How to negotiate your bike's price: Tips for ensuring a fair deal

The secret rule of cycling is N+1. This means there’s always room for a new bike to add to your collection. Ensuring that you can get regular bikes often means ensuring you are getting the best deals when buying and selling.

To do this, it is important to understand how to negotiate the price of your bike and whether the price is correct. In this article, we will discuss how to negotiate a used bike for a bike and get the right price so it sells at the right value.

How to negotiate the price of your bike

Let us get straight into the action and start by telling you how to properly negotiate the correct price for a bike. Most websites where you can buy secondhand bikes don't offer this function, but buycycle does, making it a great place to safely buy and sell bikes online. 

The key to a good sale is negotiating correctly. Not just through organizing the correct price but through excellent communication. Negotiating is getting a great deal for both and not just one person. 

1. Initial offer

We recommend starting with an initial offer. Once you have found the bike you like with the specifications you require, it is important to make contact. On buycycle, you can simply click on "Make an offer" When it comes to making the first offer, I recommend going in at a price that would be ideal for you to pay without offending the seller by being too low. 

Top tip!

You should also add a polite message to the buyer saying that you like the bike and would be really interested in owning it. This is a great way to build rapport with the seller. 

3. Counteroffer

Most of the time, your offer is not always first accepted but often counteroffered. This is where the buyer offers a price back to you in return that they feel is what they want you to pay instead. 

You will find that some sellers will offer a very little discount, and others will be very susceptible to working closer to what you have offered them. If you find they are not willing to budge much, then you might want to consider finding the bike elsewhere. 

If they are willing to move closer to the price, you can either accept or send a counteroffer to see if they will meet even closer. If they are willing to drop a lot, it is important that you bring your price up. 

Top tip!

Be realistic with the counteroffer, and feel free to write anything extra to the buyer. Remember to explain why you are offering that price and see if you can justify the seller to come down. How to negotiate a used bike comes down to communication.

4. Final price

After you have both found a price that you can both agree on, it is time to complete the sale and accept the offer. With this offer accepted, it is now time to send the bike to the new buyer or pay and wait to receive it. 

Top tip!

Try not to wait too long to reach a final price that works for both the buyer and the seller. While you are negotiating, other people will be looking at the bike and potentially offering. 

Tips to know if the price is correct

Next, we need to discuss how to find the correct price. Finding the correct price for bikes can be very challenging because they come in all different sizes and specifications, and new models are generally released each year. 

Why is it important to find the right price?

When it comes to buying and selling a bike, it is vital to find the correct price. The first reason is that you don’t want to sell a bike too cheaply and end up losing out on too much money, giving someone else an incredible deal that might mean they might sell it on later. 

The second reason is that you don’t want to make the bike too expensive. If it is too expensive, then it might never sell, or you could end up charging someone too much, which isn’t good to do either, as you wouldn’t want it to happen to you. 

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Is it common to find bikes overpriced?

When going on certain websites you often find bikes overpriced. There are many reasons for this, and it is important that you don’t think your bike is worth more than it should be. Here is why sellers often overpay. 

• Sentimental value from experiences they have had on the bike.
• People trying to get the money they paid for back.
• Thinking they have a higher-specification bike than they actually do.
• Thinking a bike is in great condition when it actually isn’t. 
• Not understanding bike depreciation is very fast. 

Websites like buycycle are amazing for helping you not overprice a bike and actually have a tool that helps you value the price range depending on the bike, the components, and even the condition it is in.

Tips to know if the price is correct

So how do you know if the price is correct? Well, next we are going to give you all the tips you need to ensure it is. 

1. Other listings

The first step you can take when it comes to valuing a bike is to look at other listings with a similar specification and of a similar age. By going through these listings on buycycle, you are able to find other bikes which are very similar.

2. Depreciation rates

Another way to roughly gauge the value of many bikes is to allow 10% to 15% for every year they have aged. This allows for components becoming outdated and the price of older technology. 

3. Seek advice

If you are very much struggling to find the right value for a bike, you can always ask some experts for their advice. Going on to local cycling groups or even asking at your local bike shop will help you find the right figure.

4. Use the buycycle value calculator

At buycycle, you will find a bike value calculator where you can search for the bike you have, add the components you have, describe the condition, and then give you a sale price that will be good for both parties. 

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When should I buy and sell a bike?

When it comes to buying and selling a bike, there are good times and bad times. You might find the best time to buy a bike for the best price is in winter, out of season, or just before the next season starts when other cyclists start upgrading. 

There are demands at different times of year for different bikes. Coming into winter, you get a lot of people wanting cyclocross bikes, into summer, road bikes, and mountain bikes and gravel bikes seem to be popular all year round. How to negotiate a used bike often changes depending on season. Read more about When to buy a bike in our dedicated article.

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Should I buy a bike from last season?

If you are looking for an amazing deal on a bike and want to save lots of money, getting a pre-owned bike from a previous season is a great way to go. Typically, many bike brands update their bikes every year, either with new technology or colors, but quite often, there isn’t too much difference. 

If you want to save money and are happy not to have a bike made in the current year, then going for one from a previous season is a great way to go and you will find them to be around 20% to 30% cheaper in some cases. 

How to negotiate a used bike

When it comes to how to negotiate a used bike, it is simple. Just make an offer that you think is fair and communicate well to ensure the best result. Don’t be scared to show a bit of personality and try not to give offers too low as this can offend sellers and buyers.