Bicycle hustling for fun and profit

[adamhenry]

Hi folks,

New to the forum. Been flipping bicycle and other items on craigslist for about a year and a half, as well as selling used books on Amazon. Both very part-time. Made $3k with bikes plus $3k with Amazon in first year.

I'm sure this has been done and discussed before, but thought I might track my progress publicly here for motivational purposes, plus see if I can answer any questions along the way.

So current inventory as of July 1st is 6 vintage 10 speed road bikes with an average purchase price of $65, four other mountain bikes, and some bike parts.

Will post sales progress here, let me know if interested, if you have questions, or if I should go away. [emoji4]

Cheers,
Adam

 

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[adamhenry]

Although I'm going to use this for progress starting July 1st, here's my most recent sale (6/27): I'd purchased two vintage Peugeot road bikes for $85 for the pair. Posted one of the two as-is (needed tune up and tires) for $100. Got around a dozen people inquiring, including two people offering $125. Had already made an appointment with someone before I got the $125 offers but (lucky for me) he passed on the bike, so I sold it to someone else the same night for $125. Net profit $82.50 for roughly an hour of my time (picking up bike, listing bike, selling bike).

Let me know if these stories are of interest to anyone!

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Amail]

Accounts of someone hustling is always an interesting read - keep it up!

 

[adamhenry]

Glad to hear a couple of people are interested! BTW, do I have this "progress" post in the right forum? If not, how do I move it or get it moved? #noobfail

In the meantime, I'll keep going with one of my favorite flips:

Saw Kona full suspension mountain bike posted for $150 "for parts". Went to check it out, and aside from flat tires and having been repainted, there was nothing wrong with it. Asked him what the least he would take for it would be, he said $100, I said $80, and he agreed. I would've bought it for $150, but some people are very easy to negotiate with. Put air in the tires, relisted it at $150, and sold it the next day. So I made $70 without relisting the bike at a higher price than it was originally listed - my profit was essentially from the guy's lack of negotiating skills.

 

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[Blhhi]

This is awesome. A few questions:

Where are you finding these bike listings?

How many bikes have you failed to flip?

How many bikes have you flipped for less than a $20 profit?

If you doubled the amount of time you spend on this, how much of an increase in profit do you think you'd see?

What would you flip if you couldn't do bikes anymore?

 

[Turbo]

Ah, the bicycle hustle. I used to do this a lot before I got my business off the ground. Seems like an eternity ago, but fond memories.

The deals can be pretty solid, if you are always looking and use the right keywords on Craigslist. I would go to flea markets and bike swaps all the time looking for deals. I typically would rebuild and tune the bike, finding a way to add value to the item. Sometimes I'd sell them on eBay too.
The face to face transactions improved my negotiation skills, and helped me get better at the art of selling.

Focusing on the high end realm could help net you a much higher average profit. Some vintage steel lightweight bikes, if they are in nice shape and photograph well, can sell well on eBay if you are willing to wait for a buyer and package/ship it out. I've been able to nearly double my money on some bikes purchased in the $600-800 range, and even got a 9 fold profit on an extremely rare rusty vintage bike. Just watch out for the 'too good to be true' deals, I have steered clear of those deals that smelled fishy since it's just not worth it.

Bike swaps can be hit or miss, but there is good money in the bike parts too. Keep looking and you may find opportunities to multiply your hustle profits. Like they say, you create your own luck.

In the end though, I found it hard to sustain this in the long term. In my ecommerce business I focus on selling new items, which allows me to scale and ensure a more consistent user expectation of the goods I offer. Rather than expending the effort that goes into photography, writing copy, and listing to sell one individual item, why not continue to sell a dozen or hundreds of the same item?

Good luck with the hustle!

 

[Edwin C]

Thanks for the information adamhenry. It's great to hear how you profited by just putting a little bit more effort in value. So, most of your transactions are face-to-face negotiations? I figure it'll be a hassle to ship bike and bike parts around.

