I’ve been trying to unload a couple of bikes and haven’t had any luck on FB marketplace or eBay, and I’m not quite willing to swallow The Pro’s Closet’s lowball offer. Anyone tried Buycycle? It seems fairly new, but wondering if anyone has any experience?
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I haven’t but I did sell a lot on the dutch 2nd hand market for good prices. My advice is to be patient, do not accept the first offer, sometimes it can take months and my 2nd tip is to sell the cheapest working configuration possible, sell premium expensive premium parts separately
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Hey, It seems they have just launched in the US. I landed on their platform via a Google ad as I had never heard of the platform either. I actually found the exact bike I have been looking for on their platform. It got shipped from Europe, and they took care of everything. The waiting time was a bit longer than a week but I guess that’s only fair if it’s shipped all the way from Europe. A nice little bonus is that they currently have a promo going on where the first 100 bikes are shipped for free… Overall, I have nothing to complain about and will definitely try to sell a bike on their platform as well at some point in the future. Hope this helps.
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do you have to pay import fees if it’s coming to the US From Europe?
I looked on Buycycle for “colnago” and only saw a bunch of full MSRP ads from dealers. Otherwise, nothing.
The reality is that the bicycle market has turned from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. All the covid cyclists have gotten out and their bikes keep coming to market. Bicycle companies also overproduced post covid and now sales are everywhere.
It’s actually more normal that good used road bikes sell for < 50 cents on the dollar. In the past I scored amazing deals for 30 cents on the dollar. Like 2 year old mint condition bikes that were $9K builds for $3k. That is the normal bicycle market.
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I just checked them out. Not a huge selection yet but hopefully it’ll grow. The one thing that did turn me off was what looks to be false advertising. When you click to sell your bike, they make it appear that you don’t get charged a fee. But if you read the FAQs they charge 2.5% of the final sale price. I’m fine with the fee since they provide shipping materials, but don’t try to hide it.
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Interesting
what bike did you get? Would mind sharing the price you paid for it? Would be great if you could share some pictures so people can see the condition the bike is.
Thanks!
I actually uploaded a bike there a week ago and they don’t charge a seller fee in the US as of now. That will change in the future but I called their support, who confirmed that uploading a bike is always free and the for the first few months they will not charge a fee for selling a bike, either.
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I suspect the 2.5% fee is to help cover the credit card fees, but that is just a guess.
Yes, you do, which makes sense of course. Have you heard of a website where this wasn’t the case? In that case let me know haha
Personally, I’m happy to the pay the import duties if it means ifnding a bike at a good price (and of course in good condition)
Reviving this thread to see if anybody had experience with this site. Looks like they’re charging a small fee if the bike sells. Just curious if it’s worth it over something completely free like PinkBike.
So I listed my bike on Buycycle. This is mostly a heads up or warning for those considering. They charge a 3.5% fee of sale price after the sale. So listing is free, you only pay when you sell.
But what I’m more surprised by are the fees they charge the buyer. List price is €7900. But the final sale for the buyer is €9239, €1339 over the sale price. Which seems crazy to me. That’s 17% of the total sale price + the 3.5% fee they charge me. So they’re taking a 20% cut. Am I crazy to think that’s really high?
I would say it is immaterial…the only thing that is relevant (to you) is whether you feel you are getting a fair price for your bike and if the fees are reasonable. How much they charge in fees / markups after that doesn’t really matter.
many years ago, our CEO was all bent out of shape by the margin that one of our customers was making on one of our products, while we were barely breaking even 9adn their margin was obscene…close to 80%!). He kept insisting it wasn’t “fair”, but as I told him (and similar to the above) that “fair” didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was what the competition was willing to charge the customer for a similar product and if we could accept such a pricing structure. What the customer ultimately resold the device for was not a factor in the equation. 
As for Buycycle, I would say that a 3.5% fee base don the selling price is pretty reasonable…IIRC, the last time I sold a bike on eBay, it was ~10%.
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I have to disagree. Because it’s going to affect the sales of bikes. The potential buyer was ready to buy until they showed the final price after fees. At which point he offered a much lower price to me. So either I drop my price lower than I’d like or he pays way more than what I’m asking. Lose-lose for us while Buycycle makes a nice profit for little work.
