Once you’ve found a bicycle you’re interested in, here are the steps you should take to bid confidently and successfully!
To contact the seller and place bids, you must first register to bid with a valid credit card and phone number. Winning bidders pay Bicycles and Bids a 15% buyer’s fee on top of the winning bid amount if it exceeds $350 or $50 USD if not.
While we’ve tried to make buying a bicycle online as safe and easy as possible, it’s ultimately your responsibility to perform your own due diligence prior to placing a bid and make sure that the bicycle you’re considering is right for you.
To ensure a smooth transaction, you should have the following organized prior to placing a bid.
To buy a bicycle on Bicycles & Bids, you must win the auction by ultimately being the highest bidder. If the seller has put a “reserve” on the auction, you only win if your bid meets or exceeds that price. If the auction has no reserve, then the highest bidder wins it regardless of the amount bid.
After the auction closes, you’ll be provided with the seller’s contact information and vice versa in order to finalize the details and logistics of the transaction. Buyers are expected to pay for the bicycle in full within a week of the auction.
It’s free to submit your bicycle. We simply ask you for a few details: some photos and a brief description. You can also choose to sell your bicycle with or without a reserve. The reserve price is the minimum value you’ll accept. Imposing a reserve price guarantees the minimum amount you will receive, but bicycles offered with no reserve get more bids, more interest, and more attention.
If you choose a reserve auction, we’ll ask you to suggest a reserve price but we may ask for a lower one before accepting your bicycle. (We monitor market conditions and will insist
that your reserve price be reasonable.) Keep in mind that all of our auctions start from $0, regardless of reserve price.
Our experienced auction team will review your submission and may ask you some follow-up questions. We will do our best to give you an answer within one business day. Not every bicycle is right for Bicycles & Bids, but we always appreciate you taking the time to submit your bicycle and will work with you to help you get auction ready.
Once your submission is accepted, we’ll need some additional information from you like detailed photos, service and ownership history, etc. Don’t worry – we’re here to help you throughout the process!
Once you’ve provided us with all of the necessary information and photos, we’ll create a draft of your listing for you to approve. Once you’ve reviewed and approved it, we’ll work with you to schedule your auction and it will go live shortly thereafter!
Once a bike is sold on Bicycles & Bids, we connect the buyer and seller so they can complete the sale directly. Here are our recommendations and tips for ensuring a successful post-auction transaction – and remember, we’re always here to help!
Email us a photo of your new ride to share your success story. We’d love to hear all about it!
In order to register, first sign up by clicking the “Sign In” icon in the upper right corner of the screen, then click “Sign up here” in the box that subsequently pops up. Once you create a username and password, you’ll be prompted to verify your email address. After you’ve done that, you can return to Bicycles & Bids and you’ll be prompted to register to bid.
If you don’t want to register just yet, you can do it later. Once you find a bicycle you want to bid on and click “Place Bid” on the bicycle’s listing page, you will have to register before you can bid. You will also have to enter your credit information before you bid.
In order to place a bid, you first have to register, which we’ve explained above. Once you’ve registered and you’ve found a bicycle you’re interested in buying, bidding is easy. First, click the “Place Bid” icon on a bicycle’s listing page and then enter your bid amount. Your bid must be higher than the previous bid and, depending on the current bidding level, there may be a minimum increase over the previous bid.
We currently only operate in the USA so all bids on Bicycles and Bids are in United States Dollars (USD).
That would be for the seller to decide but feel free to offer to cover it or at least a part. Good karma is worth cultivating!
No. If you are outbid, you will need to manually input your next bid. Note that the price of the bicycle will immediately progress to your bid amount. For example, if the current high-bid is $3000 and you input a $3,500 bid, the current high bid will immediately go to $3,500.
If a listing doesn’t have a reserve, you’ll see a “No Reserve” tag along with a “No Reserve” text near the bidding box. If you don’t see this text, that auction has a reserve price. Reserve prices are not published, and we ask that buyers refrain from asking sellers about reserve pricing during the auction.
If you’re the high bidder but the reserve hasn’t been met, we’ll work with the seller and the buyer to find a sale price that’s suitable for both parties. If we’re able to reach an agreement, we’ll put the buyer and seller in contact.
At the conclusion of the auction, both the buyer and seller are given each other’s contact information to complete the transaction.
Transportation costs are always the buyer’s responsibility, so we recommend gathering personal travel and/or shipping cost estimates prior to placing your bid.
Some common strategies for collecting a bicycle include:
We recommend wire transfers or cashier’s checks for payment, but there are many possible options. Any form that provides an electronic paper trail is recommended.
DUH ! Aside from common-sense rules like avoiding foul language and engaging in personal attacks, the conversation should be focused on the bicycles being sold. We want to ensure the Bicycles & Bids community remains a positive place to spend time with fellow cycling enthusiasts. A partial list of things that are NO-NO’S (and will get you ICED accordingly) include:
Listing a bicycle is completely free. Therefore, sellers receive 100% of the final sale price!
