Lowballers and Resellers

[26er]

My colleague recently listed his bike here. He bought it for R90k about four years ago, advertised it for R43k, and got an offer of just R17k from Bike Market.

He clearly didn't go for it, but it made me wonder—do some guys actually fall for those low-ball offers? They must, right? Otherwise, why even try?

 

[Hairy]

5 hours ago, Kom said:

Dont let it get to you, in the end its an open market.

Also - if you trigger their interest, you can bet there will be an actual market for whatever you're selling, so its a good signal.

Over the years, some of the best deals ive bought were from WeBuyBicycles/BikeMarket, they do often pay it forward as well.

all of the best deals I have had on this forum, have come from discussion invarious threads about specific items, etc and from there a offer comes in or, someone is looking for something I have.

a bit more personal and rather nice interactions have been had in this manner.

[ChrisF]

6 hours ago, Hairy said:

all of the best deals I have had on this forum, have come from discussion invarious threads about specific items, etc and from there a offer comes in or, someone is looking for something I have.

a bit more personal and rather nice interactions have been had in this manner.

 

I have the same experience.

 

Sharing Martiz's journey on the kids cycling threads, I would post pics of a new bike.  Same day I would get offers for his old bike, decent market related offers.

[Shebeen]

On 7/2/2025 at 5:24 PM, floatfox said:

I actually dont know why I still advertise on the Bikehub. I am so sick of getting these absolutely crazy low offers from guys like bikemarket. Really wish it would become a place for private sellers only!! You also pay to place an advert and they come and place 10 adverts after your advert and you just get pushed down the list. Some of these re-sellers are rip-offs of note!

unfortunately there is a somehow a business case as they are still here. They pay a lackey to monitor the classifieds and snap up any bargain/lowball that comes along. The steal of a deal one could often get years ago as a private only marketplace will never happen again while they are all here. 

You can block them.

OR go look at their listings and lowball them back if that will make you feel better.

[Mongoose!]

Bike Market listing are quite competitive priced.  My first thought is always " joh , what did the actually paid the poor previous owner to be able to sell at this price and still make a profit. (This practice may be more common in the automotive world I guess) 

[Duane_Bosch]

I can only post from my experience on this.

My wife has a bike she never uses so I posted an ad on here 3 days ago. Within a few hours bikemarket messaged me with an offer. Was it lower than advertised? For sure.

But here's the thing. I'm not in the business of selling bikes and I really don't feel like spending weeks dealing with oil rig workers and randoms querying if the bike is still available to then fall off of the planet.

So off it goes to bikemarket. I'll stick to my job and I'll let them do theirs. I honestly hope they sell it for a tidy profit.

Edited January 8 by Duane_Bosch

[RahulM]

On 4/8/2025 at 10:13 AM, martinh said:

Agreed. I dont understand why people get offended by low ball offers, especially BikeMarket. 

They run a business. They can't pay your listing price and sell it for more. 

I agree 100%. You just politely say No and move on. No need to take it personally. It could be that they are taking chance that someone is emigrating and would be desperate. 

[Shebeen]

On 1/8/2026 at 11:55 AM, Duane_Bosch said:

I can only post from my experience on this.

My wife has a bike she never uses so I posted an ad on here 3 days ago. Within a few hours bikemarket messaged me with an offer. Was it lower than advertised? For sure.

But here's the thing. I'm not in the business of selling bikes and I really don't feel like spending weeks dealing with oil rig workers and randoms querying if the bike is still available to then fall off of the planet.

So off it goes to bikemarket. I'll stick to my job and I'll let them do theirs. I honestly hope they sell it for a tidy profit.

cool. @Duane_Bosch

You've described the selling environment on FB and gumtree.

 

Have you actually had tyre kicking phantom oil rig workers trying to scam you before? If not, then it's not really from your experience.

 

If you're happy to list something for (eg.) R30k, sell it hassle free for R15k and see it listed here again the next week for R35k then it shows there really is a market for their service.