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Pro's Closet offer experience

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Colo Springs E

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Bought a brand new $1550 gravel bike, soon realized I didn't like it. Listed it on Facebook and craigslist for $1350 firm, figuring I'd take a $200 hit as a 'rental.' Put maybe 30 miles on it? Literally like new, not a scratch, never been on dirt. No mods, but did include platform pedals.

Couple of scam responses, nothing more.

Figured what the hell, see what Pro's Closet will offer. I wouldn't have to ship it, as they have a location near Denver, I live in Colo Springs.

Any guesses what they offered?

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#6 ·
Colo Springs E said:
Hint: I was pretty surprised at 1 how low the offer was, and 2 they only would allow trade in--no cash payment to me.
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I'm gonna guess around 50% of what you paid. That is their business model after all - buy to resell. I used to work at a shop nearby them, and constantly heard from customers that tried to sell a bike and were insulted at how low the offer was.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Chill, jrhone.... thought some might like to guess.

Even lower Redlands.... about 50% was what i assumed also, maybe just a bit more since it is a 1-week old 2022 bike in perfect condition.

Good guess Joe Handlebar! The offer was $660 credit with pro's closet (ie, trade toward one of their bikes), or $550 credit at a participating bike shop.

No cash offer.

Wow.

With used prices being still pretty high, and an ongoing lack of availability of new bikes, I thought they might go as high as $800 cash (figuring they'd put it on their website for $1200 probably).
 
#9 ·
That's pretty wild. Must not be a market for that bike.
I bought a 2020 Marin Alpine Trail 8, for $3k; rode and raced the hell out of it for 18 months. I realized at about 12 months that I should have bought a large instead of a medium.
I stripped every part except the headset and shock off it, and TPC bought the frame for $1350. Similar frames were selling on PB for 1500, and but I'd have to pay shipping.
 
#12 ·
I I had a different experience with The Pros Closet: I submitted my well used 2016 tricked out Yeti SB6 up for offer. As a point of reference, I purchased the bike used in late 2018 for $3200. Pros Closet offered me $2550 cash ( This was in January of 2021). I ended up selling the bike locally in the SF bay area for $2800 cash about 6 weeks later. Before selling I received several cash offers for $2500. So in my experience the Pros Closet offer was pretty good. However, since they never received the bike to look at I cannot say that the $2550 offer would have gone through. Also, my bike was well used when I purchased it and I definitely got some mileage out of it up until selling.
 
#14 ·
Colo Springs E said:
The offer was $660 credit with pro's closet (ie, trade toward one of their bikes), or $550 credit at a participating bike shop.

No cash offer.
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Just a potential explanation: their model for pricing their offer to you may involve two components: a percentage discount off what they expect to sell the bike, which most people would expect, plus a fixed charge for things like storage costs, amortizing IT systems and other costs that would be accounted for on a per-bike basis. This would allow them to be more competitive on higher-end bikes, where the fixed cost percentage would be smaller, but it would disproportionately mean what seems like a lowball offer on a lower-end bike.

This happens all the time on used car lots. Those businesses have a broad mix of cars, from older, less expensive models to higher end models. They might pay $2,000 for an older trade-in with 100k miles on it, but list that for $5,000, a markup of 150%, which seems like a lot. It isn't really, it's because of the value of various fixed charges like floor space, paying the Finance & Insurance department on a "mini" (minimum commission) deal, and other things that might add up to $1,000 of the $3,000 gross margin. A car they pay $20,000 for might be listed at $32,000, with a gross margin markup of only 60%, which is more in line with what people would think of as reasonable.
 
#15 ·
Colo Springs E said:
bike shop was more than happy to take it back, full refund.
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Wow. That has to be a super cool shop.

I had a similar situation with a new bike purchase once and it did not turn out well. It did in the long run, but that shop was extremely opposed to taking the bike back. You are very lucky you got your money back.

As for the offer on any bike, it probably depends on what the bike is and how much of a demand there is for it. I had a nice road bike I had built up new over 20 years ago, 853 steel, full Ultegra, nice wheels and new tires. They offered 500 cash and I thought that was fine, especially considering they paid for the shipping to their Colorado facility. It was in the bike shop on consignment for a couple of months and didn't move, and the shop would only give me 500 in-store credit, so I thought it made sense to let The Pro's Closet pay me cash for it.
 
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Discussion starter · #18 ·
KobayashiMaru I think a few of the shops around here have a return policy, or at the very least an exchange policy (assuming the return is in like new condition). But you're right, they certainly didn't have to do it--there was nothing on my receipt that mentioned returns, and it's not on their website. Super nice guys (Gnarly B's in Co Springs). If I decide to get another wheelset for my bike, I'll go probably go with them. Or, if I ever do decide to get another bike--definitely will go with them if they have what I want-- and this time I'll ensure it's the right bike, no return.
 
#19 ·
I've managed a computer repair shop for the last 8 years, we would buy and sell Apple computers. Some would question our offer, many would take it blindly and we offered quite a bit lower than the local market as we had to make some profit. It's just business 101. Once Apple started listing their purchase prices, I even low balled that, but it was a consistent baseline. Once Apple started doing buy-backs, many started quoting Apples offer back at us, to which we offered the customer should take whichever choice they desire: ours or Apples. Many still stuck with us, simply because we already had the computer in for analysis and could immediately write/mail a check.

Anyway, got an offer on my SC Hightower which is still for sale, and The Pros Closet offer was what I expected but believe I can get more locally as the purchaser is not looking to make a profit. I have bought about a dozen bikes during Covid though and flipped for higher when things were hard to find. Now, not so much. Things have stabilized quite a bit, and those that wanted in to the sport already got in.
 
#20 ·
Last year, they gave my wife $1200 for her 2013 Specialized Amira (full Ultegra) road bike. That's exactly what we would have listed it for. A couple of months ago, they gave me $2500 for my 2017 Niner Jet 9 RDO (GX drivetrain/XT brakes). That's exactly what I had it listed for and no interest. Last week, they offered me $133 for a relatively new wheelset. DT Swiss XM481/DT350 build. I was somewhat disappointed. Oh well. Two out of three ain't bad.
 
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