1:44 "It's not anything they're doing wrong." But, I think you stated what they did wrong. Something they did was wrong or they wouldn't be going out of business, right?
@@scottkoehler9389what I tried to get across is like it’s not like there business model is failing and there not making sales happen. Just the market is not there right now. So costs are adding up. “Death by 1000 cuts” that they didn’t forsee
The industry is basically stagnant right now. From the top to the consumer. People are looking and seeing that bicycle they want but is WAY out of their budget. When bicycle prices drop even further, then inventory will start to move. The only "Branch" that is moving is the commuter market and that's a slow drip compared to 2020/2021.
I’m not..I’ve bought a lot from them..maybe 30k or more when they were strictly an eBay store Then they left eBay and during Covid they just gouged people with on bikes..mostly bikes priced at new retail prices…so gfy Pros Closet
Absolutely not surprised at all. They were literally the GameStop of bikes. Terrible trade in values and high priced bikes that no one wants nor could afford.
Never saw a price for a used bike there that was significantly less than a new bike. Terrible business model. Spend a tiny bit more and you get a bike from a local dealer with mechanic support? no brainer.
Good riddance... terrible company. Offer pennies for premium products, sell it for damn near premium prices. If the product was misrepresented they basically told you pound sand.
That's kinda how things work in capitalist societies. Buy as cheap as you can get it and sell it for as much as folks are willing to pay. End of the day, it still didn't work out for them.
I’ve never known so many people to walk away from a sport than I have recently in road cycling! Shops in the uk struggling, events struggling to get interest, cycle clubs at lowest numbers in years! Manufacturers aren’t helping themselves with pricing and crap quality control.
It’s obvious that races can’t get half the field size they used to. I’m just happy to maintain my fleet of 10yr old rim brake bikes and continue putting in the miles
Many events are literally pricing themselves out of business. I know of a world famous event that has gone from 50 USD to 200 USD. They broke even last year, but may not this year. It's the underlying event costs that are causing the issue. One piece, safety barricades, has gone up five times in cost. Add in a recent prohibition on using on-duty police to provide traffic enforcement and that added less officers and higher all around costs. Some events have closed down for these reasons. We will see other world class events disappear because people can't or won't pay the price to put them on.
I think a lot more people are just enjoying cycling rather than being race focused as such. Getting a race fix on zwift for a month for less that it would cost to travel to a race in the UK let alone enter it. That's what a lot of people I know do now. Add in the increasing dangers of racing on the road and it's hard to see it going back the other way. But if people are out enjoying cycling it's not all bad.
@@jamesmckenzie3532 For an event organizer, 5k or 10k running races are so much more profitable and easy to organize. The people that do this business aren't tempted to do cycling races.
@jamesmckenzie3532 is that iron horse bicycle classic? Used to be 2500 people now down to 1/3 .over priced and same reason people say screw it I will just ride my bike and enjoy where ever they idea instead of paying 3 days wages to ride for 3 hours
The bike industry seems to be shooting itself in the foot with these ridiculous price tags on bikes and components. Even after COVID, they’re not bringing prices down, which makes it tough for new riders to enter the community. As a result, bike communities are shrinking, and fewer people are even looking to buy bikes. The market is definitely feeling the downturn.
When I called The Pros Closet to sell them some of my used bikes over the years, the offer they would make me was just like in that old tv show Pawn Shop, where you walk in to sell your $5,000 Pinarello and he says, "Man, I can give you like $500 for it, final offer, take it or leave it." LOL I'm like, yeah I think I'll keep my bike, bye.
yea I had customers come into my store and tell me that after I rewcomeneded pros closet as a tool to move there old bike, they were great inpandemic because they wanted the inventory and giving alot of top dollar prices butt hose went down real fast
This is sad. I got a really nice high-end, like-new used bike from a similar online store (Cycles Ltd.) that I would never have been able to afford new. It was the most money I've ever spent for a bike, but it has been worth every penny. Best bike I've ever ridden. It was so nice to have online stores like this, because answering ads on places like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace has gotten too sketchy. I hope the remaining stores can get through this slump.
Ridiculous prices for bikes with “scratches on the chain stay” etc… and they lowball the crap out of you when offering them a bike. I’m surprised it took this long for them to go under
Manufacturers did this. The cost to get into road cycling is outrageous. You know there’s a problem with when you can purchase a liter sport bike for the same price as a premium road bike.
Worked out for me during the out of business sale. Picked up a Endurance SLX 9, SRAM Red w/ powermeter, 1100 Swiss DT wheels, for 3k…selling for $7800 msrp 2 years ago
I guess they found out no one is interested in buying used bikes at close to new prices. I visited their boulder location years ago and their mountain bike museum up above was cool, but I didn't really understand how the business model worked even then.
Sad to see them go. I dunno, did my research and got a really good deal from TPC during one of their sales on a used bike. Found the staff to be helpful, and it was nice to find something carbon/Di2 in my size. Many local bike shops in my area were completely sold out of inventory, had few options in my size, or were 2x expensive.
I completely disagree with what you said Grant. The prices they had for used bikes were way too high. Ebay was thriving in comparison. Thier website basically doesnt exist now as they have sold basically everything. Also, they had terrible business practices and not good customer support.
