So I need some cash and to clear some space as the “landlady” is complaining about why I need 3 bicycles when I only ride one at a time.
Fair, I suppose. One hasnt been ridden in years. It was the result of another bike’s frame snapping after some pillock rear-ended me at slow speed, pinning the frame down and popping the guy’s bumper right off. Kona refused to honour their lifetime warranty over it, so I bought a rival firms frame and had the other parts transferred over.
The other bike was a gazelle-like superfast racing bike. Arse in the air, head down affair. Used to ride the 5 miles from work in about 20 minutes on that. The constant battering from the roads like moon craters and bastards who’d throw glass in the cycle lanes took their toll on the “shred proof” tyres and splitting the wheels at the rims. I had that repaired with cheaper rims but rarely rode it like before.
Then the past 2 years I’ve had health issues and cant get out as much. I went from 3-4000 miles a year down to a couple of hundred at most. I may be a little depressed at that, but that is life.
So. I put listings on Gumtree (a UK freeads site) and Facebook marketplace. Both bikes were about £1000 to have made up, probably a lot more now I think. I listed each for a fair £200 given their age.
“Can’t I give you £50?”
“I dont have cash right now, can I pay you later?”
Or the worst “Do you still have the bike?” I reply yes within minutes, and then I’m ghosted.
20 messages of each. Infuriating. Tempted to send the bikes to a local charity instead. They’ll be the most blinged out charity bikes you’ve seen. Charity would probably get their money’s worth. I now love the thought of someone who couldn’t afford a racer with open pros and hope hubs riding it about.
It’s really infuriating, I hate so much.
“I can only offer €25 for that Ryzen 5600x, is that ok?”
“It’s just a toy, can I get it for €5?” (=That collectible that is out of print, can I get it for 1/10th of the average sale price on eBay so I can make some buck?)
And the worst offender is when I put on sale a consumable for an industrial machine. 100 euro new and i put on sale for €30, brand new in box, because the machine broke before I could use it. You need to buy it every six month and if you didn’t buy it from me “used”, you would be forced to buy it al full price anyway: “Can I get it for 5 euro?” Fuck that!
Yeah the collectables and comics thing is a bit cruel. As you say these people are only going to sell it on ebay and try and make profit.