I bought a bike once online for 20 dollars. It was old and rusty and the guy was selling it because his son had left it in his garage for a long time. Anyway, I loved it and bought it. All I did was took it apart, cleaned it, oiled it bought some better seat padding and brake pads for it and it was all set to go. I put it about 30 dollars to it. I ended up giving it away but I figure if I had sold it, I would have priced it at 80 dollars.

Keep those updates coming.

 

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[adamhenry]

This is awesome. A few questions:

Where are you finding these bike listings?

How many bikes have you failed to flip?

How many bikes have you flipped for less than a $20 profit?

If you doubled the amount of time you spend on this, how much of an increase in profit do you think you'd see?

What would you flip if you couldn't do bikes anymore?

Listings are found on Craigslist and another online classifieds site that is big in my area.

Can't say I've really failed to flip any.

Don't know how many were less than $20 profit, as I lost part of my spreadsheet. However, generally they're all more than $20 profit, unless I sell a group of bikes together. Which I sometimes do when I amass too many bikes that I've picked up for free.

I'm not sure how to answer the question about doubling my time. However, I do think it could easily be a full time business, provided you diversified and flipped more than just bicycles. Basically I currently really only have an hour each evening to work on this, after my kids are asleep, though I can sell an item or two around dinner time.

I have flipped other items - cell phones, electronics, bike parts, tools, and so on. There is a guy that makes a living flipping appliances (www.recraigslist.com), and I might diversify to those soon. Might try furniture too.

 

[adamhenry]

Ah, the bicycle hustle. I used to do this a lot before I got my business off the ground. Seems like an eternity ago, but fond memories.

The deals can be pretty solid, if you are always looking and use the right keywords on Craigslist. I would go to flea markets and bike swaps all the time looking for deals. I typically would rebuild and tune the bike, finding a way to add value to the item. Sometimes I'd sell them on eBay too.
The face to face transactions improved my negotiation skills, and helped me get better at the art of selling.

Focusing on the high end realm could help net you a much higher average profit. Some vintage steel lightweight bikes, if they are in nice shape and photograph well, can sell well on eBay if you are willing to wait for a buyer and package/ship it out. I've been able to nearly double my money on some bikes purchased in the $600-800 range, and even got a 9 fold profit on an extremely rare rusty vintage bike. Just watch out for the 'too good to be true' deals, I have steered clear of those deals that smelled fishy since it's just not worth it.

Bike swaps can be hit or miss, but there is good money in the bike parts too. Keep looking and you may find opportunities to multiply your hustle profits. Like they say, you create your own luck.

In the end though, I found it hard to sustain this in the long term. In my ecommerce business I focus on selling new items, which allows me to scale and ensure a more consistent user expectation of the goods I offer. Rather than expending the effort that goes into photography, writing copy, and listing to sell one individual item, why not continue to sell a dozen or hundreds of the same item?

Good luck with the hustle!

While I do sometimes work on the bikes and add value as Turbo suggests, I generally find this happens when I've made a poor choice for a flip. While repairing a bike may be profitable in a $/hr sense, I get the most enjoyment out of buying and selling. So if a bike needs work I'd rather sell it for less profit and move on to my next flip.

Haven't got into eBay, mostly because I haven't been inspired to learn it. Also don't really think it's necessary, as Craigslist provides a large enough market for me at this point.

I would like to move on to some higher value bikes, I just tend to spot a lot of the lower value flips and spend my bankroll there. Maybe after this next round of selling.

 

[adamhenry]

Trades, like "Barter Kings" are interesting too.

A while ago I posted an old ten speed road bike for trade, without a price. I had purchased the bike for $70, then spent $20 on tires, so $90 initial investment.

Lots of interesting offers, then got an offer of an iPad mini. Traded for the iPad, so put it up for trade.

Got an offer of a Canon Rebel T2i, which I traded for.

So basically I went from a $90 bike (that had I sold for cash I would've sold for about $130), to a $300 iPad, to a $600 camera.