What it does is drive (some) people away from the site. It certainly did in this case. I mentioned to the guy that I listed it on PinkBike as well. Free listing, free sale. So now we’re messaging each other on PinkBike figuring out a deal. We have to figure out shipping logistics and costs, but it’s going to cost a heck of a lot less than Buycycle. So it saves him a thousand bucks and me a few hundred. And leaves Buycycle with no sale and no profit.
The benefit of Buycycle I see is that they deal with the shipping hassle. They send me (seller) a bike box and shipping material. I just have to box it up and drop it at UPS. They also have buyer protection. But even PayPal has buyer protection. It sounds like they do an inspection of the bike as well before sending it on to the seller. I guess the question is whether that inspection is worth potentially over a thousand dollars. To this buyer it isn’t.
All this said, I’ll continue to list on Buycycle for exposure. Then let the buyer decide if they want to continue there with the fees or go with PinkBike.
I’m actually fine with the 3.5%. I just adjusted my price a little to get a final sale that I wanted. It wasn’t until I got an offer so much lower than asking that I was confused. Then the guy showed me that final price and said that’s why he offered so low. Basically he offered a pre-price that was my asking price after the fees.
Sounds like a win-win for you and the buyer…Awesome!
the fact that Buycycle lost out because of their fees is not your issue or the buyers, IMO.
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Yea, I don’t see how that can be sustainable. But I also don’t know if our situation is common. Maybe people don’t care about the fees.
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I’m one of the ppl who is simply looking at the overall buy price. I bought an Ebike that I’ve lusted over for a year and a half. I should receive it in a few weeks. The only downside is the wait to get the bike. However, I can’t really complain, since I got a good deal on a bike I really want! I added a fee for Buycycle to clean up and service the bike b4 shipping to me.
I have used buycycle as a seller and it has been a terrible experience. There have been issues with every step in this process! I will begin with the packaging materials. I ordered the buycycle packing material and I received an incomplete box. The box DID NOT include any material to wrap the tubes of the bike, did not include a box for the accessories, and one of the cardboard sent for the wheels did not have the required hole for the rear cog of the wheel. So, I had to go out and buy a small box for the accessories, buy bubble wrap, and I had to literally cut a hole myself so the rear cog would fit in the wheel cover. Then the next issue was with the shipping label. They sent me a shipping label. Then, 2 days later I got an email stating that the system duplicated the label and I had to print and attach a new label. Now we come to the pickup day. I took the day off work and waited all day. No UPS driver was showing up. I then spent over an hour on the phone with UPS and had to finally demand to speak with a supervisor. They finally sent a message to the driver and he showed up very late in the afternoon (5pm). So, I confirm the pickup, and the message on the app states “now you can relax…” Well, that is not the case because I clicked on track package on the app and it took me to the site where the tracking number shown did not match the tracking number on the shipping label. Then this morning I went to the app to check the status and it now states that the pickup was unsuccessful when in fact it was successful. This has been the worst experience I have had with any company. To compound these issues there is no customer service phone number to call. I have to send separate messages every time there’s an issue and wait 2 days to get a response. This has truly been one of the worst and most stressful experiences I have ever had dealing with a company. It is disheartening!
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I just had a similar experience. Stuff was missing from the packing kit. The kit does not match the video instructions. Tried to contact support, they said they would respond in 3 business days but the pickup was for the next day. I had to purchase additional materials to wrap the frame. And I had to cut my own replacements for pieces missing from the kit. I finished about an hour before the scheduled pickup. Support did eventually respond and said sorry, they changed packing kit providers and have not yet updated instructions. I don’t think the new kit is anywhere as good as something like the one provided by BikeFlights. I would be hesitant buying through them unless I know the seller is competent at packing and would be using something better than their packing kit. I did like their site as far as posting the listing and I thought other parts of the sale worked well.
That’s unfortunate. I sold a bike through BuyCycle last summer and the packing kit provided was really good. It took a few minutes to figure out how to put it together, but then it was great. My experience in general was great as a seller. I had to clarify two things with service and one thing with the pickup driver, but it worked really well overall for me.
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