Went to the local bike shop at lunch time. My son needs a bigger bike so figure I would hand down my trusty Gary Fisher and get a new one for myself. Nope...no bikes. They said unless you are a big chain store in the city which may have a few bikes, they aren't getting more in until October. Can we just stop buying up everything folks?
No guns or ammo either. Or boats or camping trailers.
Anything that involves hobbies of any sort is sold out around here. I've heard stories of people selling $200 kayaks for $500 almost instantly.
Now that nobody has to go to work to get money, all the fun stuff is getting bought up.
Someone remind me of why people used to go to "work" We have pretty much the same situation going on in Canada. It is kind of weird.
I’m still working, and can’t afford squat! Good thing for my bosses, I actually like my company!
spitfirebill said:No guns or ammo either. Or boats or camping trailers.
Plenty of camping trailers right now and REALLY good deals on new ones.
We haven't been able to find any Kayaks for months though. At least anything under $1k new. Can't find any RC cars/trucks/boats either.
NOHOME said:Now that nobody has to go to work to get money, all the fun stuff is getting bought up.
Someone remind me of why people used to go to "work" We have pretty much the same situation going on in Canada. It is kind of weird.
Yup. I've been thinking about adding yet another R/C car to the fleet. A LOT of people apparently had the same idea. Unfortunately since they are small and easy to store it will take years for people to dump them at GRM friendly prices.
Placemotorsports said:Went to the local bike shop at lunch time. My son needs a bigger bike so figure I would hand down my trusty Gary Fisher and get a new one for myself. Nope...no bikes. They said unless you are a big chain store in the city which may have a few bikes, they aren't getting more in until October. Can we just stop buying up everything folks?
Can you just stop trying to buy anything? 
I suspect those of us that got a stimulus check that didn't need it immediately blew it on stuff that maybe you would not have normally spent it on. Add in, with lots of stuff shut down outdoor stuff is about all there is left to do. Which is good. Most of us, myself included, spend too much time indoors.
In reply to z31maniac :
Which is exactly why I wasn't feeling guilty getting a new bike.
My LBS is sold out of everything less then $1200 and everything over $8k. A few bikes in between those prices but not a lot.
I am building up a bike and finding parts is a bit of a struggle right now.
Don't forget it could also be the supply chain. Factories in China were shut down for a while and sea shipping is slow, so production stoppages show up with a 3-4 month time lag. International shipping is all jacked up in general right now too - the drop in passenger air travel has removed a lot of air freight capacity from the system.
But the automotive aftermarket is definitely going strong. We're having trouble keeping the shelves full because of the supply chain problems as well as a big surge in demand. All of our sales rate data is wrong so we're running out of parts before the replenishments get here. If we were having parts shipped by container, the surge in demand couldn't be met for 3-4 months because of that shipping time.
And it's been going on longer than just a stimulus check surge - we saw what that looked like a couple of years ago. Good problem to have for us, I suppose.
I've heard a lot about bike shortages, but I buy most of my sporting goods used. Most of the online sites for new bikes are showing backorders and I've heard from friends that business at LBSs this spring was really, really good.
The prices for used bikes on CL & FB marketplace seem to be double what you'd expect. Lots of entry level +15YO FS bikes listed for double the blue book listing. There are also a lot of nearly new bikes posted for more than the retail price. From what I can gather the reasonable deals are sold as soon as they're posted and there are a lot of overpriced ads that seem to sit around for weeks/months. If all you see are super high prices when looking for comps for a listing price it just makes the situation worse. I don't even want to engage with someone who listed their "needs work" 2008 GT for $900 when even really nice ones seem to sell for $600.
I did manage to add a new bike to the fleet at a really good price only because I was the first person to respond to the post (within minutes of listing). I also managed to sell my road bike pretty quickly for exactly what I thought it was worth. There are definitely people flipping bikes right now, I've seen at least a handful bought & sold at least once or twice after the initial listing.
Keep a VERY close eye on bikes. The 2021 bmx stuff is just landing, I imagine everything else isn't far behind. It will sell out. Fast.
The bike store down the street from me seems to have plenty of stock, so maybe it's a regional thing.
In reply to stuart in mn :
dude in my small town was selling them before they were out of the box in the spring. Was a crazy time.
This has been a thing since late March. The irony being at first shop owners were concerned the shutdown would put them out of business. Instead, they are so busy with sales and especially repairs they are having trouble with staff burn-out from working 60 hour weeks. The shops I talk to say at least 3 weeks if you drop off something to get repaired. And that is assuming they have/can get the parts required to fix that dusty bike that has been sitting in a shed for 10 years.
If you have a $3000+ budget, there are bikes to be had. For now. Until the aforementioned supply chain issues hit that market as well.
Even some car parts that are always on the ground are missing right now.
Finding an affordable bike is tough, but $1000+ bikes are still widely available.
The WalMarts and Targets are cleared out, so no luck on kids bikes there. I went to CraigsList and found a decent one for a good price, but there is a lot of gouging going on. My biggest issue is that everything I have for my little guy has 7-speeds and the shifters require Popeye forearms to use. Who thought this was acceptable for a skinny kid?!?!?
For me and the Mrs. we ordered a pair of bikes to replace some well-worn bikes in back in April. We went with SixThreeZero because we wanted comfort and style over rock-hopping aggro bro! We hope to see them by October.
Freezers are out of stock everywhere. Ours died last year and I just tried to replace it as the garden is starting to produce, and i can't get one. Menards claimed 2 in stock in toledo, so I ordered one, and got a "our bad they're backordered till November" note, so I requested cancellation of that one. Sears claims i can pick one up Friday, except the last 45 reviews on it are 1 star by people who have been waiting for the pickup ready or delivery notices and sears just keeps selling them and taking money.
I ordered a new fork for my bmx because parts seems to be going out faster than they're coming in, and I'm not waiting another year to buy a 990 fork so I can have front brakes.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
I barely got one week before last. First one they tried to deliver was dented so hard it wouldn't close, but they had two come in the next day and I had one delivered 2 days later on Monday.
Took us 3 weeks to find a trampoline for our kids. People buy them as soon as they come in stock and relist on Facebook for 3x the price. My wife just happened to be browsing when truck came in at a Walmart 35 miles away and managed too order one.
ive sold every cheap vintage bike I could throw together. The pricier stuff isn't selling any better then normal though.
Puppies, bikes and for me, dumbells. I got into light lifting a month ago, just trying to feel less old and weak, and Walmart never has them in stock now to get more or different sizes.
Went to a local Dick Sporting goods last night and they had a couple Nikishi (sp?) ones there. They looked decent, anyone had those?
Placemotorsports said:Went to a local Dick Sporting goods last night and they had a couple Nikishi (sp?) ones there. They looked decent, anyone had those?
I had an old Nishiki 10 speed 700 tire bike, it was great quality for a 30 year old bike.
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