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Tips To Find A Bicycle On Craigslist
By spokesman | November 6, 2008
Craigslist has become a very good source for finding a used bicycle. In some cities, there are more than 100 used bike listings posted on craigslist everyday. Most people look in the bikes category to find a bicycle, however there are many bikes listed in the garage sale category. Here are some tips to find a bicycle on craigslist.
- Look in the garage sale category- Often garage sale and estate sales have better bargains on bicycles. The sellers in the Bikes listing section are usually looking to get the most for their bicycle. In the garage sale listings, many of the sellers are more interested in just getting rid of the bicycle.
- Look at neighboring cities- Craigslist forces you to look for items in specific geographic areas individually. I live outside of Washington DC, however the Maryland listings are also accessible to me. Make sure you are looking in all of the cities are are accessible to you.
- Use the search function on several terms including bike, bikes, bicycle and bicycles- The craigslist search function is not very good. In the garage sale listings, if you search on the word ”bike”, you will not find listings that have the word “bikes”. Be sure to search on bike, bikes, bicycle and bicycles.
- E-mail for more information - The bikes listed in the garage sale area often won’t have a detailed description, so e-mail for additional information. Additionally e-mail sellers that you think may have bicycles. For example, I have found that estate sales in older established neighborhoods often have bicycles. I especially look for estate sales that say everything must be sold and are not run by estate sale companies. People running these sales often leave bicycles out of the sale description because they are more focused on selling higher priced items such as furniture, jewelery, china, silver and art.
If you follow these steps, you can avoid running around to garage sales that don’t have the items that you want and you may find a bicycle at a good price. The website, Used Bicycle Guide, has good information on buying a used bicycle including how to determining the correct size and how to inspect the bicycle for problems.
These tips are also useful for finding other items at garage and estate sales. The website, Garage Sale Treasure, has tips on finding other valuable items at these sales (including books, magazines, toys, collectibles) and selling these items on e-bay.
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Topics: Bicycle Websites |
March 23rd, 2011 at 12:43 am
This is a very useful post, thank you.
March 29th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
I was happy to find this post - great advice.
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April 13th, 2011 at 4:55 am
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August 15th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
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August 17th, 2011 at 3:55 am
Yes,I am happy to have found this blog and appreciate these tips.
August 18th, 2011 at 3:25 am
This is my first comment here and i want to say i really found this article helpful. Buying a bike on craigslist can be a mad scramble, the good ones go quick and there are lots of junky ones