I had a good experience buying from them. Bought a Cannondale CAAD 12 with full carbon Campy Record groupset and tubeless Mavic wheels in 2019 and sold the bike about a year and a half later for exactly the same price I paid TPC. What I liked the most was how hassle-free the whole process was and their bike box and packing was excellent.
Agreed. In the past The Pro's Closet had bargains on older, metal framed, rim brake bikes. Cheaper than eBay and much better quality. They stopped selling these older bikes and I stopped being a customer.
We were just talking how our ski/bike store has outlasted our local mall, The House mailorder company. Now this? Shows you important it is to operate as lean as you can and have great service for your customers.
I sold one bike on ProsCloset in 2021…I sold it for more than what I paid, so I went crazy and sold my entire fleet of 3 bikes, all fairly upper middle class. I got such a surprisingly large amount for them I just kicked in a little extra and 3 brand new bikes, Supersix EVO, Supersix SE, and a new Cutthroat.
yea thats the provlem I think they were buying bikes for overprice of what they were because they did nto see an end and figured that the used bikes would sell forever
Sounds like TPC thought the phrase is buy high and sell low. Wonder what they say about that in business school. VC firms are typically the opposite of Warren Buffet-style investing. And then need to chop up and sell off the remaining assets of a business to recoup invested money, ensuring that business ends up in the grave.
I sold them a Canyon Lux, and Strive during the pandemic for very close to what I paid for them. ….I was pretty happy about that. Then in 2023 tried to sell them a Canyon Inflite pretty stacked ENVE wheels ….offered about $1200.00. Something changed no doubt.
My local stores say 25% off giant winter sale, spring blowout deals 25% off giant, father's day one day special 25% off giant, it's just recycling the same overpriced trash. 25% off in my country reverts bike prices to 2023 and we'd need 40% off to get back to 2020. My giant e bike $3009 and now the same model is $4500 on 'sale'
Correct!! All these brands are doing the same. Same discounts and STILL not moving product. Better figure it out soon or others will be following shut downs.
I have been buying and selling higher end used carbon road bikes for about 10 yrs now and I've made good money doing it... but it has always been a side-gig for me... just an easy way to pay for my own cycling habit and always have a lot of nice bikes around to try out and enjoy--without losing any money. But the market has definitely changed dramatically in the past few years. I could say COVID somehow changed the game but it was probably already changing pre-COVID. I was selling a lot of bikes--and making good money--for several years prior to COVID... but for some reason sales just started slowing down and more and more really nice used bikes were coming on the market... for cheap. Now in the past, I could just scoop up the bikes that were priced way below market before anyone else did... and sell them for 2 or 3 or 4x what I paid for them over time. Essentially, I could control the market by buying up the super nice but under-priced bikes in my area before any end users could get to them. This mean that I could essentially control the market for higher end, used carbon road bikes in my area. But little by little, the number of buyers shrank... so I ended up with a LOT of bike--great bikes--that I bought for great prices--that I couldn't sell fast enough to keep from always accumulating more bikes. Eventually I just had to stop buying bikes... and thus lost control of the market. I STILL sell bikes now and then and I still BUY bikes--when I find "steals"... but that still leaves plenty of great bikes at great prices in my market... which keeps me from making as money money when I flip one. Disc brakes seems to be a big diver of that trend as well. Before disc brakes on road bikes, it was harder to really date a bike--or delineate it from other bikes... because a road bike was a road bike was a road bike. But suddenly everyone wanted NEW disc brake bikes... and if a used bike didn't have disc brakes, it was more obviously and "older" bike. Which is crazy... because a LOT of older, rim brake bikes are better than a LOT of brand new, disc brake bikes... but younger / beginner buyers just don't get that. They think any disc brake bike is better than any rim brake bike. But COVID was this weird period where a shit ton of people bought bikes / got into cycling because their gyms and other group exercise options were shut down... and then after COVID they stopped riding... and eventually dumped those bikes back into the market. So that created an excess of used bikes. OH... and let's not forget the negative impact of Bicycle Blue Bitch. Their made-up values have totally fvcked all used bike sellers. Prior to their shady website (um... they buy and sell bikes just like the Pro's Closet), nobody ever asked me what year the bikes I was selling were... nobody challenged my prices. It was just simple supply and demand. If you were looking for a used road bike you would go on Craigslist and search and see what was available near you in your size and in your price range... and you would maybe do a little online research--but mainly you would just go ride a couple of them and pick the best one. Once Bicycle Blue Balls came out, people started finding this "values" online... values that were WAY lower than the actual, market values--based on local supply and demand. It didn't matter that they couldn't actually find any bikes for that price... they still refused to pay higher prices because the interweb said those prices were too high. So, that drove prices down--and drove more used bike buyers into bike shops.
I live local to the HQ and have bought parts from them every so often, including today was a bit sad to see how empty the showroom was. The actual warehouse is a massive building and I think they got stuck in a lease for more space than they needed long term and couldn’t get out of it when the used bike market came back to reality this year. I usually purchase wear items like grips, tires and occasional drivetrain parts. Was always able to get good prices and I’d sort by discount and bought a box of 8 Vitoria MTB tires for $10 each. My other best come up from them was Dura Ace pedals for $50, almost bought some Look Keo Blades when the shop guy said name a price today.
