Trade In and Trade Up

Yes! We take trade-ins. We are willing to accept most bikes as trade-ins on new bikes.  There are a few exceptions, which is covered in detail below. 

We know kids seemingly grow overnight, and that means that most kids' bikes will fit for about 2 years. We also know that new bikes are expensive! To help, we offer our Trade-In/Trade-Up program. Any new kids bike purchased from us can be brought back for a trade-in credit based on its condition and appraised value.

This segues nicely with the biggest question we get asked about trade-ins:

The answer is it depends. Year, make, model, size, color and condition are all considered when taking a trade. Generally, the older the bike and the worse the condition, the less it is worth.  This may seem obvious, yet we find reality can be a hard pill to swallow for the owner of the bike.

A lot of people trading-in bikes assume that, as a bike shop, we want any and every bike; after all, aren't we going to fix it up and sell it? While it is true we can fix it up, the reality is it might not be worth it.

We must invest staff time, parts, and materials, which are not cheap, in every used bike we fix up and sell, and when compared against what the bike can sell for, it may not be worth that investment to us.

A bike's age is also very important. Bikes over 10 years old (5 for road or triathalon bikes) tend to be several generations behind in the latest technology found on bicycles. Because of this, if your bike is over 10 years old, we'll still consider it for a trade, but unfortunately, the value remaining in such a bike is quite low.

Absolutetly.  We recommend checking out the Bicycle Blue Book for a rough estimate.

If your plan is to trade-in the bike, then please focus on the Trade-In value they provide, because that is the number we will be using.

A word of caution, though. Bicycles are bought and sold every day, but there are no state or federal laws requiring them to be registered.  Therefore, there is no solid source of used bike sales data to run comps against, as there is with automobiles and houses. The result is the BBB uses an algorithm to make a best guess of your bike's value.

Reality Check: It may be disheartening to know, but new bikes lose an average of 33% or more of their MSRP value the moment they are taken home! And that assumes the bike will be sold directly by you to another rider.

All this to say, do some research into what the bike may be worth, and save yourself time and shock.

YES! We have recently started a bike buying program. We do not buy ALL bikes brought to us. Look HERE for all of the information you need to know. You will be asked for a photo ID should we decide to buy your bike.

Generally speaking, we are in the market for bikes built in 2018 and newer made by name brand bike manufacturers like Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Giant, Fuji, Haro, Salsa, and similar.

We do not buy brands sold in big box retail stores.

Facebook Marketplace is a great way to sell a bike locally.  Selling your bike to another bike rider is the only way to ensure you'll get maximum value for it. PLEASE be careful meeting people you do not know to conduct business.  Always meet somewhere public. Our parking lot is a great spot for conducting such business.

Yes.  Unfortunately, most bikes that are sold in big box retailers will not be accepted. Huffy, Hyper, Kent, Magna, and Schwinn are a few that fit this criteria. These bikes are sold new at such a low price point that they do not retain much value after the first rider.

Our recommendation is you give the bike to a deserving neighborhood child.

If your neighborhood is not ideal for gifting, then the local transfer stations in Lorton and I-66 have FREE dropoff areas for bikes. This is a guilt free trip, because Bikes For The World routinely picks through those bikes and ships them to developing countries for people in need.

Yes, sort of. We are willing to accept a bike that you want to get rid of as a donation with a couple of conditions:

1. If you know it is junk, but you don't want to take the time to run to the dump yourself, please do not donate it to us. Frankly, we don't want to make a dump run either. How do you know if it is junk? If the chain and gears are rusted, if the brakes don't work, if the tires are flat, and the wheels don't roll, the bike is junk.
2. You accept that we are NOT a 501c3 non-profit company, and therefore, we cannot give you a receipt for tax deductions. If you choose to report it on your taxes anyway, that's your business.

Yes!  We love consigning bikes. We won't go into all of the detail here, but generally it works like this:

Your bike should be on the newer side of 5-10 years old and be worth at least $500.  Any less than that and the math will not work out in your favor.

We charge a NON-NEGOTIABLE $100 to review and tune the bike before we will accept and sell it for you.  We do this because by agreeing to sell it for you in our shop, we are accepting some liability for the bike and its condition, AND we are using our brand and reputation to sell it for you. 

Our fee is 25% of the price the bike sells for plus the $100 review and tune fee.

We reserve the right to have you return and retrieve your bike at any time, for any reason. We are space limited and cannot have bikes around that won't sell.

Rest assured, we keep consignments for an average of 3 months before asking you to retrieve them, and we've only had 2 bikes in 5 years that did not sell and had to be retrieved.