Selling your bike on BikeList is easy

It’s important to pack your bike properly to make sure it arrives at its new home in perfect shape. Ask your local bike shop for used boxes, or you can purchase one from BikeFlights. We created a short video demonstrating how to disassemble, wrap, pack, and ship a bike.

If packing a bike is not your thing, then you can easily find someone to do it for you for a fee. There is a directory of bike shops that can do the packing for you available over at Bike Flights.

https://www.bikeflights.com/bicycleshops

Frames need special attention. Ruckus Composites has a nice how to:

https://ruckuscomp.com/news/bike-tech/2015/06/18/how-to-pack-a-frame-for-shipping/

Pool noodles or pipe insulation are great, too!

Pack parts and accessories the same way you would pack anything delicate and valuable. Use plenty of packing material to make sure they don’t move around in the box. Refer to the shipping guidelines with whichever carrier you plan to use:

USPS:   https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-are-Some-Packaging-and-Shipping-Tips-for-Mailing-Parcels
UPS:   https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/packaging-tips.page
FedEx:   https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/packing/how-to-pack.html

Bikes are notoriously difficult to photograph. We recommend leaning bikes against a white wall or garage door so that the background does not distract. A clean bike and good lighting can make a difference in selling price. Also: you can’t take too many photos! Definitely photograph all flaws, dents, paint issues, etc.

We created a short video on taking great photos:

The more you can describe your bike or parts, the better. How long have you owned it? Are you the original owner? Any crashes or defects? If you want your listing to really stand out, post a video walkaround of the bike on YouTube and include a link in the listing.

For more tips, here’s a good intro article from Average Joe Cyclist:

https://averagejoecyclist.com/sell-bike-craigslist/

The price of your item determines whether it sells quickly or not. Currently the best way to price stuff is to search “completed items” on eBay for comps. We are working on a better way!

Once your listing is live, share the link in relevant Facebook groups, forums, or any other social media platforms or forums where you have a presence. Upload to YouTube a walk-around video of your bike.

Here’s a good article on Reverb on how to promote on social media. All of the points raised in this article that work for selling electric guitars on social media also work for bikes!

https://reverb.com/selling/how-to-use-social-media-to-sell-more-gear-on-reverb

When creating a listing, the seller can mark it as available for Local Pickup, available to ship anywhere in the lower 48 United States, or both. Potential buyers can search for listings that are close to their location to find the local pickup listings or browse all listings nation-wide. When purchasing the item, the buyer will select if they want Local Pickup or Shipping if both are offered for the listing. The seller will receive an email confirmation once the item is sold and instructions for how to arrange the local pickup or arrange shipping (depending on the method selected by the buyer). The Seller will need to use the Private Messaging feature on this site to communicate with the buyer to arrange pickup. After picking up the bike, the seller needs to log into their BikeList account and mark the item as successfully picked up. Then, the seller will get paid (less the seller's fee). If there are any issues during the pickup process, BikeList Support is just a click away.

When creating a listing, the seller can mark it as available for Local Pickup, available to ship anywhere in the lower 48 United States, or both. Potential buyers can search for listings that are close to their location to find the local pickup listings or browse all listings nation-wide. When purchasing the item, the buyer will select if they want Local Pickup or Shipping if both are offered for the listing. The seller will receive an email confirmation once the item is sold and instructions for how to arrange the local pickup or arrange shipping (depending on the method selected by the buyer). The Seller can contact the Buyer with Private Messaging after the item is purchased. For Online Shipping orders the seller needs to arrange to ship the item and provide BikeList with a tracking number from either UPS, USPS, FedEx or BikeFlights. Once the tracking number is verified, BikeList will pay out the seller (less the seller's fee). If there are any issues during the buying and shipping process, BikeList Support is just a click away.

The Seller pays shipping, and can set a shipping amount for the listing which will be included in the total price paid by the buyer.

Depends on what you are shipping! Here's a couple of ideas on how to research a shipping price. Browse the site and see what other sellers are charging for similar items to yours. Go to USPS.com or UPS.com and get an estimate for shipping your item to the furthest possible city from your location (in the lower 48 United States) and then add a little extra on that.

