I'm going to make some rambling observations and comments. I can't count all the bicycle transactions I have facilitated for other people. Thirty? Forty? Many. The most recent one shipped out last Thursday. I'd say that the whole process takes an absolute minimum of five hours.
- Travel to the seller, inspect the merchandise, call the buyer and discuss and confirm, take care of the buy, take the bike home. Yes, I have fronted cash when the deal has been urgent. - Find a box that will fit the bike but not create a windfall for the carrier. So, trips from bike shop to bike shop, looking for the right box, and it may not present itself immediately. Yes, I realize an over-sized box can be cut down. It still may not happen immediately. - Disassemble and pack, pad and secure the bike so it doesn't move in the box. - Take it to the carrier. Easy five hours all in, probably more. The transaction that just about finished me off a few years back was a very interesting and obscure early 60's Italian bike that I found on CL, outed on Classic Rendezvous, and then shipped to NYC. I lost ten bucks on the deal -- shipping cost more than anticipated. I never heard from the recipient again. No "thank you", and no ten bucks. Thank you, A***, you're a class act. It's possible that I need to adjust what I am willing to do as a favor, maybe it's as simple as that. Pick up a bike, and drop it at a shop for packing and shipping? Maybe that makes more sense. That's easy. That's cake. What's a reasonable shop rate these days, maybe $75 an hour? So, figure the shop will charge for about an hour of time, on top of the shipping cost. Anyway, I'm just rambling on the subject. Having said all of that, I had two favors done for me in recent months by BOB listers. One was a pick up and shuttle of a frame from LA to San Diego, and one was a pick up and shuttle of a bike from Sacramento to Marin (which actually turned into a simple hand-off to a friend of mine in Davis). Both shuttles took some time, as the guys waited to fit the trips into their normal travels, and that, of course, was fine. I owe both parties, and thank you very much! :-) ~pb -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