I live local to them and have bought parts from them every so often, including today was a bit sad to see how empty the showroom was. The actual warehouse is a massive building and I think they got stuck in a lease for more space than they needed long term and couldn’t get out of it when the used bike market came back to reality this year. I usually purchase wear items like grips, tires and occasional drivetrain parts. Was always able to get good prices and I’d sort by discount and bought a box of 8 Vitoria MTB tires for $10 each. My other best come up from them was Dura Ace pedals for $50, almost bought some Look Keo Blades when the shop guy said name a price today.
I bought my Gary Fisher from them back in 2013 and had a great experience price was good and I’m still riding it today. Sounds like they jumped on the gravy train and it cost them.
While I’m European and cant comment on the negative issues reported here by others, I think overall price normality is just reasserting itself. Covid led to a complete pricing ripoff thats being unwound right now. Don’t think they are big in the US but have you seen Cubes 2025 lineup of bikes? Their new Agree pro, is an Ultegra Di2, full carbon endurance bike, with 50m Aero wheels and is going to be €3,300 here. Not even Canyon can come close to that, and Cube is a respected brand with LBS/dealer support.
Only deals they had was occasional 20-40% sales. Snatched sworks stump jumper frame nos few years back for 750, that was a great deal, also Lynsey helix for 1k, which was an ok deal but still cheaper than Lynsey scratch and dent or eBay prices. Lot of it was overpriced.
I worked in sales for TPC and can tell you that the perception that rich people weren't buying top-end stuff from us is entirely wrong. We especially got a lot of people who loved our guaranteed buyback program because they want to be able to ride a new bike every year. Also, as other folks pointed out, the seed round in 2020 allowed them to hire a lot of expensive folks in marketing because they thought our posture in the market would allow us to keep sales growing despite the slowdown in 2022. Projections were insane for that year, and a lot of customer-facing folks who knew what was happening on the ground knew it wasn't going to happen. They reassured us that things were fine through the summer then laid down the hammer in the fall. I was in the first round of layoffs. I'm out of the industry now so happy to talk if you want more details.
Hi, i disagree completely with your take, have you tried to sell anything to them???? they would offer a ridiculous price when buy and charge 3x more when sale, they were jacking up the prices during Covid and their greed is what got them, i am not happy to see them go but i am not surprised, welcome anyone else thoughts who dealt with them
yea thats exactly what i said, I said in the video I had customers who would use them to sell there bikes and get offered like 3000 for a full pinarello dogma f, and then yes they werre over pricing used bikes just like the whole used bike market was overpriced and then the water turned off and there was no demand anymore
I live near their retail store it was very meh, basically just a small showroom of high-end bikes - no components, no accessories, nothing like that - and the impression I got was the only people going there were there to test-ride bikes found on their online inventory. It was also in an industrial park and attached to their warehouse, so not in a convenient location whatsoever.
Bike industry in general did as you said & upped prices especially during covid thinking they could as demand was strong..... but also they fired a lot of customers when they tried to force feed everyone disc brakes aero yada yada yada . Not to mention having the insane idea that a pedal bike is ever worth 10k USD+....
Interesting to hear that Cycle Limited claims they are doing fantastic. I've seen many of the same bikes listed there for months! They must have extremely low overhead to sit on these for such a long time (with barely/if any price movement). Since they are in your area, perhaps you know more about their business structure(?). Just a sideline "hobby" for these folks(?), or just sound and savvy business acumen?
This is something we've been expecting for a long time, isn't it? A market downturn was inevitable after covid, and everyone was somewhat anticipating a crash. The mass purchase of bikes has dropped to a minimum, flooding the market with used ones
Cycle Limited out of Boca Raton is legit, bought a Yeti SB130 and a Colnago C-series from them and couldn't be happier with those bikes They're one of the first places I checkout when looking for something new.
yea they are doing very good and we use them all the time for a tool and give great prices and also have good inventory over there and a really good staff
My bikes are my hobby, my passion and it's my way of staying fit. I buy HIGH end because I love it and so I don't have to upgrade parts later. I never purchased anything from them.
Great concept but their success was also their undoing. I bought two bikes from them. I was happy with what I purchased. Sadly growth and 2020 kind of destroyed the used market. All of the sudden used bikes shot up in value but that was the market.
I paid them a visit last month couldn't believe the size of the building, not many employee cars out front. I can't imagine the cash flow needed to pay for that size building. I thought they over priced every used bike online by $500 - $1500.
I guess people are back in enclosed gyms. During Covid, cycling was a great way to get away from it all. I travel all the time and have to use hotel gyms when possible. There’s absolutely no way I’ll ever go to an enclosed gym while at home! I use cycling for fitness, as a stress reliever, and as an opportunity to get outdoors and get away from it all. I will keep riding no matter what the market does. Even if I’m the only one on my paved trail! Now, will I be able to get that SRAM RED endurance bike at 30% discount now that people are not buying as much?
I just purchased a 2020 Trek Domane SLR 9 AXS eTAP with a wallowed out seatmast bore for isospeed from them. If anyone knows where to get new mast? Otherwise awesome bike.