We charge a single fee to keep things simple. That helps out with covering our costs. There's a 3% credit card processing fee. We have other costs like wages for our software developers, hosting costs, marketing, taxes (Federal, State, and local), shrinkage (aka fraud), legal expenses, and so on. Unlike forums, we don't make money from Ads or selling newsletter sponsorships or social media promotions. We're a small business, which is great but also means we don't have a big parent company with deep pockets.

As a company, we have to use PayPal Business and would pay out sellers as a Goods and Services, which would require the seller to have a PayPal Business account. As a company we're different than PayPal'ing a rando user on Facebook Marketplace. That said, we are looking into options for providing the option of paying out to a PayPal Business account for sellers and would like to add that option.

Yes. We just ask that you delist it from BikeList once it is sold.

If a potential buyer leaves a question or comment on the listing, you will receive an email notification with a link in it for responding. Buyers can also send messages along with their Offers and the seller can respond. When an item sells, private messaging between the buyer and seller is provided.

We don't yet offer "combined shipping" rates. At this point, you can arrange with the buyer to Make an Offer on the additional item at a lower price to compensate for the combined shipping savings.

Not yet. In the meantime, you can work directly with USPS and UPS or use a service like Shippo or ShipStation to get discounted rates.

BikeList uses a 3rd party called Stripe to handle all financial transactions with the buyer and seller. For sellers, all of this is managed on Stripe's website and NONE of the sensitive information (Bank Account Number for payouts, etc.) is accessible by BikeList. Similarly, Stripe handles all of the credit card processing for the buyers on their website and BikeList never handles credit cards or bank transfers directly.

See About Us Page. Additionally, BikeList is registered as a corporation in the state of Delaware. You can look us up here: https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/6896011 We've been covered by the press here and here. We pay employees living wages. And pay taxes. And marketing expenses. And do some lobbying to protect our customers. All the stuff that a real company does (which we are). We work full time on this - not moonlighting or a side gig. We're not ad-supported and fund ALL of our activities with a fee.

First, BikeList NEVER directly handles your SSN. We don't collect it on our website. We use a third party, Stripe, to handle all of the payouts to sellers. They also handle all of the federal tax requirements for those payouts and will collect a SSN and contact info so they can mail you a 1099k form if you exceed the IRS thresholds for reporting marketplace sales. Don't just take our word for it! Stripe handles payouts for many different websites, here's a few answering the same question: Stripe on Memberhub.com, Stripe on Indiegogo.com, Stripe on OfferUp

We can't give out tax advice since we're not accountants. Please consult with your accountant on this. What we can say is that BikeList is considered a Marketplace Facilitator, just like eBay, and operate with similar tax reporting requirements.

No. The seller pays a single fee to BikeList when an item sells.

Yes. BikeList only charges a fee if your item sells.

BikeList uses a third party, Stripe, for seller payouts which can be set up to transfer funds to your personal or business bank account. More information can be found on Stripe’s website: https://support.stripe.com/topics/payouts

We encourage the buyer to use private messaging to contact the seller first. BikeList will help the Buyer get in contact with the seller to resolve issues if reported to BikeList within 7 days of delivery. The seller can ask BikeList to refund some or all of the purchase price back to the buyer. If the seller does not respond to the buyer’s issue or if the buyer wishes to appeal they can ask BikeList to step in within 7 days of first reporting the dispute.

Clear pictures of the item boxed up before shipment, tracking number, shipper’s confirmation of delivery to address, and the original listing.

We don’t offer shipping labels at this time. We are working on it so stay tuned!

A seller is expected to ship an item within 3 business days of notification and to respond to a buyer dispute within 3 business days of being contacted. Additionally, the seller is expected to work with buyers to resolve disputes in a good and timely manner. Failure to do these items could result in suspension of your account. If the buyer requests BikeList to moderate a situation either directly or via their bank and the seller does not respond to requests for information then a refund may be issued to the buyer against the seller’s account and funds returned to the buyer.

If a return is agreed by the buyer and seller for item not as described or damage then the seller is responsible for paying for return shipping.

It is the seller’s responsibility to file a claim with the carrier and work with the buyer to get photos and documentation of the item.