Kept the camera, though I'm sure I could've kept going.

 

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[adamhenry]

I think I'll track both my cash flow for the month here too, as well as the profit per sale. I'll also post my Amazon earnings from selling used books sources from thrift stores.

July 2nd = +$70 Amazon payout
July 3rd = -$100 bike parts purchase

July net = -$25

Ok, so I need a sale.

 

[adamhenry]

Squeezed in a sale before bed last night! So an update on my progress:

July 3 = Sold Peugeot bike $60 - cost $42.50, net $17.50
July 3 = Sold Sekine bike $60 - cost $40, net $20
(Sold two bikes at once for $120)

From a cash flow perspective we add:

July 3rd = +$120 Sold two bikes

July net = +$95

 

[Mattie]

I have two friends that own their bike shops these days. Started out long time ago, just bike racing. They got jobs at the local bicycle shops, learned the ropes and now own their own. Bicycles are good business any way you want to see it. Everyone buys one, thinks they need one. I've seen a lot of them here in the Netherlands, bike ramps instead of car ramps. It's a beautiful thing really. Good for health, Good for the roads, Good for the guy that sells them. Good for the guy who designs them. Even renting them in tourist areas makes a good profit. Hope you raise the bar in this area.

 

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[adamhenry]

This morning, while walking the dog, I peeked in a dumpster and found:

Drill and flashlight are like new, but no batteries or charger. However, turns out they match the batteries for my cordless weedwhacker, and both are tested and working fine.

I just bought a similar cordless drill, so if I can find the receipt and return it, then I'll get back the $50 I spent on it, making this a $50 find.

The ratchet set is cheap junk, but seems to have a lot of tiny sockets, which could be handy.

 

[Mattie]

Yes ha ha, you wouldn't believe what wealthy people throw away. In our community we had two days every fall that people cleaned out their basements, and garages and put it out to the curb. They'd throw out decent antiques, furniture, and misc. items. I was always fun watching the whole community go garbage picking. People had the same idea, make money off what the slow lane or wealthy through out.

I had a lot of fun going to garage sales, good will, thrift shops, auctions, flea markets. I would resell on e-bay and local stores. I love going around with a metal detector. It's the hunt! The treasure's you find. I haven't been in to many garbage dumps. Just once in my apartment complex. When someone left some stuff on top. lol

 

[adamhenry]

I have two friends that own their bike shops these days. Started out long time ago, just bike racing. They got jobs at the local bicycle shops, learned the ropes and now own their own. Bicycles are good business any way you want to see it. Everyone buys one, thinks they need one. I've seen a lot of them here in the Netherlands, bike ramps instead of car ramps. It's a beautiful thing really. Good for health, Good for the roads, Good for the guy that sells them. Good for the guy who designs them. Even renting them in tourist areas makes a good profit. Hope you raise the bar in this area.

Thanks Mattie!

My day job is actually working in a bike shop.

I recently left my $60k hotel job for the $14/hr bike shop job, as sort of a transition to doing the reselling business full time.

Each day I learn more about bike repair, plus it gives me access to cheap parts - so that $100 bike shop purchase I mentioned above is me paying off my tab of parts at cost plus 10% (staff discount).

I've found that more important than learning bike repair at work, is learning efficiency - we do a $40 bike tune up in half an hour at work. At home, knowing how to fully tune a bike in half an hour allows me to add a lot of value to a bike in a short amount of time (bike goes from "needs work" to "fully tuned").

In the long run I don't know that I'd want the overhead of a shop - at the moment I'm looking to turn this into a full time, from home, reselling business.

But anything is possible.

 

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[adamhenry]

I should explain my low value sale from last night too.

The Peugeot was one of two that I had mentioned previously, so when looking back to the original purchase it goes like this:

Bought two Peugeot's for $85
Sold one for $125
Sold one for $60
Net profit $100

I also didn't mind making a quick $20 from the Sekine, since when I bought it the guy actually delivered it to me as part of the purchase price, so my time investment was minimal.