Good riddance to TPC; echoing the experience of most other people commenting on this video, I too found The Pros Closet was ridiculously overpriced for the bikes they were selling. Buying new directly from the manufacturer or your local bike shop was about the same price, or only marginally higher. Not once in ever session I visited TPC website did I ever exclaim, "Wow that's a great deal on that bike!" but plenty of times i found myself saying, "Wow I can't believe they're trying to sell that 4 year old Orbea for that much; good luck with that."
Even with the "closing 75% off" sales now the prices are insane. Wow. No wonder. Like so many businesses, popped up and made a killing during covid, probably got a ton of PPP and Other "free" money and made a ton of money and now are going under. The owners are probably walking away with a nice retirement fund.
yea exactly, so many new business started and now they are all ocmpetiting with a race to the bottom and people who started thought it was easy and everything just sold, they didnt realize how hard it is when you have slow months or years
@@GCPerformance18 Well yeah, it seems insane but that's the current VC model spun-off from tech and Silicon Valley. Pump a ton of money into a new disruptive business model, try and become a monopoly or near-monopoly as soon as possible and then any competitors left you buy up or put out of business. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Either way, for those who have hundreds of millions or billions to invest loosing a few million $$$ on something like this is trivial.
I am shocked this was found surprising by anyone. Easier to sell uses bikes on FB Marketplace and to buy new for a little bit more. There were several times I tried to justify the idea of buying from Pros Closet and never could bring myself to do it. There were better deals everywhere else. I tried to sell some ENVE wheels to them and the amount they offered for literally immaculate wheels was so low, I would have rather let them rot in my closet than take the deal. Honestly I am surprised they lasted as long as they did.
For the hell of it I listed an offer on a very high end MTB, first they told me the had to much inventory and could not make an offer. Then they made me an offer of $1,700 which is $4k less than the value of the bike.
Always sad to see someone in the same industry struggle and go out of business, Lets see what happens for the rest of the 2024 bike year
1:44 "It's not anything they're doing wrong." But, I think you stated what they did wrong. Something they did was wrong or they wouldn't be going out of business, right?
@@scottkoehler9389what I tried to get across is like it’s not like there business model is failing and there not making sales happen. Just the market is not there right now. So costs are adding up. “Death by 1000 cuts” that they didn’t forsee
@@GCPerformance18 Sad for those losing jobs.
The industry is basically stagnant right now. From the top to the consumer. People are looking and seeing that bicycle they want but is WAY out of their budget. When bicycle prices drop even further, then inventory will start to move. The only "Branch" that is moving is the commuter market and that's a slow drip compared to 2020/2021.
I’m not..I’ve bought a lot from them..maybe 30k or more when they were strictly an eBay store
Then they left eBay and during Covid they just gouged people with on bikes..mostly bikes priced at new retail prices…so gfy Pros Closet
Absolutely not surprised at all. They were literally the GameStop of bikes. Terrible trade in values and high priced bikes that no one wants nor could afford.
As a newer rider, I opened up the site and immediately went elsewhere. Wound up spending hundreds at Jensens and 365 both.
I'll second that.
Funny you say that because GameStop is actually profitable.
@@bpisanagreed. I literally was gonna edit my comment earlier but I got lazy. 🤦🏾♂️
100%
They can't sell the bikes for less than what they are asking? Cause they were always ridiculously high priced.
They always asked “are you on drugs?” prices. If you’re patient you’ll get a much better deal on PinkBike or even EBay/FB marketplace
Never saw a price for a used bike there that was significantly less than a new bike. Terrible business model. Spend a tiny bit more and you get a bike from a local dealer with mechanic support? no brainer.
Even paying full price for a direct seller for a new bike is not that bad of a deal now. TPC always sold bikes way too high.
They had some bikes that they wanted more for than I was finding on sale new.
💯
Good riddance... terrible company. Offer pennies for premium products, sell it for damn near premium prices. If the product was misrepresented they basically told you pound sand.
That's kinda how things work in capitalist societies. Buy as cheap as you can get it and sell it for as much as folks are willing to pay. End of the day, it still didn't work out for them.
Their inventory is really low, so there is not a reason to worry about flooding the market. At this point it’s just scraps.
Yep, I just looked online and there is nothing left basically.
The bike industry is sic !! Sworks cost more than a Ducati !!
I checked and even the closing out specials are expensive
yea I was really suprised by that too they didnt seem like wow deals lol
@@GCPerformance18 😂
exactly!!!!
I’ve never known so many people to walk away from a sport than I have recently in road cycling! Shops in the uk struggling, events struggling to get interest, cycle clubs at lowest numbers in years! Manufacturers aren’t helping themselves with pricing and crap quality control.
It’s obvious that races can’t get half the field size they used to. I’m just happy to maintain my fleet of 10yr old rim brake bikes and continue putting in the miles
Many events are literally pricing themselves out of business. I know of a world famous event that has gone from 50 USD to 200 USD. They broke even last year, but may not this year. It's the underlying event costs that are causing the issue. One piece, safety barricades, has gone up five times in cost. Add in a recent prohibition on using on-duty police to provide traffic enforcement and that added less officers and higher all around costs. Some events have closed down for these reasons. We will see other world class events disappear because people can't or won't pay the price to put them on.
