Cycling UK Forum

Any tips on selling used bikes: what was your experience or any guidance on getting paid securely please

Ebay + Paypal, your local paper shop window, your local free newspaper

If the bike is being collected (or you're delivering it personally) - preferably cash on collection/delivery

If you are boxing it up and sending it via courier - Paypal (fee payable), bank transfer, cheque, postal order...

In addition to ebay/gumtree/classified ads in papers, you can post for sale listings for free on forums such as these ones

Be very realistic about price. Good bikes go for pitiful sums. Some brands and bikes will fetch good money (e.g. Thorn Nomad Rohloff) but even these will have cost far more new than they will fetch second hand.

Don't take a Paypal payment then allow collection. It is possible [i][/i] for the buyer to tell PP that they have not received it and PP think about refunding them. You can't prove you gave it to them as PP tend to ignore things like receipts etc and go by stuff like recorded delivery records. I suspect a photo of the buyer taking delivery might help but why chance it. Cash, carefully checked and no test without full price in your hands.
Target the buyers eg flash MTB on Singletrack forum, carbon race bike on Bikeradar.
Expect haggling

I would not accept PayPal anymore. Payoal tends to favour the buyer and i think there are a few buyers out there that now take advantage of this, by either trying to get a full or partial refund.

bike4fun wrote:I would not accept PayPal anymore. Payoal tends to favour the buyer and i think there are a few buyers out there that now take advantage of this, by either trying to get a full or partial refund.

What would you accept?

horizon wrote:

bike4fun wrote:I would not accept PayPal anymore. Payoal tends to favour the buyer and i think there are a few buyers out there that now take advantage of this, by either trying to get a full or partial refund.

What would you accept?

Cash on collection only. I try not to use ebay anymore and opt for sites like sphock., it's free and far more easier to list your items plus no selling fees. https://shpock.com/int/

bike4fun wrote:
Cash on collection only.

The OP enquired about bikes and you are right - for that ConC would be appropriate. But loads of stuff gets posted, even bikes. I don't buy anything unless it's PayPal these days and really unless it's posted (collection would wipe out the advantage). But then I'm a buyer. I think buying and selling on this forum is a good idea because there is a high level of familiarity.

I did once sell a bike on Ebay and accepted PayPal. Everything went through all right but I was a bit shocked at the charges. I now pay by Gift and forego the protection so it's fairer to the seller. Again I accept that might not be right for bikes but the seller gets a much wider market (and higher price) if posted thereby mitigating the cost. The security comes from selling to members.

Strictly speaking you are required to accept Paypal for bikes sold on eBay if that is how the buyer wishes to pay. There are buyer protection and security reasons why a cautious but genuine buyer might prefer to pay that way. That said, whilst it is against the rules, the phrase "cash on collection only" is common sight on eBay listings. A happy compromise in this age of smartphones and the eBay app is to ask the Paypal paying buyer to leave positive feedback acknowledging receipt then and there, so it would be difficult for them to later claim "item not received".

A quick skim through "Completed Listings" on ebay strongly suggests that actually SELLING a used bike is more difficult than worrying about getting paid! Page after page of No Bids or Reserve Not Met, which equally strongly suggests that folk set unrealistic prices - especially at the 500 quid and up range.

After many hours of searching ebay (and Forums) over last 6 weeks I finally got pretty much what I wanted from local free ads (gumtree) - the advantage there was that I could offer nearly 30% below "starting" price and pay cash on collection.

Seems to me that used market is in decline. Most people use a credit card for significant sums and some dealers offer good finance deals. End of season discounts are can also be hefty.

First Q is "do I really want to sell?". If so, a LOW start and no reserve.

Facebook is proving a better place than ebay to sell things I've found. Many groups have sales functions which just allows you to list a price with your item. No silly bidding process etc.

If you're anywhere near NE England then try CDNE Bike Sales https://www.facebook.com/groups/104088903090841/ I recently sold a turbo trainer through there.

Please look at our Posting guidelines and Fraud warning viewtopic.php?f=40&t=42768

There are also a couple of other threads. this one viewtopic.php?f=15&t=100467&p=940199&hilit=escrow+service#p940199 includes information about an escrow service.