Here’s some pictures I took today at the Garda bike shed at the back of Kevin St. Garda Station in Dublin. These bikes will be auctioned off tomorrow morning at 11am. There’s about 150 bikes being auctioned tomorrow morning.
I was pretty disappointed with the general level of bikes – 95% cheap MTBs, several hybrids, 1 Raleigh 3 speed and a Trek 1000 missing a rear wheel. Note to cyclists: do NOT lock your bike to the bike rack only by the wheel, especially if it’s a quick-release. I bet the person who owned this 1000 felt bloody stupid and rightly so.
The main lot of bikes are inside the shed – about 150-160 bikes. The two big piles of bikes outside are trash lots – these can only be purchased as one lot each, and must be removed from the station within 3 days.
Here’s the low down since I can’t be bothered going myself.
Most of them need tyres pumped, a drop of oil (ok, a pint of oil) and they’ll be good to go. Seized chains might need replacing.
Lot #1 is a decent looking Claude Butler hybrid that with about 20 euros work could be in great shape. Also I’m thinking first one might go cheap due to nervous bidders.
Lot #21 is a Trek 1000, ‘04 or an ‘05 I think. Put a back wheel on it and it should be a great road bike – about 500 quid worth, say 120 for a replacement rear wheel, so 150-200 wouldn’t be crazy. Even the Shimano SPD pedals are worth a couple quid themselves etc. I’d possibly consider bidding 220 for it, depending how impulsive I felt.
Lots #143-145 have great potential – cheap steel MTBs worth about 150 each. They’re so far down the list that most people will have their bike already and you won’t get much competition. I’d hope to pick one of them up for 40-50 quid. The Raleigh #144 has a nice colour scheme 🙂
Besides all that, there’s some great hybrids in there, look for the Treks 7xxx and Specialized Crossroads in the pics, not bad bikes again needing some work, if thing didn’t work out on the Trek 1000 for me I might consider bidding up to 100 quid on those depending on the condition.
Update 28/10/2006:
I was having a look back through the boards Cycling forum archives and found this thread about the Garda Auction in October 2004.
The auction was just okay this time. The one last october was much better.
The bikes were basly organised but then again there was hardly any space so you can’t really see all the bikes. There were over 200 bikes stored in a shed 40ft by 20ft so it was quite cramped. Best advice is to go the day before and have a look its a bit quieter. To be honest the qaulity was pretty poor this time. In my opinion there were really only about 10 or 12 good quality bikes, quality in my opinion but then again i dont know as much as everyone in here.
3 trek 7100sx (yeah 3 exactly same bikes all looked almost brand new, must be some bad target). 1 went for €390, another for €370 and the last went for €320, this one was a smaller frame.
2 carbon frame full suspension raleighs. Didnt wait around for the second one but the first one went for 310 if I remember correctly.
1 custom built (I presume because there were no markings on it) with fairly top specification Shimano components Azure I think and disc brakes front and back.
2 specialized – one was a rock hopper I think. The other one I dont know. I didnt wait around for those either.
1 Trek 810 – I think it was an 810. This went for jsut over 200. It was in good nick though and worth it.
2 -3 giants dont remember model numbers or how much they went for but they were in great condition and looked almost brand new.
And then my bad boy Al Cartor or whatever.
the remainder of bikes were various brands from Raleigh to god only knows what else and most were fairly bog standard and went for from 60 to 180 euro depending on how shiny it looked (hahahaha).
The weirdest thing though they do at the auction is they sell off 2 massove lots of bikes at the end 100+ bikes in each pile. Now these are mostly bangers with parts missing but there would easily be 20 – 30 savagable bikes. I saw 2 real good conditions trek 4100 and 4300 on the top of the pile that were worth 200 in my opinion. I didnt wait around for these this time bu the last time they both went for around 200 each. What a bargain!!!
From this report, and my own experience at this years viewing I’d have mixed feelings about whether it’s worthwhile to go to these auctions or not. If you’re looking for something entry-level but good the odds of that’s in good condition, and getting it for a bargain price are low. If there’s something really good (you’re not going to find a Litespeed Ghisela!) then you might get it for a good price because the majority of punters aren’t going to bid up to it’s true value. If you can head along to the preview the day before, do so – otherwise check the 2nd hand listings and don’t worry too much about missing the auction.