[Closed] Where are all the 2nd hand bike shops?

Theres one down the road from me who specialise in BSOs.

Few using eBay and pinkbike...

It's a massive ball ache? Do you really want to offer any kind of warranty on used kit?

Probably cost and quality?

The 2nd hand value of a bike is about 50% of whatever it would be new. So for most mountain bikes outside STW that's probably £500-£750.

So the sellers expect that, or they could put in on ebay for 7 days and get it.

The buyers expect that or they could buy one off ebay for that.

And as it's a shop they also expect the shocks serviced (£200) and, new drivetrain bits and pads (£100), and a good service (£100 parts and labor).

So now your £1000 RRP Trek is £500, plus £400 in stuff, and Pauls Cycles are knocking them out the door for £650.

Some LBS sell 2nd hand stuff, but it's mostly higher end stuff (£2k second hand Yeti's and similar) taken in PX so the profit was made on the new bike and there's only really the cost of a service. More common in Road Bikes too as kit has an easier life and wear and tear is more evident.

This is the second hand bike shop!

There's not enough money in it

those ive seen that seem to keep afloat are those that buy whole bikes cheap and split them.

there are others who do it covertly on here/pinkbike/etc with a few logins.

Part of the reason you don't see second hand bike shops is that you can easily buy a new bike for under £100.
There also seems to be a big growth in cycle workshop centres in the UK, you can go along and buy a bike or you can fix bikes or help out until you have earned a bike or just help out for free/to learn new skills. They usually do bike maintenance workshops and the like as well.
They tend to be in out of the way places so you have to hunt them out.

Shops need to make a profit/cover overheads, hence there's a markup on the items they sell, you'd never acquire all the stock for this imaginary shop at enough of a discount to make it work, people shopping for used bikes tend to be looking for minimal cost/bargains, warranty/buyer protection comes after pricing in their list of priorities...

The two things just run against each other really, entering a cost-based market with a relatively high-cost business model just ain't going to work, plus the interwebz is awash with people flogging their old bikes and kit, a shop could never compete in that market.

Bikes just ain't the same as cars...

[quote=trail_rat ]
there are others who do it covertly on here/pinkbike/etc with a few logins.

whut?

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As a bike shop owner, the main obstacle to used bike sales is finding people with good quality, well cared for bikes that they don't want any more and are willing to let go of for half what they would fetch on the internet.

Oh, and with proof of ownership too.

Occasionally I get lucky, but not often enough for used sales to be anything more than a bonus every now and then.

I've got a regular customer who buys job lots from the police unclaimed stocks. He'll maybe get one quality bike for every 50 well battered BSOs.

Take your pick of sketchy overpriced used to be good quality kit from a variety of usernames on here/pinkbike/retrobike forum and ebay.

They are so obvious and what they're making profit wise at times too.

The chap who sells retro'ish bikes on ebay for a complete rip must have a relatively good source of cheap pickings.

I do second hand things sometimes. Sometimes they're trade-ins when people are upgrading, with them the deal is that I bung it on eBay and whatever it fetches goes towards the cost of the new bike. Sometimes they're just people selling more unusual things - folders and recumbents mostly. For them, I try to sell in various ways, and charge a commission.

But the kinds of bikes I normally do don't depreciate at anywhere near the same rate as MTBs. I recently sold a 3-year-old recumbent for around 75% of new price, a 3-year-old MTB you're lucky to get 33% of new price.