This semester went well. After our month-long break, we were able to sell about $10,000 in bikes in the last half of the semester, from Halloween to December 12th. During the first month of school, we did about $1,300 across 20 bike sales and 4 sets of golf clubs. We scaled from 20 bikes in a month to over 20 bikes per week while doubling our average sale price. I attribute this to moving into a storage unit, where we could organize our bikes, provide a clean space for people to come look at the bikes, and most importantly, provide us with a space where we could safely and realistically store 50 higher-end bikes. We were also presented with many more bikes to buy; we didn’t pass up any good deals. When we agreed to buy a bike, we always made sure to pick up 2 or 3 more along the way to maximize our longer drives. Our turnover was also great, holding on to bikes for an average of about two weeks. This should improve as we continue to get a better idea of the market and what people in our area demand.
Buying more expensive bikes has increased revenue and profit. They are also easier to buy and easier to sell. Buying good brands like Trek, Giant, Cannondale, and Specialized is reputable and well-known as good bikes. On Facebook, there are generally more nice bikes that are more expensive than okay bikes for really cheap. It’s easier to buy a bike for $200 and sell it for $300 than to find a good deal on a bike we can sell for $100. When buying more expensive bikes, there is a larger range that people are willing to spend on a bike. When negotiating with cheap bikes, $10 over a $50 bike is a large percentage of the bike, but $10 when dealing with a $200 bike isn’t much. People aren’t willing to spend $70 on a bike they think might be worth $50, but they might be willing to spend $200 for a bike that might really be worth $175; if it’s a quality bike, that $25 won’t really matter to the consumer, but $10 on a cheap $50 bike will. When we buy bikes, our capital isn’t really at risk; when you buy patiently, you should never lose money on a bike. So tying up more money to make more money is a no-brainer since the money is safe and will on average sell in a few weeks. A nice bike will sell itself.
Here’s a list of my best buys in the past two weeks:
Bought a batch of Giant gravel bikes for $400; sold the Giant for $330 and the batch soon after for $250.
Bought a Cannondale and a Giant Liv for $300; sold the Liv for $225 and hope to sell the Cannondale for $300.
Bought a vintage Cannondale racer for $100; sold it for $300.
Bought a Raleigh for $200; sold it for $325.
Bought a Trek mountain bike for $160; sold it for $265.
Bought two 29-inch cruisers for $80; sold one for $130.
