Can you remember when..............

[That Swan Guy]

........trawling through ebay and having a choice of quality bikes/frame sets to choose from. Now it just seems to be full of crap on an immense scale!

Everybody thinking their POS bike is their retirement fund.

I miss the days of NOS Haro Group 1 for less than a ton. NOS DC MX brakes for £30. Finding that gem badly listed.

 

[CustardLips]

I agree... it was great before the fakebook boom.

[griff]

Not really
By 2010 when I got back into it a lot of the bargains had gone - but it's better than pissing it all away in the pub*
I blame all the hoarders and greedy bastards with storage units full of bikes 
That said, it's not impossible to build a bike for reasonable money if you're not an impatient twat









* although some people do that as well 

[Waxintaxin]

lol
i remember the good ol days
i walked round shiners and picked up some lovely bits for fook all
comp 3s for a tenner each , MX1000 sets for 12.50 and some landing gear in the box chrome for 20 quid
i also remeber the bikes shops that would give you stuff for free
lol not anymore
but thats life i guess 

[Andyboy77]

Unfortunately I never had the luck to witness those days. When I came in a year ago, all prices were already pretty high - compared to what I've been told how prices used to be years ago.
To me it's like watching the grass growing, as prices seem to get higher every month nowadays. 

It must be pretty frustrating to all who were able to enjoy those days when prices were way lower. Having said that, I'm so happy that still so many great people are in the game. 
My hats off to everyone who's trying to escape from that upward spiral - not playing that game and still selling stuff for decent money. 

[richiebozza]

I have had my Mongoose since the 80s and throughout the years bought the odd bit, so yeah I remember buying on ebay some flip down mint Haro forkstanders for £15 and GT mallet stem for £15...it wasn't that long ago really, just shows how quickly the interest in old school took off.
It was a nice time as I could finally aford the parts I couldn't as a kid...now it's gone back to me not being able to aford anything again.

The interest in 'vintage' is in all areas I guess, now every one and their uncle knows vinatge sells, comics, furniture, records, rusty lights from abandoned industrial warehouses...it is all expensive now.

I guess everyone watches Cash In The Attic and wants their own piece of the pie.

[poorboyee]

back when I switched from skating in 92 to riding, a few of the local bike shops around used to get bulk boxes of discontinued 80s parts they would get them cheap from suppliers or bike shows/meets, JE-CYCLE WORKSHOPS "goodie box" was always full of good stuff and always cheap AME grips/suntour stems/suzue hubs/various seats & posts/dyno & haro gloves/koolstop-eagleclaws & tuffpads/tuffneck combodisks/various chainwheels/various tyres...and the 80s obligatory novelty dice duct caps

[steve69]

I remember one of my first purchases when I signed up to eBay in 2002, ten pairs of Skyway Pro pads with an extra four pairs of fins and loads of fitting nuts and curved washers.....








Just under £20 delivered 

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Prices had started to go up when i got back into BMX - July 2009, but were still reasonable. Managed to get a skyway t/a frame & forks for about £200, although it needed a re-chrome. Full dia compe brake sets (901's) from Biagio were £30 each. New in packet suntour stem £30. NOS tange grips from Biagio, £12 a pair - unopened in the bag

[bigfatolly]

Was just thinking that the other night,ebay is so full of cack parts now it's unreal.

I've had one or two badly listed bargains off of there in my time,Chrome Rickman FS frame and fork which I still have for £130,and a pair of MRD forks for £30 BIN.

Small fry though compared to all the great deals I have had from this site over the years from fellow RADSTERS.

I though like many just can't justify the prices of building a bike now.

Do people even build many bikes now? I don't really see any builds on Facebook,just a lot of showing off and what's it worth posts.

I'm currently mulling over selling all my spares and maybe one of my bikes as I really can't see me building again.

Still come on here most nights for a quick look,but that's about all it is these days 

[GRAB ON KID]

Yep,winning a nos Torker Freestylist F&F from Alans on the bay for £46 & ordered some Nos Suntour XC compes for £30,Nos gold sugino gt's for £25 along with it, Nos Suntour Vx's  for £15,Nos Araya 7x's  for the same …NOs Kashi Supers for a fiver!Fook Even Biaggio was cheap back then as paid £20 for a nos set of DC MX1000's! ,a few years earlier  before the bay picked up a fully loaded TA for £80 from LOOT,Haro master bashy for £60 from the sale pages in Invert & still found cheap as fook treasures in old bike shops too.
Happy days1

[Spen69]

I remember the mk's I had on the Helipad with the 5am club..... being woken up about half an hour after crawling to bed by Jonnygoose  shouting at me through the tent telling Jai was opening up the Shiners stall in 5mins so I staggered down there to return with armfuls of NOS bagged red MXthous and Tech3's even though I didn't need them

Bought and sold loads of bargains at MK and mainly here on this site over the years it's been ridiculous 

Never gonna beat my brother winning a complete survivor Gen1 on eBay with Tuff Neck stem, Tuffs and top gear (all needed a bit of a tinker)  for £155.... We drove like the clappers to go and collect it before the fella found out what he'd done and collected it 

[Dark Diggler]

[Pooch]

Yep.... All I see is shit. And some of those fooking builds. I built it to look like my NIKE jacket.. FOOK OFF!!

[pickle]