Also, since I sold the two bikes together last night, I was handed $120 in one transaction, and cleared out two bikes from inventory.

Both bikes could have been sold for more.

But, I generally want to be stuffing real cash in my pockets each day, rather than imagining the potential cash I could make tomorrow. I now have that $120 to reinvest, and there are plenty of opportunities for that.

 

[Mattie]

I never knew the guy, but there was a local guy who used to do what you're doing. All the bikes would be lined up in his drive way, lawn mowers, and snow blowers. He made money all the time off of it, and everyone knew when they drove by where they could send people.

 

[McNandez]

I hope you'll keep updating this, and good job with the flipping!

You mentioned that you might consider flipping furniture - YMMV depending on your location, but furniture can be pretty lucrative and low effort. I used to flip stuff that was easily cleaned and stored: display cases, bed frames, coffee tables, dining tables and chairs, etc. If you have a small workspace and basic cleaning/disinfecting tools, that might be a worthwhile avenue. And with the camera you traded up for, you'll be able to take great photos!

 

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[adamhenry]

On one of my morning dog walks recently, I noticed a set of stools next to a dumpster. I made a mental note to come back for them.

There were some clothes hanging over the edge of the dumpster too, which turned out to be some nice shirts in my size. These I tucked under my arm.

At the next dumpster, I found a bike with flat tires. Also in the dumpster was a bike rack for the back of your car.

I wheeled away the bike, with the clothes on my arm, and came back a few hours later and picked up the stools and bike rack.

The stools turned out to be from IKEA, and I sold them within two hours for $40.

The bike I did a quick tune up and also sold the same day for $40.

Sold the bike rack the next day for $20.

So that was $100 I found in the dumpster, while walking the dog.

I know that on our local classifieds website, "IKEA" is usually the number one search term each month, followed by "dresser" then "desk", so there would seem to be some opportunity in furniture.

Cleaning I'd be up for, just don't think I want to get into repainting furniture. Maybe I'll focus on IKEA furniture, at least to begin with.

 

[leveragehacker]

Ok...These flipping threads annoy me. Especially when they say they've been flipping for over a year.

I accept and applaud the fact that flipping is great to build sales skills and get your feet wet in business in a low risk way - and even have fun doing it.

BUT. This is such a violation of the time commandment from the book that it's not even funny. WHY aren't you investing 1 or 2 hours per evening into a project that could scale your income with less time rather than these 1 at a time deals?

 

[adamhenry]

Ok...These flipping threads annoy me. Especially when they say they've been flipping for over a year.

I accept and applaud the fact that flipping is great to build sales skills and get your feet wet in business in a low risk way - and even have fun doing it.

BUT. This is such a violation of the time commandment from the book that it's not even funny. WHY aren't you investing 1 or 2 hours per evening into a project that could scale your income with less time rather than these 1 at a time deals?

Good point.

Ryan at recraigslist.com flips appliances for a living. Then (or maybe concurrently) he started a blog about flipping on craigslist. Now, he has an online course that he sells for $150, for people interested in starting an appliance flipping business. He recently launched another course on starting a T-shirt business.

A $100 online course seems like a good scalable project. It's surprising when you do the math. For me at least, $100 x 100 people *seems like* it should equal $1000.

But it's $10,000.

Does anyone else have that feeling? I think it's because the $100 price tag for the course seems reasonable (after all, the goal of the course is to have you flipping appliances for $100 profit/appliance). It also seems reasonable to imagine convincing 100 people to buy the course.

So $100 seems like a small amount (I regularly buy bikes for $100 to flip), and 100 people doesn't sound like a whole lot of people.

But $10,000 would be a large amount of money.

I have no idea what Ryan's real numbers are. Heck, if I built a $100 course and 10 people signed up, I'd be very happy with the $1000.

