Low-Balling a thing on BikeHub?

[B-Rad25]

Either you accept the offer or not. Something is only worth what someone is willing to sell it for/ pay for it. Simple economics. If you get lowballed and don’t agree then don’t sell & carry on with your day. I have never done any business with BM so no comment there, but they also carry the risk that they will need to spend money on your “excellent condition bike” till they need to replace the groupset. I have paid asking many times trying to be the good guy and been burnt with needing to spend another 5-15k to get things replaced to the condition I expected. It’s all relative. 

[justinafrika]

4 hours ago, Bro Derek said:

used to have a bit of a drinking problem and in India I once paid the equivalent of like 6000zar for a really crap bottle of whisky at 2 in the morning so I could keep the party going.

 

Enterprising guy...

Edited July 24, 2025 by justinafrika

[justinafrika]

 

 

 

🎶 Always look on the bright side of life... 🎶

credit:  Monty Python

Edited July 24, 2025 by justinafrika

[RayRay123]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:13 PM, 440MTB said:

Hey there everyone, trust you're having an awesome Friday!

Just thought I'd share my thoughts/experience...

As someone who is pretty new here, and as someone who's "wheeled and dealed" a fair bit in my life... I found BikeHub to be a nice alternative to the norm, and I come here to escape the Gumtree mentality of some buyers/sellers, but it seems James from BikeMarket.co.za or @WeBuyBicycles  on BikeHub wants to make BH like Gumtree...

Offering R14k less than asking price... ?

Surely as someone in the business of selling yourself, you must be accustomed to every man and his dog low-balling you, and I'm sure you don't entertain or appreciate when people do this, so not sure why one would do this here?

Agreed, also received an absolute ridiculous offer from BikeMarket. Considering the same Bike sells on their own site for more than 3 times the offer made.

[Trailman]

Thanks Ray, you are one of many. 

[bleedToWin]

5 minutes ago, Trailman said:

Thanks Ray, you are one of many. 

Maybe you should start a business where you offer us fair market value for our cycling goods, carry all the stock risk, and then sell it for exactly the same price you paid us.

/s

[El Duderino]

15 hours ago, Trailman said:

Bro Derek, you are entitled to your view of this being, "incredibly dramatic", but clearly to many, this is upsetting otherwise we would not have the level of response that we and I personally have had. As a point of correction, "selling and buying", for some, can be a hugely emotional experience as I have witnessed on numerous occasions of both, extreme joy and distressing grief. I have also witnessed how people in states of absolute desperation have parted with much loved possesions including bicycles, because they have felt that there was no alternative option. These people have on occasion been exploited by company's who promise to offer, "a market related price", which is sometimes anything but, as is the case here with BikeMarket as can be witnessed with so many other voices on this thread. That's really at the nub of this its merely just about creating an awareness of my and others experiences, that is afterall a part of what this site, our communities participation and these forums are intended for.     

I think you're missing Bro D's point. Gauging the accuracy of a sentiment by the amount of people on BH willing to jump on your bandwagon with their pitchforks, is not very valid. Just think about what he is saying. Low Ball offers are not highly exploitative. Paying a security guard R5000 per month is highly exploitative. Offering someone less than they expect for a bicycle, an offer they can refuse, does not reach the threshold required to be labeled grossly exploitative. 

Edited July 25, 2025 by El Duderino
Spelling

[Shebeen]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:13 PM, 440MTB said:

Hey there everyone, trust you're having an awesome Friday!

Just thought I'd share my thoughts/experience...

As someone who is pretty new here, and as someone who's "wheeled and dealed" a fair bit in my life... I found BikeHub to be a nice alternative to the norm, and I come here to escape the Gumtree mentality of some buyers/sellers, but it seems James from BikeMarket.co.za or @WeBuyBicycles  on BikeHub wants to make BH like Gumtree...

Offering R14k less than asking price... ?

Surely as someone in the business of selling yourself, you must be accustomed to every man and his dog low-balling you, and I'm sure you don't entertain or appreciate when people do this, so not sure why one would do this here?

Thought I'd just respond to the original post again as an important point seems to have been lost here as the debate polarises on in circles.

 

TheHub was originally a forum to talk cycling, and classifieds on the side followed.

It became a good place to buy and sell, because there was a level of trust you could from forum members directly, and other members would chirp in if a fast one was clearly being pulled.

Things change, as online advertising moved over time the classifieds became the focus of the revenue generator. Fine with that.

As we were dealing person to person, there were some good deals for both parties. Resellers jumped in here and spent an inordinate amount of time looking to snap up bargains. This is nothing new, I'm very ok with the free market principles. You're going to lose the community's support if you flip a bike for a profit on the same platform the next day - that's what happened to a few if i remember correctly.

in the wider scheme of things, Webuycars are trialling a complex machine learning platform where you will be getting an offer on your car - with no humans involved. If they set it up right, they will be able to make the second hand car market more efficient, and therefore better deals for both buyers and sellers. It will take a long time to get there for bike industry.

