While wandering the trade show floor at CABDA Midwest last week, I came across a new company making selling and buying used bikes and accessories easier. I sat down with Dan Marx, CTO and Co-Founder of BikeList, for a quick chat.
SHERI: What is BikeList, and what type of cycling product can you buy/sell on the site?
DAN: BikeList is an online marketplace for cyclists. It’s free for anyone to list a bike, part, or accessory on our website. We accept any kind of bike or e-bike for sale in the marketplace ― road, gravel, track, tandem, and BMX just to name a few. We have both vintage as well as newer bikes. We also have a growing bike parts section as well as accessories.
BikeList was launched by Rob Einaudi (the cyclist) and Dan Marx (the developer) in June 2022 and has grown to over 560 listings sold by individuals, bike shops, and co-ops. We don’t buy bikes directly, but act more like a matchmaker between buyer and seller.
The value we bring is that we act like an escrow and secure payment before the seller transfers the bike to the buyer. We offer credit card and buy now, pay later options to the buyer. We can step in and mediate any disputes between the buyer and the seller, and we also actively market our seller’s items to cyclists across the country.
Press Coverage:
SHERI: How many bikes do you have on the site now?
DAN: There are 566 listings on our site and a quarter of them are bikes. The rest are parts and accessories.
SHERI: What is your pricing model? Do you charge a listing fee? What percentage do you charge the seller?
DAN: It’s free for anyone to list and we deduct 9.9% when we pay out to the seller. This helps cover our credit card processing and marketing costs.
SHERI: Do you provide any discounts to non-profits selling on your site? Can you give me an example of the type of organizations using your site?
DAN: Yes! For non-profit shops we waive all of the fees so it is completely free. This is a good way to sell items that don’t quite fit the non-profit’s programs. One example is Pedal It Forward, which fixes up used bikes and gives them away to rural and urban low-income kids, adults and families, at-risk youth, and minority and immigrant populations in Northwest Arkansas. They have several bikes as well as accessories on our site that do not fit their program. To apply for the non-profit program and for more information, go to https://bikelist.com/nonprofit-program.
https://bikelist.com/users/pedalitforward
https://www.pedalitforward.org/
SHERI: What precautions do you provide to ensure the bike isn’t stolen?
DAN: We partner with the online stolen bike registry 529 Garage and search their database for bike frame serial numbers provided by the seller. We have future plans to work with BikeIndex as well. We highly recommend that everyone register their bikes with 529 Garage.
https://project529.com/garage
SHERI: Is this only for sales in the US?
DAN: Yes. We only support sales in the US. We are a new company and would like to expand to Canada and beyond as we grow.
SHERI: Do you have an option for local pickup?
DAN: Yes. Sellers can set a listing as either Local Pickup or Shippable to customers in the US or both. Buyers can search by zip code for Local Pickup listings or browse listings by state.
https://bikelist.com/local
SHERI: What can you tell me about the new tax laws around online sales (1099R) and your involvement in the coalition to change legislation?
DAN: The threshold for reporting income from online sales of goods and services was recently lowered from $20,000 and 200 or more transactions to $600 and 1 transaction. This was supposed to take effect for the 2022 tax year but was delayed by the IRS for a year to give the agency some time to prepare for it. Most marketplace sellers were not aware of this change, and even fewer are aware that it was pushed out by a year.
BikeList joined a coalition of marketplaces called the 1099k Fairness Coalition who are fighting to raise the threshold to a more reasonable level. We are joined by marketplaces like eBay and Etsy as well as payment companies like PayPal and Venmo since it also applies to person-to-person payments involving goods and services. We meet regularly with elected officials and their staff to let them know how our sellers will be impacted by this. Selling a single used bike can easily exceed a $600 threshold and is unreasonable. We are seeing interest from both parties to raise the threshold and reduce taxpayer confusion around this.
https://1099kfairness.org/
BikeList in the News about 1099k Online Sales:
https://www.geekwire.com/2022/marketplace-companies-say-change-in-tax-policy-creates-unnecessary-burden-for-online-sellers/
Sheri Rosenbaum regularly contributes articles and reviews products for RBR. She’s an avid recreational roadie who lives in the Chicago area and a major advocate for women’s cycling, serving on the board of directors and volunteering with the Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club. Click to read Sheri’s full bio or visit her web site sunflowersandpedals.com.
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