We’re focused on working and ready to ride COMPLETE bicycles and Electric Bikes across all genres, sizes, and styles that appeal to the bike nerds, messengers, FREDS, downhill chargers, Gravel dads, track fiends, sprinters, roadies, tri-athletes, cruisers, bike campers, long haul riders, polo players, people who Tour, vintage lovers and anyone else looking for something unique and hard to find. Anything with a cool story, provenance, unique customizations, rarity, and such is all considered. We generally will not accept entry-level bikes from giant big-box retailers.
We don’t list every bicycle we’re offered, but we’re certainly ready to discuss whether your submission would be a good fit for Bicycles & Bids.
Nah, not yet. At launch we will only be offering bicycles for sale located in the US and Canada. However, we will definitely be expanding internationally in the future. One thing at a time.
To submit your bike for sale, go to the “Sell a Bike” link in the header. In order to sell your bike, you’ll need to provide us with some important information – like the make, model, year, a few photos, and some other relevant details. If we’re interested in selling your bicycle, we will be in touch and may ask you more detailed questions in order to make sure your listing is as Fuego as possible.
We start with just the basics: we can let you know if we’ll accept your bicycle if you give us the make, model, year and a few other details. If we accept your bicycle based on this information, we’ll then need to gather more details about your history with the bicycle, its features, and other details that will help us craft your listing
After you provide us with all of the pertinent information about your bicycle, we’ll write the actual auction description. We won’t go live without your approval, and we do our best to make our auction descriptions simple, objective, and direct, focusing on only the most important details to help bidders make their decisions.
Although we don’t offer the ability to precisely schedule your auction, we allow our sellers to provide preferences. If you’d prefer a certain start date, or if you’d prefer if your auction wasn’t live during a certain week (for example, due to a vacation or business trip), let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
We think E bikes are cool as long as they have pedals! No throttlebased scooters or mopeds. Please make sure it can be shipped before you agree to shipping.
All auctions last for seven days. However, the exact duration can fluctuate. That’s because within the last minute of an auction, each new bid resets the auction clock to one minute remaining. This simulates a traditional auction, where bidding continues until bidders stop, rather than some online auctions which end at a set time and favor last-second bids.
You can’t edit your auction yourself, but you can be in touch with Bicycles & Bids throughout the duration of your auction. If you need to edit your auction, just reach out and let us know what you need to have changed. You can also leave comments, which include additional photos. And you can answer questions to help improve the clarity of your listing.
We strongly recommend being an active participant in the comments section, and we ask that you respond to any questions submitted there. Sellers who actively participate are always the most successful. Staying positive and constructive with your answers increases confidence from potential bidders. Keep in mind that the buyer is a cycling enthusiast just like you, and they likely wouldn’t be asking unless they’re seriously interested in your ride.
Yes, we offer sellers the choice between a “reserve” and a “no reserve” auction. A “reserve” is the minimum price the seller will accept for their bike, a price which remains unknown to buyers during the auction. A “no reserve” auction has no minimum price, meaning the bike will sell for the amount of the high bid. If you choose a reserve auction, we will ask you to suggest a reserve price–but we may ask for a lower one before we’re willing to list it for sale.
We recommend never revealing your reserve, especially in the public comments. Disclosing a reserve price almost always slows down bidding, especially as the auction nears or reaches that value.
No – bicycles listed are for sale exclusively through the auction. If a buyer or seller attempts to make a deal in an attempt to subvert the auction, they will be permanently banned from the site. If you want to buy a bike, simply bid the maximum you’re willing to pay. That’s the best way to ensure you’ll end up with the bicycle you want.
If your reserve isn’t met, we’ll get in touch with you and with the highest bidder on your auction, and we’ll try to negotiate a price that will satisfy both parties. If we reach an agreement, we’ll then put the seller and buyer in contact. If not, at least you tried!
Once the auction is over, the completion of the transaction is between the buyer and the seller. We will provide the buyer and seller with each other's contact info, and the two parties can decide the best way to complete the transaction.
In general, we recommend wire transfers, cashier's checks, or digital payments that create an invoice and offer some sort of buyer protection, as the safest form of payment. If the buyer is local, for example, meeting at their local bank branch to draft a cashier's check, withdraw the funds directly, or complete an electronic money transfer are also common practices. In each of these cases, please perform your due diligence, potentially including verifying a cashier’s check with your bank, or waiting until the funds have cleared before transferring the bicycle. To ensure safety we do not recommend taking payment in cash.
While it is not required by law we always recommend drafting up a Bill of Sale that specifies the make, model, and serial number (if applicable) of the bicycle being sold, as well as the purchase price, and the terms of the transaction. Both the buyer and seller should sign and date the Bill of Sale and each should keep a copy for their records.
In the unusual event that this occurs, the winning bidder forfeits their 15% buyer’s fee — and is permanently banned from Bicycles & Bids. If your buyer fails to follow through, we’ll immediately work with the next-highest bidder(s) in an attempt to sell your bike at an agreed-upon price. In the event that we can’t strike a deal, we will re-list your bicycle.
In the event that the seller does not follow through, the buyer will be refunded there 15% and the seller will be charged the comission and banned for life.
THIS website is NOT related to Doug Demuro, Cars and Bids website or any of its affiliates. We think they’re pretty cool tho and you should def check them out for all your enthusiast automotive needs at www.carsandbids.com.
One day for sure. Currently tho we are only doing auctions based in the USA. Don't worry. We will get to Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia soon. One thing at a time...