I think a lot more people are just enjoying cycling rather than being race focused as such. Getting a race fix on zwift for a month for less that it would cost to travel to a race in the UK let alone enter it. That's what a lot of people I know do now. Add in the increasing dangers of racing on the road and it's hard to see it going back the other way. But if people are out enjoying cycling it's not all bad.
@@jamesmckenzie3532 For an event organizer, 5k or 10k running races are so much more profitable and easy to organize. The people that do this business aren't tempted to do cycling races.
@jamesmckenzie3532 is that iron horse bicycle classic? Used to be 2500 people now down to 1/3 .over priced and same reason people say screw it I will just ride my bike and enjoy where ever they idea instead of paying 3 days wages to ride for 3 hours
when they offered me 600 bucks for my campy bora wto wheels i swore i would live to see this day!
holy shit lol that is a harsh offer lol
The bike industry seems to be shooting itself in the foot with these ridiculous price tags on bikes and components. Even after COVID, they’re not bringing prices down, which makes it tough for new riders to enter the community. As a result, bike communities are shrinking, and fewer people are even looking to buy bikes. The market is definitely feeling the downturn.
When I called The Pros Closet to sell them some of my used bikes over the years, the offer they would make me was just like in that old tv show Pawn Shop, where you walk in to sell your $5,000 Pinarello and he says, "Man, I can give you like $500 for it, final offer, take it or leave it." LOL I'm like, yeah I think I'll keep my bike, bye.
yea I had customers come into my store and tell me that after I rewcomeneded pros closet as a tool to move there old bike, they were great inpandemic because they wanted the inventory and giving alot of top dollar prices butt hose went down real fast
This is sad. I got a really nice high-end, like-new used bike from a similar online store (Cycles Ltd.) that I would never have been able to afford new. It was the most money I've ever spent for a bike, but it has been worth every penny. Best bike I've ever ridden. It was so nice to have online stores like this, because answering ads on places like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace has gotten too sketchy. I hope the remaining stores can get through this slump.
"Upside Down", just like the auto industry; commercial real estate, and housing market.
I felt they were snobbish. They built a Taj Mahl and moved out of N Boulder and got overextended, then the market dropped. Big note no money.
VC takes out another one! When you get influx of $40M, that ROI requires alot of bikes sales at higher margins customers were not willing to pay.
Closer to $90M from reports, but yeah.
I will miss Bruce and his videos. Quality content.
Yeh, his videos about Unbound Gravel are awesome and a must-see for newbies.
Same!
I just checked their site and I’m not seeing any obvious “blowout” pricing cuts …. “75% off” ….. where?? Did you see an example of any bike 75% off?
yea I Was suprised too the disocunts dont even add up to 75 percent off lol
Good, because they suck…Buycycle is turning out to be what TPC should have been!
yea buycycle and cycle limited are doing great
Ridiculous prices for bikes with “scratches on the chain stay” etc… and they lowball the crap out of you when offering them a bike. I’m surprised it took this long for them to go under
As a Canadian customer, their prices were ridiculously high for everything and their inventory was small.
2:40 137,000 sq ft Louisville retail site is a block from Specialized (former Pearl Izumi)
yea shit is wild
The prices are crazy
What, you don't think a 2013 cervelo r5 with busted alexrims wheels and a mixed tiagra groupset is worth $8,000?
Manufacturers did this. The cost to get into road cycling is outrageous. You know there’s a problem with when you can purchase a liter sport bike for the same price as a premium road bike.
Wow there are literally only a couple bikes left now. Congrats to whoever was able to pick up some scraps.
Worked out for me during the out of business sale. Picked up a Endurance SLX 9, SRAM Red w/ powermeter, 1100 Swiss DT wheels, for 3k…selling for $7800 msrp 2 years ago
I guess they found out no one is interested in buying used bikes at close to new prices. I visited their boulder location years ago and their mountain bike museum up above was cool, but I didn't really understand how the business model worked even then.
yea theyw ere getting up there in prices
Depends on if they support the cycling community???
The old days all the shops were closed on Sunday for group rides!
yea I know, I wish it was still like this
They were over-priced.
Honestly I'm shocked they lasted this long
yea the writing was on the walls
Buycycle is a way better service than pros closet. Hope it sticks around.
yea buycycle seems like a nice website
Sad to see them go. I dunno, did my research and got a really good deal from TPC during one of their sales on a used bike. Found the staff to be helpful, and it was nice to find something carbon/Di2 in my size. Many local bike shops in my area were completely sold out of inventory, had few options in my size, or were 2x expensive.
Sounds like carvana, but with bikes
yup
Same way as cazoo in UK
Excellent comparison
I completely disagree with what you said Grant. The prices they had for used bikes were way too high. Ebay was thriving in comparison. Thier website basically doesnt exist now as they have sold basically everything. Also, they had terrible business practices and not good customer support.
Guess what gc? No one feels bad
you are entitled to that, I work in this industry, this is my feeling
@@GCPerformance18 Your industry is shit. I worked in a shop for 10 years.
I had a good experience buying from them. Bought a Cannondale CAAD 12 with full carbon Campy Record groupset and tubeless Mavic wheels in 2019 and sold the bike about a year and a half later for exactly the same price I paid TPC. What I liked the most was how hassle-free the whole process was and their bike box and packing was excellent.
