On 13 Mar 2004 20:25:03 EST, "Jiyang Chen" <
[email protected]> wrote:
>How much money should I expect to get by trading in a 2002
>Trek 2000 (which I got for about 1 grand) that's in fairly
>new condition? I was thinking about $600-700 towards next
>purchase? Is there some sort of formula to calculate this?
>
>Thanks, Jiyang Chen
FIrst, will your bike shop take it in as a trade? Most will
avoid used bikes because of liability issues.
Second, look at the going price for your model bike on the
used market. It might be $600-700 person to person, but I
bet that is the top limit. Do a google search, look at both
the rec.bicycles.marketplace listings under groups and the
internet postings.
Whatever the bike may go for person to person, realize that
the dealer will not give you that. They will need to cover
their mechanical expenses in going over the bike and their
capital expenses in investing in a bike that may sit in the
shop for months or years. If they gave you half of the
going price, you'd be doing good, I think. So if the bike
is worth $600, they might offer $300. Consider the other
$300 money spent to avoid selling it on your own, to have
the bike shop act as your agent. 50/50 split on consignment
sales isn't unusual.
This isn't the auto market where there is a decent profit
built into every sale. A car dealer can offer $10,000 in
trade for a used car that you could sell for $10,000 because
they are giving away part of the gross profit on the new car
they are selling you, and they were going to negotiate it
away somewhere else if not here in order to make the sale.
They aren't putting out real money, only playing with
various columns of funny money numbers on a piece of paper.
A bike shop isn't playing those kinds of games, and with
those kind of profit margins.