You can pick up real bargains at police auctions, but only if you have a careful look before you start buying,
More than 130,000 bikes are stolen every year in Britain and a fair proportion end up at police auctions
| | “What’s wrong with this bike?” asked Anthony | | | | With help from Anthony Green I managed |
| | Green, the porter at General Auctions in | | 30 | | to find five bikes to bid1) for that were |
| | London, patiently holding a green mountain | | | | roadworthy and worth less than £50. But it was |
| | bike while I studied it. “I don’t know,” I | | | | a different story when the bidding began. Some |
5 | | answered. To me it looked a bargain, especially | | | | of the children’s bikes went for as little as £2 |
| | for £20. “Well, it doesn’t have any gears,” came | | | | "[id:27671] every bike I had selected sold for double |
| | the reply. “So you wouldn’t get very far, love.” | | 35 | | the amount I intended to pay. |
| | Clearly, it wouldn’t be easy to cycle away | | | | Then a red mountain bike which I hadn’t |
| | with a bargain. But with more than 131,250 | | | | spotted previously was held up and for some |
10 | | bicycles a year stolen nationwide, it seemed | | | | inexplicable reason I stuck my hand up, only for |
| | futile to buy a brand-new bike for £100 only for | | | | the auctioneer to turn to me seconds later while |
| | it to be taken within the first week. | | 40 | | banging his gavel, shouting: “Lot 49 is yours for |
| | I had come to the police auction in the hope | | | | £45.” |
| | of cycling away on something that wouldn’t | | | | A sinking feeling swept over me at the |
15 | | shout “take me!” every time I left it tied up in | | | | thought that I could have bought a useless |
| | the street. Funny, really, since nearly all the | | | | metal frame. But it could have been worse. |
| | bikes I was viewing were probably stolen | | 45 | | While the frame was heavy and cumbersome, |
| | machines which the police had been unable to | | | | the back wheel slightly buckled and the brakes |
| | give back to their owners. | | | | not brilliant, the gears, chains and wheels were |
20 | | After an hour of sorting through the frames, | | | | intact and it was rideable. |
| | some of which were missing chains, seats, | | | | However, my hopes for a fit future, cycling |
| | gears or, in one case, wheels, it was clear that | | 50 | | daily to work, were short-lived. Two weeks after |
| | some of my choices were duds. “The problem,” | | | | I bought it, my bike was stolen outside a tube |
| | said Green, who has been holding up bikes at | | | | station, still bearing its lot number and tag. |
25 | | auctions for ten years, “is that you have to get | | | | Nicked, sold and nicked again. The eternal |
| | the bicycles out and view them properly | | | | wheel of life in the big city. |
| | otherwise you could end up buying a bike which | | | | |
| | costs more to repair than to buy brand new.” | | | The Times |