So Ryan's path was:

- flipping
- blog
- online course
- multiple online courses

I'm still in the flipping stage, and yes, have been for a year. I'm not sure if I'll go the same route Ryan did, but I'm working on figuring out my path.

So should I start a blog? Maybe. How would I know if people would want to read what I write? How would I get practice writing?

Maybe by starting a thread with my adventures on a forum.

By the way, sold a bike seat for $10 tonight that I got for free.

So for cash flow, July is at +$105 as of July 3rd.

I'm both very open to suggestions of other paths to wealth, or ideas for next steps. Also happy to answer questions about my journey so far, maybe I can help someone else get started.

Let me know what you think.

 

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[leveragehacker]

Good reply - but I think you already have the answer. A year's worth of knowledge is a goldmine for people just starting to flip. You've had your practise sharing your experiences with us - now spend $10 on a suitable .com domain and get a blog up and running. The other guy you referenced is clearly taking the right steps - even if we don't know how much he's pulling.

And yes - selling your course for $100 would be awesome - IF the value proposition is worth it. For example - How you can make $12,000 PROFIT with just 1 hour per day on Craigslist (adjust these numbers and words to make it relevant).

Also - if you're not sure about what kind of product you can sell with your accrued knowledge I recommend following the interview process that I saw somewhere on this forum. In essence it means that starting off the content for your blog can be transcribed and embedded video interviews with all the other leading flipping bloggers and influencers. Aim to do 100 interviews. During the process you will become so intimate with the nature of the niche that you'll identify some golden opportunities to exploit.

 

[adamhenry]

Good reply - but I think you already have the answer. A year's worth of knowledge is a goldmine for people just starting to flip. You've had your practise sharing your experiences with us - now spend $10 on a suitable .com domain and get a blog up and running. The other guy you referenced is clearly taking the right steps - even if we don't know how much he's pulling.

And yes - selling your course for $100 would be awesome - IF the value proposition is worth it. For example - How you can make $12,000 PROFIT with just 1 hour per day on Craigslist (adjust these numbers and words to make it relevant).

Also - if you're not sure about what kind of product you can sell with your accrued knowledge I recommend following the interview process that I saw somewhere on this forum. In essence it means that starting off the content for your blog can be transcribed and embedded video interviews with all the other leading flipping bloggers and influencers. Aim to do 100 interviews. During the process you will become so intimate with the nature of the niche that you'll identify some golden opportunities to exploit.

Thank you for this comment!

There's a couple of key things there -

1. It's easy to feel unqualified to write a blog, but on the other hand, with a year's experience, I am can at least provide some help to someone with no experience.

2. I can bypass the amount of experience I have, or cheat, by piggy backing on those people that are more experienced, via interviews.

 

[Blhhi]

This is such a violation of the time commandment from the book that it's not even funny. WHY aren't you investing 1 or 2 hours per evening into a project that could scale your income with less time rather than these 1 at a time deals?

This has been discussed in another thread, but the point is some people are starting from almost $0 (or less, if you're in debt). These flipping threads offer concrete advice on how to make something out of basically nothing.

Most people say "Do this, do that, do the other thing, and then you'll make money like me." Other people go so far as to talk about their success, but give no real data. "I make $10k a month reselling on ebay! Just go look something up, buy it, and then sell it!" They don't tell us their name, or show us their profile on ebay, or tell us what they sell. It's all nebulous. They may as well say "Work hard and you will make money."

This guy is saying "This is what I did today. This is how much money I made." I respect this information 100x more.

I've been thinking a lot about this whole subject--reselling, flipping, etc. I really was skeptical of it. I didn't want to go buy a bike for $50 and have it sit there, or sell it for $60 and put 2 bucks in my pocket after shipping. But having this guy's posts pop up in my e-mail all the time have finally spurred me on. I have $20 in the bank. I'm working on an app, but I need money between now and when it's done. I'm going to jump into this.

Thanks @adamhenry.

