A chance to purchase a job lot of bikes

[albal]

Not sure if this the right place: I have a friend who is currently cleared out his garage ( sold the land it sits on) of which were around 50 bicycles! He has offered me a chance to buy them. They are all stacked up onto a trailer, so I couldn't get to view them properly . Mostly 80's and 90's.
At around a tenner per bike is a little ambitious even if he is a friend. His answer was if you don't want them they'll all be binned.

I don't have the space to store that many bikes. Tho I would hate for them to go to scrap.
Just wondered what fellow cc'rs thoughts on my quandary.

 

[Specialeyes]

Depends what you would want to achieve from a trailer load of bikes. My experience of job lots of bikes is that they're generally BSOs - with the better ones already having been picked-off.

Could he not drop them off at a local bike recycling charity?

 

[Globalti]

That's definitely the best idea. They will be refurbished and sold cheap or given to people like refugees who need them.

 

[Illaveago]

That is a lot of bikes.
Seeing the alternative to buying them at £10 per bike would probably be a cost to him I would have thought a lower price would be acceptable . Where you could store 50 bikes is another matter!

 

[Illaveago]

Spray them up in bright colours and leave them around Dorset! People will think a cycle race is taking place .

 

[screenman]

That is a lot of bikes.
Seeing the alternative to buying them at £10 per bike would probably be a cost to him I would have thought a lower price would be acceptable . Where you could store 50 bikes is another matter!

I could store 50 bikes, I am not going to though, just seems like a lot of hard work for not a lot of reward, lot rather they went to a charity. It would not cost to get rid of them as they have a scrap value.

 

[si_c]

Given the current shortage on bikes with a little work you could probably shift the whole lot for a tidy profit.

 

[freiston]

Have I understood right that he would rather throw them away (so that no-one has them) than give them to a friend unless that friend forks up no less than about £500?

 

[Paulus]

Gumtree might be the place to shift them.
According to various posts on the forum there are people queuing up to buy used bikes.

 

[biggs682]

Only worth it if you have storage and time

 

[albal]

Have I understood right that he would rather throw them away (so that no-one has them) than give them to a friend unless that friend forks up no less than about £500?

You got it. It riles me. He can't be bothered to advertise them or donate. Like others say I,d rather they got to use especially in these times.

I,ve not stopped working, so I,ve little time on my hands. + I,m self employed.

To add , when he gets round to it, there is probably in excess of a dozen in his bungalow!
As he is furloughed it will get done soon.

 

[vickster]

Just tell him to donate them, lazy bastid

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

So long as they aren't all BSO's, I'd bung him a monkey like he wants, cherry pick the nice ones out of the pile and put them aside, and eBay the rest in smaller job lots of no more than half a dozen bikes a throw, which will be easier to shift that a single huge lot. You should be able to at least break even on the stuff you resell, and you might get half a dozen really decent quality bikes free gratis.

 

[broady]

Is there not 5 - 10 people on here near you that fix up bikes?
You could then have 5 - 10 each and then they would be back on the road quite quickly.
If you just added the price of parts needed to repair them on top of the £10 and then double it for a sale price (more if you wanted more cash from them).
If I was close, I'd have been happy to go in

50 bikes would take a while to complete, even if you were in a bike shop

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

It depends on the mix of bikes, your mechanical inclinations, and how much more time and money you are willing to put in. Personally, I haven't got the time or inclination to fix up a whole fleet of ratters for resale, or strip half of them for parts to fix up the remaining half - which is another ploy if you have a lot of time.
I would liken it to the approach that house clearance types use, or vinyl record collectors, or anyone else who has an interest in certain objects use. If you get offered a big pile of something, most of it will be tat - you know that and the person selling it to you knows that. so you take on the stuff you really have little interest in, so you can pick through the whole lot and separate out the small portion of gems that you do like. Then, to get your outlay back so you are not out of pocket, you shift the unwanted mass on, hopefully for no less than you paid for it. In cash terms you might end up with bugger all net profit, but anything you sift out and keep yourself for later will have a value, but will not have actually cost you a dime - if you do it the right way.