Agreed. In the past The Pro's Closet had bargains on older, metal framed, rim brake bikes. Cheaper than eBay and much better quality. They stopped selling these older bikes and I stopped being a customer.
Terrible business practices in my experience shopping with them. I wouldn’t hire any talent from there either. This is music to my ears - see ya!
We were just talking how our ski/bike store has outlasted our local mall, The House mailorder company. Now this? Shows you important it is to operate as lean as you can and have great service for your customers.
I sold one bike on ProsCloset in 2021…I sold it for more than what I paid, so I went crazy and sold my entire fleet of 3 bikes, all fairly upper middle class. I got such a surprisingly large amount for them I just kicked in a little extra and 3 brand new bikes, Supersix EVO, Supersix SE, and a new Cutthroat.
yea thats the provlem I think they were buying bikes for overprice of what they were because they did nto see an end and figured that the used bikes would sell forever
Sounds like TPC thought the phrase is buy high and sell low. Wonder what they say about that in business school. VC firms are typically the opposite of Warren Buffet-style investing. And then need to chop up and sell off the remaining assets of a business to recoup invested money, ensuring that business ends up in the grave.
I sold them a Canyon Lux, and Strive during the pandemic for very close to what I paid for them. ….I was pretty happy about that. Then in 2023 tried to sell them a Canyon Inflite pretty stacked ENVE wheels ….offered about $1200.00. Something changed no doubt.
2:30 those little hurricanes are always such a pain in the butt 😂
lmao
My local stores say 25% off giant winter sale, spring blowout deals 25% off giant, father's day one day special 25% off giant, it's just recycling the same overpriced trash. 25% off in my country reverts bike prices to 2023 and we'd need 40% off to get back to 2020. My giant e bike $3009 and now the same model is $4500 on 'sale'
Shouldn't they be paying you, at this point, with all the discounts?
Correct!! All these brands are doing the same. Same discounts and STILL not moving product. Better figure it out soon or others will be following shut downs.
I have been buying and selling higher end used carbon road bikes for about 10 yrs now and I've made good money doing it... but it has always been a side-gig for me... just an easy way to pay for my own cycling habit and always have a lot of nice bikes around to try out and enjoy--without losing any money. But the market has definitely changed dramatically in the past few years. I could say COVID somehow changed the game but it was probably already changing pre-COVID. I was selling a lot of bikes--and making good money--for several years prior to COVID... but for some reason sales just started slowing down and more and more really nice used bikes were coming on the market... for cheap. Now in the past, I could just scoop up the bikes that were priced way below market before anyone else did... and sell them for 2 or 3 or 4x what I paid for them over time. Essentially, I could control the market by buying up the super nice but under-priced bikes in my area before any end users could get to them. This mean that I could essentially control the market for higher end, used carbon road bikes in my area. But little by little, the number of buyers shrank... so I ended up with a LOT of bike--great bikes--that I bought for great prices--that I couldn't sell fast enough to keep from always accumulating more bikes. Eventually I just had to stop buying bikes... and thus lost control of the market. I STILL sell bikes now and then and I still BUY bikes--when I find "steals"... but that still leaves plenty of great bikes at great prices in my market... which keeps me from making as money money when I flip one.
Disc brakes seems to be a big diver of that trend as well. Before disc brakes on road bikes, it was harder to really date a bike--or delineate it from other bikes... because a road bike was a road bike was a road bike. But suddenly everyone wanted NEW disc brake bikes... and if a used bike didn't have disc brakes, it was more obviously and "older" bike. Which is crazy... because a LOT of older, rim brake bikes are better than a LOT of brand new, disc brake bikes... but younger / beginner buyers just don't get that. They think any disc brake bike is better than any rim brake bike. But COVID was this weird period where a shit ton of people bought bikes / got into cycling because their gyms and other group exercise options were shut down... and then after COVID they stopped riding... and eventually dumped those bikes back into the market. So that created an excess of used bikes.
OH... and let's not forget the negative impact of Bicycle Blue Bitch. Their made-up values have totally fvcked all used bike sellers. Prior to their shady website (um... they buy and sell bikes just like the Pro's Closet), nobody ever asked me what year the bikes I was selling were... nobody challenged my prices. It was just simple supply and demand. If you were looking for a used road bike you would go on Craigslist and search and see what was available near you in your size and in your price range... and you would maybe do a little online research--but mainly you would just go ride a couple of them and pick the best one. Once Bicycle Blue Balls came out, people started finding this "values" online... values that were WAY lower than the actual, market values--based on local supply and demand. It didn't matter that they couldn't actually find any bikes for that price... they still refused to pay higher prices because the interweb said those prices were too high. So, that drove prices down--and drove more used bike buyers into bike shops.
I live local to the HQ and have bought parts from them every so often, including today was a bit sad to see how empty the showroom was. The actual warehouse is a massive building and I think they got stuck in a lease for more space than they needed long term and couldn’t get out of it when the used bike market came back to reality this year.
I usually purchase wear items like grips, tires and occasional drivetrain parts. Was always able to get good prices and I’d sort by discount and bought a box of 8 Vitoria MTB tires for $10 each. My other best come up from them was Dura Ace pedals for $50, almost bought some Look Keo Blades when the shop guy said name a price today.
