Become a Bike Merchant

Seriously, if you have a car and a bike rack, then you are eligible for one of the greatest money-making schemes of all-time (slight exaggeration, of course).

Have you ever noticed how used bicycles never have consistent list prices in the classifieds? That’s because nobody knows how much a used bicycle will sell for. We only have a vague idea...somewhere between $0 and the price you paid for it. Best thing is that used bicycles work on the classic supply-and-demand system. The closer you are to an area where demand is high, the more you can get for a used bike.

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. When you went over the hills into the suburbs, used bicycles were relatively cheap. The same used bicycle would sell for double in areas close to the University of California or Stanford University. The same bike you buy for $50 in the ‘burbs would sell for $125 in the used bike shops in Berkeley. Do your own calculations, and if you can find an economical way to transport bikes from the suburbs to the university towns, make sure they’re ride-able, and sell them off to desperate students, then you have just opened up your own used bike service.

A tip...the crappier the bike, the better an idea this is. Why? Because good mountain and road bikes are bought and sold by discerning bicycle riders who are willing to pay $300 for a good used bike. These same people know more about the value of a used bicycle than your average student, so the profit margin is likely to be much lower (if there is one). On the other hand, if someone is trying to get rid of a run-of-the-mill street bike from the early Nineties, chances are good that it will sell at a very low price. You can then re-sell for an elevated price, but one that is still accessible to the majority of students looking to get from point A to point B on campus.