Cycling (buy and sell) Listing Site thoughts (want to build)

Hi guys, I've posted this question on a few other forums - but trying to get as much feedback as possible because it's invaluable and interesting to say the least.

I 've been buying and selling bikes since I was 13. I took 19 years off from biking and got back into it when I was 31 (I'm 33 today). Back in 2003, I bought and sold my Trek Bruiser 2, a RS Boxxer World Cup (in that beautiful red) and worked all summer to buy a used 2002 Specialized Big Hit DH in Scab Red with a Marzocchi Shiver off ebay. Other than local classifieds, ebay was it for that time. I think Pinkbike might have had their Buy & Sell but it was very small.

Fast forward to today, I've sold countless bikes (from a $ to $$$$), parts, gear and apparel thanks to services like Pinkbike's Buy & Sell, Craigslist, ebay and FB Marketplace. I've had the most success with PB and Craiglist, but I've found that I'm always having to list my things on 2-3, sometimes 4 sites to get enough views or the right views. Certain items or bikes require a certain audience. It can be pretty stressful when you've got an expensive bike you're trying to get sold and it needs to happen in a timely manor.

In the past year i've had family, friends, riding buddies and more recently, mechanics and bike sales folks ask me how they should sell their personal bikes (because they know I do it often). These people are mainly in road/ gravel/ commuter space. It seems that there's a lack of awareness of services like mtbr, Pinkbike, Craigslist, ebay for anyone outside of the mtb community. That takes into consideration a very large portion of cyclists overall.

My question: Has anyone else wished for an Autotrader.com of bikes? Pretty much, one single listing site for cycling gear and bikes only, that's standalone? The services mentioned above are good, but they're not standalone and a lot of people are unfamiliar, unaware or uncomfortable with selling stuff using them. I've also been hearing similar feedback like, having a POS transaction service and bikeflights integration would be really nice.

I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on what you use to sell, are you satisfied, are there features you wished existed, do you wish there was one listing site instead of having to use many, etc.

I see a lot of absolute fucking garbage on FB marjket place, stuff I couldn't be bothered to thro out which is why its still in the shed all of it labeled as " vintage "

Honestly PB buy sell is pretty good as far as exposure/traffic, in it's pretty massive these days, I think displacing it is a pretty tall order.

Integrating shipping would be a pretty cool feature, though.

Lately Old Shovel on youtube has been promoting https://bikelist.com/ which is essentially what you're talking about.

Down side at least for the US based sellers is as part of the new American Rescue Plan Act any digital income from Ebay, Paypal goods & Services, Venmo, etc is now taxed as income if you've received more than $600 on any single platform.

Prior to that the limit was $20k

On the IRS form you can still list your costs to reduce your taxable income but it requires a bit more work & bullshit. Most of my purchases are cash based & That's where I've been trying to keep my sales. I just don't want to deal with another tax form & that seams to be where we're headed with any digital payments & online platforms.

It's definitely made a change in what I sell & where.  I've been rebuilding & reselling, parting out, collecting for the last 10 years of so as a hobby. Essentially just to fund the habit and an occasional new bike. 

High End parts still sell well locally, same with refurbed bikes but lower to middle end parts & rebuilt vintage suspension forks & vintage frames are tough to move outside of ebay.

Posted by: Kenny

Honestly PB buy sell is pretty good as far as exposure/traffic, in it's pretty massive these days, I think displacing it is a pretty tall order.

Integrating shipping would be a pretty cool feature, though.

I agree with this. PB is very efficient, and at least in the mountain bike sphere, reaches everyone I need to reach. Shipping options are as broad as the seller is willing to do (as it should be), and in 20 years of using it, I have yet to have an issue buying or selling.

Hahahahaha - this is great. Ya, some stuff is just more effort to sell.

@mammal Valid points. I guess it's a bit of a hassle to sell anything and there's not one great place for selling most things. PB does seem to have things covered.

@eshew I was just talking about this with some guys over on MTBR... it totally impacts how I sell and just selling less. It's a joke because this is stuff that has already been paid for and most often, taxed.... so I'm losing money when I sell the item yet being taxed again. It's a joke.

@kenny, I'd have to agree.

Wow I'd seen US guys make references on PB ads to taxes related to PayPal, figured it was some type of tinfoil hat conspiracy or something related to bike shops selling on PB. 

I bet that will hamper the market significantly, until more workarounds appear.