The Pro’s Closet?

[Name Redacted]

The price ^^ is always what the market will bear and the price aint the price till you got the money in your hand or texted to your account

imagine the poor ( but not poor) local MD who could not buy a Yeti at any price during the shortages in 2020 and had to pay top dollar for my 5.5

I ended up selling my bike for a decent price and the wife kept hers and now rides it more than we were. All worked out. But i feel like the lowballing was definitely a indicator of the market and their inventory at the time which was probably substantial.

[XXX-er]

you do run the risk of insulting the seller or the buyer, a guy on FB just tried to low ball me on used snow tires, i told him to ask his mom for the other 200$ and he was insulted

haks at 60% on rims for a tacoma anyone ?

[XtrPickels]

Interesting timing after they just dumped all/most of their inventory. I just submitted a bike for sale, we'll see how desperate they are for quality inventory.

What's the verdict?

[smmokan]

Garbage… but about what I expected. They offered around $1400 for a bike (Transition Sentinel) that I sold fairly easily for $3000.

[XtrPickels]

Garbage… but about what I expected. They offered around $1400 for a bike (Transition Sentinel) that I sold fairly easily for $3000.

Yeah. Taking a 50% hit isn't worth the ease.
It'll be interesting to see if their prices are in-line with used market value or at a premium.
No inventory on their site that I can see.

[beaterdit]

Man, with many retailers and manufacturers still overstocked and blowing out new bikes and demos for ridiculous prices, it's gonna be a tough row to hoe for TPC. Smmokan's experience seems to bear that out and it doesn't bode well.

[jummo]

Garbage… but about what I expected. They offered around $1400 for a bike (Transition Sentinel) that I sold fairly easily for $3000.

No offense to you, but this should have been their business model from the start. I sold them a bike I was asking $4500 for (would have taken 4k) and they gave me $3900. I was quite pleased, but couldn't figure how they were going to make money. They put new rotors and pads and tires on it and made it too expensive. So it sat for over a year.
They finally sold it for a little more than they paid me.
The Covid crash notwithstanding, they paid way too much, at least in my case, to be able to sell at a reasonable margin.

[toast2266]

I don't get the business model that involves buying bikes from individuals. So many tricky variables doing that. Seems like it'd be so much more preferable to work out deals to buy entire rental / demo fleets.

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[jm2e]

I don't get the business model that involves buying bikes from individuals. So many tricky variables doing that. Seems like it'd be so much more preferable to work out deals to buy entire rental / demo fleets.

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Agree. I’d think they could do really well being the clearing house for rental fleets and brand close outs.


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[smmokan]

No offense to you, but this should have been their business model from the start. I sold them a bike I was asking $4500 for (would have taken 4k) and they gave me $3900. I was quite pleased, but couldn't figure how they were going to make money. They put new rotors and pads and tires on it and made it too expensive. So it sat for over a year.
They finally sold it for a little more than they paid me.
The Covid crash notwithstanding, they paid way too much, at least in my case, to be able to sell at a reasonable margin.

No offense taken... but I just don't get how they can scale a business with this model these days. Sure, you can probably make a comfortable living for a few people with a "Pros Closet" style business in a major market with a lot of effort, but there are too many market forces playing against them to make any real money. It's too easy to sell a bike these days on PB, FB, CL, etc - even having to deal with the typical idiots, you're still going to make a good amount more than the required lowball offers from TPC. Second, it's a buyers market for used bikes these days, so why would someone overpay TPC when they can find way better deals online? TPC doesn't clearly offer any add'l value with their used bikes than a random seller, from what I can see.

I agree with JME below - I think the real value would be to take full demo fleets and NOS bikes/gear/equipment and sell those at an attractive price point, creating a unique business. Then maybe supplement that with higher-end consignment bikes as well. There's a company in Boulder called Buy The Mojo that's doing something similar and is fairly successful (on a much smaller scale).

[Vt-Freeheel]

It's pretty simple how they're going to make it work... Private equity $$$$

[singlesline]

They should get a contract with some of the brands that don’t really have a big US presence like Merida, Cube or Focus.

Take their leftover stock, bring it over in a container, and firesale in the US. Prevents the foreign brand from having a bunch of deep discount bikes cannibalizing this year’s full price models.

Old Sierra Trading Post used to do a lot of this with euro brands. Bikes are harder to move than footwear but there are plenty of road/mtb brands that don’t have a NA retail presence but would probably still find buyers at a discount.

[XXX-er]

I was floored by how much tools/ work stations/ stuff TPC gott rid of when they liquidated it looked like unchecked growth to me until it imploded ?

[toast2266]

It seems like a commission / consignment based sales model could work too. I give them my used bike to sell. They do any work required to make the bike safe. They sell the bike for whatever they can get and keep a 25% commission + whatever they spent on fixing the bike, then send me a check for the balance.

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[smmokan]

They actually have that option - but their commission is 40% of the actual sold price.

[toast2266]

They actually have that option - but their commission is 40% of the actual sold price.

I guess that's why I'd never heard anything about it.

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[jm2e]

Ebikes.
That's where their CPO warranty deal could really be compelling.
Based entirely on my theory that the main problem facing ebikes is that there's almost no secondary market. Who want's to buy a bike that becomes an instant paperweight as soon as the battery, motor, computer shit the bed and OEM warranty doesn't apply to second/third/fourth seller?

[XtrPickels]

Ebikes.
That's where their CPO warranty deal could really be compelling.
Based entirely on my theory that the main problem facing ebikes is that there's almost no secondary market. Who want's to buy a bike that becomes an instant paperweight as soon as the battery, motor, computer shit the bed and OEM warranty doesn't apply to second/third/fourth seller?

Man, they'd have to be close with manufacturers, otherwise the financial liability of people warrantying batteries etc. could get out of hand fast.

[Skistack]

They're back baby!

https://bikerumor.com/the-pros-close...ir-first-bike/

[smmokan]

They’ll do well… $4200 for a five year old Alchemy. Their used prices are still stupid.

[scrublover]

I'm digging the six year old Tallboy and Pivot for $2500. Even if in good shape/newer parts on/only ridden to church on Sunday that's nuts.

[XtrPickels]

Just submitted a NIB wheelset to Pro's Closet.
The offer was less than 30% of current retail, paid out in 60 days - Or consignment or Store Credit.

Definitely not a seller's market anymore

[smmokan]

It's funny, they haven't updated the website in terms of navigation and product families... they make it look like they have tons of components, wheels, apparel, etc for sale. But then you click on those, and it says there are no results. I just don't see how the business is investable or scalable right now (or maybe ever).

[J. Barron DeJong]

Just submitted a NIB wheelset to Pro's Closet.
The offer was less than 30% of current retail, paid out in 60 days - Or consignment or Store Credit.

Definitely not a seller's market anymore

This seems like how it should work, to me at least.

If Pro’s Closet wasn’t going to pay less than wholesale prices on new goods, why would they be buying them from individuals instead of from a distributor?

[stuckathuntermtn]

60 days is unacceptable.