They only have 46 bikes left in inventory. That's not a flood.🤦♂️
I think there are a good amount not listed, they wouldnt go out of business if they had profit from all the inventory in there
@@GCPerformance18 why would they not list them? season is over already. They're going to store them and wait for better pricing?
They should have called themselves the Pros Rip Off!
Where the hell did the inventory they had go? None of its 75 percent off. Somebody bought a good chunk of it. They had to.
I live local to them and have bought parts from them every so often, including today was a bit sad to see how empty the showroom was. The actual warehouse is a massive building and I think they got stuck in a lease for more space than they needed long term and couldn’t get out of it when the used bike market came back to reality this year.
I usually purchase wear items like grips, tires and occasional drivetrain parts. Was always able to get good prices and I’d sort by discount and bought a box of 8 Vitoria MTB tires for $10 each. My other best come up from them was Dura Ace pedals for $50, almost bought some Look Keo Blades when the shop guy said name a price today.
Noooo! I love Pros Closet I bought and traded so many bikes and wheels through them. 😢 This so sad.
Lol no wonder XD. They were asking same money for used bikes as new on sale XD
"Giving too much for bikes". That's laughable.
during 2020 and 2021
Probikekit closed first.
I bought my Gary Fisher from them back in 2013 and had a great experience price was good and I’m still riding it today. Sounds like they jumped on the gravy train and it cost them.
While I’m European and cant comment on the negative issues reported here by others, I think overall price normality is just reasserting itself. Covid led to a complete pricing ripoff thats being unwound right now.
Don’t think they are big in the US but have you seen Cubes 2025 lineup of bikes? Their new Agree pro, is an Ultegra Di2, full carbon endurance bike, with 50m Aero wheels and is going to be €3,300 here. Not even Canyon can come close to that, and Cube is a respected brand with LBS/dealer support.
yeah top model with Dura ace for 5000$ 3x less then boring tarmac 👌
Still very expensive at 75% discount and few choices.
I bought a bunch of their stuff for rock bottom prices, but never their bikes. Those prices were/are ridiculous
Only deals they had was occasional 20-40% sales. Snatched sworks stump jumper frame nos few years back for 750, that was a great deal, also Lynsey helix for 1k, which was an ok deal but still cheaper than Lynsey scratch and dent or eBay prices. Lot of it was overpriced.
Your commitment to the word 'bicycle' instead of the shorthand of 'bikes' is to be admired
GC: "THE PROS CLOSET is SHUTTING DOWN!!!"
That gives new meaning to 'getting out of the closet'.
The South Park kids tried to convince Tom Cruise of this very fact but still refused to come out.
I worked in sales for TPC and can tell you that the perception that rich people weren't buying top-end stuff from us is entirely wrong. We especially got a lot of people who loved our guaranteed buyback program because they want to be able to ride a new bike every year.
Also, as other folks pointed out, the seed round in 2020 allowed them to hire a lot of expensive folks in marketing because they thought our posture in the market would allow us to keep sales growing despite the slowdown in 2022. Projections were insane for that year, and a lot of customer-facing folks who knew what was happening on the ground knew it wasn't going to happen. They reassured us that things were fine through the summer then laid down the hammer in the fall. I was in the first round of layoffs.
I'm out of the industry now so happy to talk if you want more details.
Hi, i disagree completely with your take, have you tried to sell anything to them???? they would offer a ridiculous price when buy and charge 3x more when sale, they were jacking up the prices during Covid and their greed is what got them, i am not happy to see them go but i am not surprised, welcome anyone else thoughts who dealt with them
yea thats exactly what i said, I said in the video I had customers who would use them to sell there bikes and get offered like 3000 for a full pinarello dogma f, and then yes they werre over pricing used bikes just like the whole used bike market was overpriced and then the water turned off and there was no demand anymore
I live near their retail store it was very meh, basically just a small showroom of high-end bikes - no components, no accessories, nothing like that - and the impression I got was the only people going there were there to test-ride bikes found on their online inventory. It was also in an industrial park and attached to their warehouse, so not in a convenient location whatsoever.
Bike industry in general did as you said & upped prices especially during covid thinking they could as demand was strong..... but also they fired a lot of customers when they tried to force feed everyone disc brakes aero yada yada yada . Not to mention having the insane idea that a pedal bike is ever worth 10k USD+....
sad truth... the economics matter
Just went on there. Seems like all the good stuff is already sold.
yea they seem to move it or removed it
Interesting to hear that Cycle Limited claims they are doing fantastic. I've seen many of the same bikes listed there for months! They must have extremely low overhead to sit on these for such a long time (with barely/if any price movement). Since they are in your area, perhaps you know more about their business structure(?). Just a sideline "hobby" for these folks(?), or just sound and savvy business acumen?
This is something we've been expecting for a long time, isn't it? A market downturn was inevitable after covid, and everyone was somewhat anticipating a crash. The mass purchase of bikes has dropped to a minimum, flooding the market with used ones
yea I have been saying this for a while and talked countless times on pros closet, I think we wil see more
Sad for a place to close but we see what happens.. Lots of change
a shit ton of change
Cycle Limited out of Boca Raton is legit, bought a Yeti SB130 and a Colnago C-series from them and couldn't be happier with those bikes They're one of the first places I checkout when looking for something new.
yea they are doing very good and we use them all the time for a tool and give great prices and also have good inventory over there and a really good staff
Sucks to suck. Lowballer extraordinaires.
