I’m sure that, like me, the time comes when you want to buy or sell a car, and you decide to do some homework to determine a fair price to pay or a realistic price to ask. Kelly Blue Book is the biggie for cars. But now, sellers of bikes have their own resource to check — Bicycle Blue Book.
It’s a web site that offers a pretty comprehensive listing of bikes, whether road, mountain, or hybrid. It’s easy to use, and that makes it pretty slick. On the home page, you’re asked to pull down three drop-down menus: for make, model, and year. Bicycle Blue Book will then return the current price the bike can be expected to fetch.
For example, I decided to check the value of my five-year-old Specialized Allez Elite. When I entered the data into the “value engine” on the BBB home page, I was a bit disappointed to find that my pride and joy would bring me $491.00. I was hoping for more, but have to admit that’s a reasonable price for the bike.
The listing also provides a rundown of stock components.
Bicycle Blue Book claims to be the most accurate source for used bike prices. It draws on a database of thousands of bicycle transactions going back to 1993, which was compiled by searching sales records for bikes. The data is updated constantly, and the site says it does not favor either buyers or sellers — that’s it’s just a snapshot of a bike’s worth at a given time.
Details about who is behind the site are sparse. Their “About Us” page says it was founded by “a cross-section of bicycle industry professionals, technology veterans, and bicycling enthusiasts,” with experience in bicycle retail management, repair, and racing.
The site is worth a visit, whether you’re planning to buy or sell a bike, or just if you like to geek out about information about bikes. I’m sure it will be a valuable resource for many of us.