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 grow seemingly overnight, and that means that most kids bikes will fit a kid for about 2 years. Because of that, we offer our Trade-In/Trade-Up program. Any new kids bike purchased from us within the last 2 years will receive up to 50% of your purchase price as trade-in value on a new bike. Bike condition is considered and can bring down the value of your trade.

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 would 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 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 will 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 be forewarned that you will most likely not be offered more than $50 for it.

Absolutetly.  We recommend checking out the Bicycle Blue Book for a rough idea. 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. The result is the BBB uses an algorithm to make a best guess, and that guess can easily OVERvalue your bike.

Generally speaking, at 2 years old, a bike can be resold for 50% of its new retail value, and since a bike shop will want to resell it themselves, they will not offer you what you could sell it for outright.  Also, trends change and with that comes changing values.  For example, road bikes and triathalon bikes are worth a lot less on trade-in for two reasons: 1. Road biking is increasingly less popular among riders; and 2. Manufacturers routinely innovate in these categories for their pro riders, thereby making these bikes and equipment obsolete more quickly. All this to say, come in and be reasonable in what you think it is worth, and keep in mind that the bike shop is not in the business of buying bikes, it is in the business of selling them.

No.  Sorry, but we don't buy bikes. It is virtually impossible for us to tell if it has been stolen, and not buying bikes is the easiest way we can avoid supporting the bicycle theft industry.

Facebook Marketplace is a great way to sell a bike locally.  Pink Bink and Bicycle Blue Book also provide online marketplaces for bikes. 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.  We often see bike deals going down in our parking lot, which is great!  We've even given an opinion when asked by a potential buyer.

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. It pains us to say it, but if you paid $300 or less for a bike at a big box retailer, that bike was intended to be ridden and then sent to the landfill. In this situation, we'd recommend giving the bike to a neighborhood kid who would get some joy riding it.

One special sidenote on that landfill comment - At the local transfer stations in Lorton and I-66 the bikes have their own area for dropoff and it is FREE. Furthermore, Bikes For The World routinely picks through those bikes left there and provides them to low income people in developing countries.

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 admit it or 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.  
2. You understand 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, just know that it is illegal to take a tax deduction for something you gave to a for-profit company. At least that's what our tax advisor told us.

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 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 $99 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 $99 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 returning them to you. Minus the $99 fee, of course. 

 More details can be found on our Consignments page.