Wish I would have seen this news a few days ago! Everything is almost gone!
My bikes are my hobby, my passion and it's my way of staying fit. I buy HIGH end because I love it and so I don't have to upgrade parts later. I never purchased anything from them.
Great concept but their success was also their undoing. I bought two bikes from them. I was happy with what I purchased. Sadly growth and 2020 kind of destroyed the used market. All of the sudden used bikes shot up in value but that was the market.
I paid them a visit last month couldn't believe the size of the building, not many employee cars out front. I can't imagine the cash flow needed to pay for that size building. I thought they over priced every used bike online by $500 - $1500.
Orbea has an office in Boulder now so there was probably some sort of a deal for pros closet to sell leftover orbea stock
I guess people are back in enclosed gyms. During Covid, cycling was a great way to get away from it all.
I travel all the time and have to use hotel gyms when possible. There’s absolutely no way I’ll ever go to an enclosed gym while at home! I use cycling for fitness, as a stress reliever, and as an opportunity to get outdoors and get away from it all. I will keep riding no matter what the market does. Even if I’m the only one on my paved trail! Now, will I be able to get that SRAM RED endurance bike at 30% discount now that people are not buying as much?
Colorado Cyclist closed earlier this summer as well. They were in the game for a long time. I did get a quote once from TPC, and definitely lowballed.
yea I did a video on them as well and also wiggle too, alot of strong big names in the industry going under is always sad to see go
@@GCPerformance18 Thanks for the reply, like your reviews, they’re very helpful.
I got some good bikes and stuff from them in the past. Sorry to see them go.
The prices were ridiculous.
I had a good experience with TPC. I bought a Ti roadbike and a CF fat bike. Both are amazing bikes.
This is what happens when you try rip off people in the used market. It was only a matter of time…boom, bubble bursts.
And they're back
Nothing is available (bikes, frames, wheels) as of this morning. It seems someone may have purchased the entire inventory.
I just purchased a 2020 Trek Domane SLR 9 AXS eTAP with a wallowed out seatmast bore for isospeed from them. If anyone knows where to get new mast? Otherwise awesome bike.
You say TPC is the first to go, what about Colorado Cyclist?
I did a video on them but i meant like online bike seller
Good riddance to TPC; echoing the experience of most other people commenting on this video, I too found The Pros Closet was ridiculously overpriced for the bikes they were selling. Buying new directly from the manufacturer or your local bike shop was about the same price, or only marginally higher.
Not once in ever session I visited TPC website did I ever exclaim, "Wow that's a great deal on that bike!" but plenty of times i found myself saying, "Wow I can't believe they're trying to sell that 4 year old Orbea for that much; good luck with that."
Nelson says…. Haha! 😂 Have looked on there a few times for bikes and components they’re ridiculously overpriced. The market isn’t missing out.
Even with the "closing 75% off" sales now the prices are insane. Wow. No wonder. Like so many businesses, popped up and made a killing during covid, probably got a ton of PPP and Other "free" money and made a ton of money and now are going under. The owners are probably walking away with a nice retirement fund.
yea exactly, so many new business started and now they are all ocmpetiting with a race to the bottom and people who started thought it was easy and everything just sold, they didnt realize how hard it is when you have slow months or years
Wow - just purchased a really high end wheelset from them for a rock bottom price. All makes sense why I got such a deal
thats nice for you man!!
@@GCPerformance18yeah deal of a lifetime on 858’s
Building and repairing bikes would be my focus with used bikes on the side. Maybe devote some floor space to that.
They took $100M in funding. That was a crazy bet on used bikes.
yea that is fucking insane and also to invest in massive warehouse is crazy as well and hire staff
@@GCPerformance18 Well yeah, it seems insane but that's the current VC model spun-off from tech and Silicon Valley. Pump a ton of money into a new disruptive business model, try and become a monopoly or near-monopoly as soon as possible and then any competitors left you buy up or put out of business. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Either way, for those who have hundreds of millions or billions to invest loosing a few million $$$ on something like this is trivial.
I just checked and they have very few listings currently
I am shocked this was found surprising by anyone. Easier to sell uses bikes on FB Marketplace and to buy new for a little bit more. There were several times I tried to justify the idea of buying from Pros Closet and never could bring myself to do it. There were better deals everywhere else. I tried to sell some ENVE wheels to them and the amount they offered for literally immaculate wheels was so low, I would have rather let them rot in my closet than take the deal. Honestly I am surprised they lasted as long as they did.
Could swear i saw some conti5000 clincher tires for $30, but theyre gone now.
Not going to be missed by me.
Theproscloset was awesome precovid, post covid everyone got greedy 😢
yup the proof is in pudding
For the hell of it I listed an offer on a very high end MTB, first they told me the had to much inventory and could not make an offer. Then they made me an offer of $1,700 which is $4k less than the value of the bike.
Who didn’t see that coming? Seems like a seasonal fruit or vegetable. Only works here and there?
Pennies on the dollar, surprised they lasted this long!
No surprise, too expensive for a used bike.
I predicted this on a message board last year and people told me I was crazy. It was obvious they couldn’t make it with those prices.