Instead we currently have James (I assume he is a real person) acting like a bot, shotgun spraying ridiculous offers on a cut-and-paste basis. Maybe if this human was a bit more human in his dealings, he would piss people off less. Maybe if he actually engaged with the seller, and asked informed questions on the item for sale he might actually get more deals. But in a free market, you don't have to tell people how to run their companies.

I assume @WeBuyBicycles don't want to post on the platform as they have been here for 5 years on this account without a single comment, but they have right of reply

[Trailman]

5 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

Thought I'd just respond to the original post again as an important point seems to have been lost here as the debate polarises on in circles.

 

TheHub was originally a forum to talk cycling, and classifieds on the side followed.

It became a good place to buy and sell, because there was a level of trust you could from forum members directly, and other members would chirp in if a fast one was clearly being pulled.

Things change, as online advertising moved over time the classifieds became the focus of the revenue generator. Fine with that.

As we were dealing person to person, there were some good deals for both parties. Resellers jumped in here and spent an inordinate amount of time looking to snap up bargains. This is nothing new, I'm very ok with the free market principles. You're going to lose the community's support if you flip a bike for a profit on the same platform the next day - that's what happened to a few if i remember correctly.

in the wider scheme of things, Webuycars are trialling a complex machine learning platform where you will be getting an offer on your car - with no humans involved. If they set it up right, they will be able to make the second hand car market more efficient, and therefore better deals for both buyers and sellers. It will take a long time to get there for bike industry.

Instead we currently have James (I assume he is a real person) acting like a bot, shotgun spraying ridiculous offers on a cut-and-paste basis. Maybe if this human was a bit more human in his dealings, he would piss people off less. Maybe if he actually engaged with the seller, and asked informed questions on the item for sale he might actually get more deals. But in a free market, you don't have to tell people how to run their companies.

I assume @WeBuyBicycles don't want to post on the platform as they have been here for 5 years on this account without a single comment, but they have right of reply

Cheers Shebeen, I could not have elucidated that point more coherently myself.

[BuffsVintageBikes]

Well stated @Shebeen

Sadly with these "human bots" now trolling BikeHub, it has also reduced the chances of the regular contributors on the site picking up a bargain for themselves as they did in the past because they're getting snapped up before our very eyes by these resellers. Life moves on but it's never the same.

[bleedToWin]

14 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

picking up a bargain for themselves

One could argue that picking up a bargain is exploitative...
I wouldn't argue that point, but one could...

[BuffsVintageBikes]

A "bargain" is relative... a multi-millionaire selling his SL8 for half price is somewhat different to a student having to sell his SL8 to pay off his student loan.

[bleedToWin]

I'm being a bit facetious at this point

Honestly I think a desperate seller will price their item to move and "human bots" will still low ball on said price. Assuming the desperate seller has some sense and more than 12 hours to wait for their much needed payout they will receive a few offers for asking price in a day or two and I would never argue that the buyer is exploiting the seller.

[ChrisF]

21 hours ago, Shebeen said:

They do provide a service, put cash into stock, take a risk on it, offer variety. pay tax

 

But many of us know bikes and like to deal directly and cut out the middle man. They are the middle man, and a pain.

 

here's a BM appreciation thread that went south.

 

 

They most certainly do provide a service.  They even have happy clients that have done repeat business with them.

 

Few years ago a friend bought his first MTB.  It was a second hand purchase, private seller ... "recently serviced" ... "we are emigrating" ....  Sure, they were emigrating.  Sure, the bike was at a bike shop ... who did the bare minimum to gloss up a lemon.  Sadly my friend fell for the lure of the glimming bike with new tyres .....  I had to strip and rebuild that bike top to bottom !!  Every single bearing had to be replaced, tyre were not tubeless ready, very clean chain stretched to heck and gone ... whole new drive train.

 

Punch line .... that cured him from buying a secondhand bike privately.  MANY Hubbers have enough experience that this is not a factor to them.  But his next hardtail was bought from BikeMarket, purely because of the perceived backup of dealing with a "shop".  Decent price, decent bike.  He had a lots of good miles on it, and no issues until he upgraded to a full suspension.  ONE call ... BikeMarket traded the hardtail in on full suss for him ... again, happy customer, many happy miles and no issues with the bike.

 

They offer a service.  They have a market, else they would have closed shop long ago.

 

 

Does this make their low ball offers any nicer .... heck no .... thats just the secondhand market at work (or at least one segment of that market) ..... reply, ignore ... but move on, life's too short

Edited July 25, 2025 by ChrisF

[thebob]

The last offer I received from James I replied to asking him to explain how he arrived at the price he was offering as it was lower than what he had just paid a friend of mine for a very well used bike with the same initial retail price, but with mine being 3 years newer. Still waiting for a reply. In the meantime I sold two bikes for roughly double his combined offers 🤷‍♂️

Edited July 25, 2025 by thebob

[Jehosefat]

If we are going to ban low-ballers are we also going to ban sellers who post ridiculously over-valued items?

I mean it's the same thing right?