couple of days (nobody clicks the BIN button anymore) I'll push out an offer price ~15-20% lower, if that doesn't tempt them I'll knock it down a week or two later, and so on until it's sells or I get bored...
Basically don't be in a rush to sell, and maybe time your listings to go up at or just before payday if you can, the stupidest people tend to make worse purchasing decisions when they're feeling flush...
I tend to stick stuff on eBay now at a 'fair' Buy it now price above what I'd be happy with, if there's a few watchers after a couple of days (nobody clicks the BIN button anymore) I'll push out an offer price ~15-20% lower, if that doesn't tempt them I'll knock it down a week or two later, and so on until it's sells or I get bored...
That's what I do too. I used to include a best offer option from the start, but stopped that now. Either buy it at my BIN price or don't.
Caught me by surprise when something sold that I forgot I'd listed. About 5 months previously. Just as well I'd not already donated it to Recyke-A-Bike...
Yes. I have been trying to sell a 'put on once, never ridden' SRAM XD 11sp Cassette and Chain for £60....no takers.
Nope. Stripped down a couple of bikes this year and parted them out. Stuff sold no problem for a price I was happy with. Mtb and gravel.
Consumables will never get a great price. Who’s going to gamble on a second hand cassette or rotor for a large sum? If you want a cheap chainset , makes more sense to me to buy a new lower end one, with new ring than a cut price top end one of unknown condition for the same price. Same with pedals etc.
i sold a few sets of unused wheels a while ago and they seem to sell without issue. But then they were sub £100 for a Specialized wheelset.
I do have an E-Commuter bike that i am trying to shift. Annoyingly you cant sell ebikes on eBay anymore, so have it on here and FB marketplace. Haven't had a single sniff. Not even a 'swap for a PS3' on FB!
Yes. I have been trying to sell a 'put on once, never ridden' SRAM XD 11sp Cassette and Chain for £60....no takers.
Tenner and a PS2 Controller?
Nobody has got any money to spend on non-essential stuff. Its as simple as that. Disposable income is an abstract concept for a lot of people nowadays. Especially now when people are thinking about the expense of christmas.
If you're after something specific and have a quick glance on Friendface marketplace, people are obivously flogging stuff dirt cheap as they need the money and just want shut of it. As a result of that, anything comparible seems overpriced. You see decent kit on there and think 'you're never going to get that for it' and they never do. It'll be still there weeks later with the price knocked right down. Some at half the price originally advertised for, weeks earlier. I just bought a decent WTB wheelset, brand new, taken off a new bike, for 60 quid. He'd upgraded to something more blingy and didn't want them just sat in the garage, gathering dust.
If you think mountain bikes and parts are cheap, you should see the price motorbikes are going for at the moment. You can pick up some really nice clean bikes, with low mileage for next to nothing. Some people are obviously taking absolutely massive financial hits just to get rid of stuff and get some cash in
I've been clearing some bits out on Marketplace and it's been pretty brutal price-wise. I've been glad to take whatever people have offered just to get rid. I have two sets of DT Swiss road wheels that are gathering dust but they are too nice to job out at the current market prices.
Depends on what you're selling, more nichey or in demand stuff from prestige brands seems to go pretty well, more mainstream stuff where you're competing with hundreds of other sellers and shop jobbing out new OEM/Grey stock out at half price is a real slog unless you're prepared to accept very low ball offers.
Nobody has got any money to spend on non-essential stuff. Its as simple as that.
I am pretty plenty of people have loads of money to spend on non-essentials. I bought a few X01 groupset off Jungle when they closed and sold the parts individually for around 75% of retail, including £200 cassettes, as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
Nobody has got any money to spend on non-essential stuff. Its as simple as that.
Energy and food costs have not only robbed household budgets but are responsible (energy costs) for the majority (not all) of price rises in business. I look at some things and see the ridiculous prices demanded (compared to what I have paid) and think **** that you can keep it forever.
The obvious result will be many bankruptcies across the board.
As for the SH market, ebay has always had some comedically priced SH shite, posted by delusional idiots. More expensive or close to what you can get it for new! Personally I wouldn't buy SH suspension components. Who wants someone's old creaky CSU fork or bodge/repaired serviced stuff. Same with brakes components, cracked frames, carbon components etc. Too risky and not worth the hassle unless dirt cheap!
I am pretty plenty of people have loads of money to spend on non-essentials. I bought a few X01 groupset off Jungle when they closed and sold the parts individually for around 75% of retail, including £200 cassettes, as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
individually - thats wear or damage items people are replacing
a new mech after a big crash or a new cassette after 2 years riding - thats a known risk or predictable expense of owning a fancy XO1 bike.
seems nobody( or very few people) are either building up a new top end bike from parts, or sat at home looking at their old GX equipped bike, consulted their bank balance and thought a full XO1 drivetrain would make them happy and faster.
bikes are so good now. my bike is a 2021 which I bought as a frame and built in 2022. I don't see how a new one offers anything that would be notably better compared to a suspension service and brake bleed.
my first full suss, bought in 2015 was so far improved on any 2011 bike in nearly every way that I don't know where to start the comparison.
If you think mountain bikes and parts are cheap, you should see the price motorbikes are going for at the moment. You can pick up some really nice clean bikes, with low mileage for next to nothing. Some people are obviously taking absolutely massive financial hits just to get rid of stuff and get some cash
Very different to cars, second hand prices are still mental. My folks have just bought a 9yr old car with 70k miles for £13.5k. it's a Volvo, so decent but not super-posh. Not that long ago a 9yr old car with that kind of miles would go for £1k, I've bought similar for a few hundred. No chance nowadays
Could part of the problem be that there are so many different standards now that the potential market is naturally smaller.
For many, many years 26" wheels and 3x9 speed were pretty much what everyone had.
Well shot and clear photos and description can only help. Can't say I've noticed anything different this year when it comes to selling my parts on eBay. BTW, if anyone is after a brand new Black 29" Boost HG Hope Pro 5 rear wheel I bought by mistake for what I paid for it (£240) then hit me up.
Could part of the problem be that there are so many different standards now that the potential market is naturally smaller.
This & people thinking sod upgrading otherwise I'll have to update my bike(s) totally, says someone who can't be bothered to progress beyond 10speed 29ers with 135qr & 100x15 axles.
Could part of the problem be that there are so many different standards now that the potential market is naturally smaller.
This & people thinking sod upgrading otherwise I'll have to update my bike(s) totally, says someone who can't be bothered to progress beyond 10speed 29ers with 135qr & 100x15 axles.
got to have some bearing the main reason i haven’t bought a new frame is that im stuck on 27.5 or having to at least upgrade my for and front wheel at which point may as well buy a new bike which is too expensive so keep the old bike running as I don’t actually NEED a new bike.