Bicycle Inflation in Paradise?

[Don49]

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/bicycle-inflation-in-paradise/

[lemonlaug]

Very interesting. I've always thought it would be worth it to snap up some cheap bikes in the midwest and take them to NY. Looks like that instinct wasn't too far off base.

[z. beeblebrox]

Very interesting. I've always thought it would be worth it to snap up some cheap bikes in the midwest and take them to NY. Looks like that instinct wasn't too far off base.

I think the costs of transporting the bikes would be prohibitive, but if you were making the trip anyways, cram as many old bikes into your car as possible, then sell them at huge profit in Boston/NY/Seattle/Portland.
Last year I bought a cheap cruiser at a garage sale here in Boston, I bought it for $25. I spent about 2 hrs and lubing and about $20 on parts. I gave it to my gf who thought it was ugly and didn't want to ride it. I sold it about a week later for $200 on craigslist. Subtract out the cost at $20 an hr plus parts and thats still 560% profit. That's essentially what the used bike stores do.

[lemonlaug]

I think the costs of transporting the bikes would be prohibitive, but if you were making the trip anyways, cram as many old bikes into your car as possible, then sell them at huge profit in Boston/NY/Seattle/Portland.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't do it as pure arbitrage, but as a sort of bottom-line enhancement to an otherwise necessary trip.

[MattTuck]

I like this forum. People know what arbitrage is.


Interesting article. If anyone wants to pay me for my first road bike which is still hanging in my parents' garage, I'm accepting offers.

It was a St. Tropez, I think it had lead filled steel tubing. Steel handlebars. Looking back, it's a wonder that I stuck with biking after that piece of junk. I think I was lucky to get a mountain bike the next year which I rode exclusively until I got a "real" road bike.