Police Auction

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Permalink Reply by HauntedMyst on October 15, 2009 at 12:00am

You have to make sure you bring cash with you and you have to be able to take the bike home with you (there is no storage there and they will not hold the bike). Really great finds are rare and when they come up, the bidding competition is fierce though you can end up with a great bike for a great price if you know your bikes and prices. But again, they are rare. Mostly what you find are bikes under $100 that with some elbow grease and a little knowledge will net you a great working bike for the city, i.e. an older model mountain bike that you can mount fenders to and have a great every day commuter. None of the bikes I saw in about 6 visits there were unscathed from their theivery experience. The guys who run the auction know bike brand names but they don't know bikes so for the most part, ignore what they say and go with what you saw during inspection.

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 15, 2009 at 9:07am

I went there once, maybe 2 years ago, just to sit and watch the action. There were maybe 120 bikes up for auction. A lot of 90's steel MTB frames that went for $100-$150 on average. Also a lot Huffys, Magnas, and Next bikes but they typically went for a lot less. The rest was BMX bikes and the ocassional road bike. As HauntedMyst said, nothing exceptional.
In front of us were to young guys from Wicker Park area. They bought 8 bikes to flip them. You could tell that they knew what they were doing: They always dropped out at $110 for a steel MTB frame.

Make sure you get there on time. Expect to spend at least to spend 30 minutes inspecting the bikes. Bring cash and a means to take them home. Before you go, check the schedule here, because it doesn't happen every month

We had a good time just watching the transactions unfolding. If this winter you are wondering what to do with your Saturday morning, there are worse things to do than this. On the other hand if you are looking for a specific bike or a really good deal, Craigslist remains the way to go.
Frank

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Permalink Reply by joe stein on October 15, 2009 at 9:39am

i bought a decent '80's fuji with suntour for about $150 there, but that was a few years back, before the "pistadex". have been pondering going back for a hardtail for grins. thanks to Duppie, for posting the link to the schedule.

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