 

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[adamhenry]

This has been discussed in another thread, but the point is some people are starting from almost $0 (or less, if you're in debt). These flipping threads offer concrete advice on how to make something out of basically nothing.

Most people say "Do this, do that, do the other thing, and then you'll make money like me." Other people go so far as to talk about their success, but give no real data. "I make $10k a month reselling on ebay! Just go look something up, buy it, and then sell it!" They don't tell us their name, or show us their profile on ebay, or tell us what they sell. It's all nebulous. They may as well say "Work hard and you will make money."

This guy is saying "This is what I did today. This is how much money I made." I respect this information 100x more.

I've been thinking a lot about this whole subject--reselling, flipping, etc. I really was skeptical of it. I didn't want to go buy a bike for $50 and have it sit there, or sell it for $60 and put 2 bucks in my pocket after shipping. But having this guy's posts pop up in my e-mail all the time have finally spurred me on. I have $20 in the bank. I'm working on an app, but I need money between now and when it's done. I'm going to jump into this.

Thanks @adamhenry.

If I can help at all, let me know.

I'm interested in discussing the system too, or the meta-game, or whatever you want to call it.

I like the goat flipping story ( https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/index.php?threads/52804/).

Basically what it looks like the kid did was:

1. Searched craigslist for 'wanted' ads.
2. Searched craigslist for ads that would fulfill the need.
3. Profited via craigslist arbitrage.

I don't think you necessarily need to look for wanted ads, what you want to know is what the 'need' is.

One way I do this is by asking myself what doesn't exist. For example, last night I wanted to see what the starting price for a used modern (not vintage) road bike is in my area. There aren't any currently listed under $400.

Therefore, if I keep an eye on the ads for when someone posts one for under or close to that price, I know it would be a fast flip.

So you can pick almost anything (goats?), search craigslist to see what the cheapest offered is, then watch for someone to make a pricing error and pick it up. Or contact the lowest price one and negotiate it lower, then resell for same amount. I did this with the Kona - it was listed at $150, I negotiated it to $80, them resold for $150.

 

[vulcansx]

Ok...These flipping threads annoy me. Especially when they say they've been flipping for over a year.

I accept and applaud the fact that flipping is great to build sales skills and get your feet wet in business in a low risk way - and even have fun doing it.

BUT. This is such a violation of the time commandment from the book that it's not even funny. WHY aren't you investing 1 or 2 hours per evening into a project that could scale your income with less time rather than these 1 at a time deals?

Some people need Cash and Time to start up a fastlane business. Flipping gets you both, i work 4 hours a day flipping and make more than i made working 10 hours a day at my job. Now i have the time and resources to go fastlane. That's what flipping is all about, You know how hard it would have been to go all in on a business if i was still working 10 hours a day making only 160 a day? I don't flip bikes though for me they move to slow, for too little return. But if you can make it work props to you

 

[Blhhi]

I don't flip bikes though for me they move to slow, for too little return. But if you can make it work props to you

What do you flip?

 

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[vulcansx]

What do you flip?

To make the most money seems like you gotta be good at a lot of different categories because there are only so many killer deals a day in each category, my butter is iphones, ipads, labtops and event tickets for quick flips and 4000$ and under passenger cars, motorcycles and high end appliances for longer flips. Sorry not trying to hijack the thread, bikes seem to be working but try to branch off into other stuff as well and you will be quitting your day job before you know it!

 

[adamhenry]

To make the most money seems like you gotta be good at a lot of different categories because there are only so many killer deals a day in each category, my butter is iphones, ipads, labtops and event tickets for quick flips and 4000$ and under passenger cars, motorcycles and high end appliances for longer flips. Sorry not trying to hijack the thread, bikes seem to be working but try to branch off into other stuff as well and you will be quitting your day job before you know it!

Thanks for the comment, vulcansx. On your bread and butter items, what kind of return are you looking for? For example, are you looking to double your money on an iPhone? Make $100?