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Reselling on bikehub? Is this normal


BMorrison

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Hi Fellow cyclists. 

I have a quick question. Is it normal or allowed to buy a bike from bikehub and resell it for a profit on bikehub?  

I'm not referring to companies advertising and using the platform to sell but said person buys a bike for x amount and then resells the same bike a day later for 5k profit? 

Is this normal or allowed? Or is it just unlucky for you if you lost out to a reseller, scalper? I know with other forums it's frowned upon and the forum is there for you to get decent deals and upgrade without getting FB scammed? 

 

Just a question while I'm shopping to upgrade to a soft tail? 

 

Regards 

 

 

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Yes it is.

Who wins? Everyone, because more attention is drawn to a site like Bikehub for buying second hand bikes and components. *I don't distinguish between a more formal reseller like a business with a logo, vs someone who does it as a side-hustle.*

Who loses? The person who tried picking up a massive bargain.

Edited by M L
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Key point: If you see a good deal on Bikehub, jump on the phone to arrange the closure of the sale. If it means you need to drive to the seller with Cash-in-hand to close the deal, do it.

Items priced correctly will go very quickly.

Make sure you know what you want, know what you want to pay and close the deal when it pops up. You can't be angry at someone who beat you to it if you umm'd and ahhh'd.

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I picked this up, especially when looking for a bike for a mate last year. Every reasonable priced bike disappears in minutes, only to come back on at an inflated price a little while later. If you see a reasonably priced bike, phone the seller immediately and tell them you taking it.

The guy I bought a bike from in the end told me that following my call, he had another half a dozen calls, but he could sense they were traders and not guys who were going to use the bike.

That said, if I lost my job due to rona or whatever, I would also probably buy and trade.

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It's not that uncommon and its allowed, how does one not allow that in a free market economy. Everyone will have their own opinion and variable on the ethics of it. Certainly can understand the *** feeling to be had though if missing out on a deal. 

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Seller gets his price and a quick sale.
Reseller takes on stock risk, likely holds the bike for longer, and has to deal with hagglers trying to get the new price down. Likely still profits.
Final owner gets his bike at what is most likely a more accurate fair market price.
Next three sellers get better info off of the relisting of what fair market price for their bikes currently is.

It's a free market.

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21 minutes ago, Baracuda said:

I picked this up, especially when looking for a bike for a mate last year. Every reasonable priced bike disappears in minutes, only to come back on at an inflated price a little while later. If you see a reasonably priced bike, phone the seller immediately and tell them you taking it.

The guy I bought a bike from in the end told me that following my call, he had another half a dozen calls, but he could sense they were traders and not guys who were going to use the bike.

That said, if I lost my job due to rona or whatever, I would also probably buy and trade.

Thanks, yeah will definitely jump on a deal quicker next time. I didn't realize there were so many people that do it on here. 

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Thanks for all the responses. It's clear now. The next decent deal I found I'll be a lot quicker and more efficient to make sure I get it before it's bought and resold. Thanks and it's not even Friday 😉

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It's close to impossible to score a bargain on a dual suspension mountain bike on here. Be prepared to wait a long time and click refresh a lot. Or just pony up the extra R10k that some idiot who doesn't know the difference between a tallboy 2 and a tallboy 3 is going to ask for a frame that he paid his gardener to wash. Good luck and try to have fun. 

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Demand and supply. I was at a large local bike shop who were telling everyone in ear shot that Cannondale and Scott have no stock in country. The likelihood of people wanting to drop money on a bike that is used starts to increase and if you as a person in the know can flip them then you are in a good place. they could alos get caught holding the stock if they screw it up and buy too high. When the ZAR was stronger against US $ it was possible to buy great second hand deals off ebay and bring them in, ride them for a couple of months and flip them and make a profit.  However it seems like global vendors have standardized the prices all a lot higher so that gap closed as well.

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32 minutes ago, BMorrison said:

Thanks for all the responses. It's clear now. The next decent deal I found I'll be a lot quicker and more efficient to make sure I get it before it's bought and resold. Thanks and it's not even Friday 😉

Just be careful as well, from time to time a scammer pops up.  I recently lost R1800 to a flippen scammer.

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24 minutes ago, guidodg said:

sold my Scalpel Si to a hub member 2 weeks ago only to see it back on sale for 11k more…😳

Getting put on sale and getting sold at that price are different things. 

 

If anything it creates an efficient market, the problem is that you can't price a bicycle correctly without viewing and assesing it, so i don't think it is easy to score bargains here, you will get some lemons that look good on the pictures, only to have issues for the reseller or his buyer further down the road.

 

The real solution to this is to give non dealer PLUS members a (for example) 2 hour window on adverts before they go live publicly 

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8 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

Getting put on sale and getting sold at that price are different things. 

Agreed. And as long as original seller got fair price, subsequent seller is fair to trade as deemed fit I guess.

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