I got this idea after reading about how Reilly1`s Kawasaki bike came about and some of his other bikes such as the Webco he acquired. I really like hearing stories about people finding bikes in unusual ways. EBay doesn`t really count unless its like Brian Hays JU6 find. Or the guy who bought the Quadangle Looptail frame for the low BIN price!
Anyway to start it out my best find was my 1976 Redline Squareback. I got it from a kid who came into our bike shop asking if I was interested in trading an old BMX bike he had in his garage for a partial trade on a Mtn bike. He knew I collected old bikes so he thought I might be interested. I was expecting maybe a mid school Redline and didn`t expect much. I was shocked when he brought the bike in and ended up giving him a few hundred off on a new mtn bike. He was happy and so was I. Bike came w/early Redline Forks, an early Redline stem, FMF bars and a very unique seat post clamp I think was called a PMC. I ended up trading the seat clamp for a complete 1980 Mongoose w/MotoMags. I will post some pics of the Redline later.
I would really like to hear about other rare finds especially Ben Ors Redline Monoshock. Maybe the story has been told but for newer members like me I would love to hear about it.

I came up with my looptail quad in kind of a cool way. My wife and I were in Colorado visiting my parents and were going to antique stores. I stopped at a place that sells recycled sporting goods and there it was hanging on the wall! It had a crazy plastic like finish on it(not powdercoated). I asked several employees about it and no one new a price. The made me come back a week later when the manager was there who priced their items. I got it dirt cheap! It is probably the cheapest looptail quad that has been purchased in the last few years. Really cool find and one of my favorite purchase to date!
I also came up with a Kos Cruiser in a pretty cool way. I was about 50 miles out of town going to an Estate sale that had ended up being a complete waste of time. I decided to make the best of it by cruising around town(small town with houses with a lot of junk laying around) seeing if there were any cool bikes. At the very back of a yard I could see what looked likea bike with the decals for a Kos cruiser. This is a scary crackhead neighborhood and you really just don't get out of your car. I made a couple trips around the block hoping someone in the house would notice I was scoping out their place and see what I wanted. I didn't have any luck and against my better judgement I asked some neighbors that were outside if they knew who lived there. I lucked out because at the same time a lady was coming out of the house. I asked her if she wanted to sell the bike that was at the back of her property. She had me come into the yard and show her what I was talking about. When we got back there she said she didn't even no that was there(I guess with all of the junk it blended in) and she said she guessed I could have it! I didn't have it in me to take it for free so I gave her some cash. She was happy and I was even happier! Bike was almost complete minus the wheelset and it great shape. The Arizona desert is really great for preserving vintage metal! Not a rare find but still pretty desireable. I bought another Kos just a couple months before from a crackhead. He was riding around on it and I asked him if he wanted to sell it. He wasn't sure on a price since the only one he had seen sell on the internet went for $500. He said he needed to get $75 out of it for that reason. I couldn't get the cash out of my pocket quick enough!

My best bud found this in a dumpster... less the original CW pad set and most of the parts on it... but it is the original finish and decals... it had some rust but navel jelly took care of it.

I found a 2nd gen OM Flyer at the Long Beach Cycle Swap. I have also bought a JMC Standard Long from a guy on the Hermosa Beach Pier. The first frame I bought while getting back into bmx was a late 80's Floval Flyer. I found a list of bike shops phone numbers online and called about 50 of them before I found anything. The guy was even cool enough to ship it to me.

Tony

working in a shop i got quite a few nice bikes this way. the difference is that i got into collecting way early and most of these deals were in the late '80/early 90s. at the time they were "just old bikes" no one cared about (but me ).

here's maybe the most interesting one: couple of years ago a customer is in the shop and sees some vintage BMX bikes i have on display. one is a green '86 Haro Master. customer says he has a haro same color in his basement from his kid and asks if i'd be interested in it. i say "maybe. bring it in sometime". so nothing happens. then, last fall (2006) he stops in for some service on his hybrid bike and mentions it again. he brings it in when he picks up his bike. turns out it is a nearly mint 1986 FST...all original down to the reflectors, hardly ever ridden. so i end up with it for $50. But... the story gets more interesting. this summer a guy comes in and asks if i bought a green haro from an "older guy" last year. i say "yes" and he hands me an envelope and says "maybe you'd like this to go with it". he was the "kid" who's bike it was. the envelope contained the owner's manual and original reciept. i look at the reciept and see that I was the person who sold them the bike in early 1987!! at a different store, no less!!

My Vector MKIII was a NOR CAL Plumas County Sherriff's Dept Auction find, 2 bucks and it came with 7x's, 1st gen Phils, DK invert neck, and suntour micro adjust post.

My Race Inc was free and decked out with RL double stem, profab forks, phils, 7b's, campy cranks, and reedy pedals. After restoration the bike was stolen from my garage when I was at Rockford in 06 then recovered when found on E-bay in parts. That was a long story, but a somewhat happy ending with some help from some members contacting the seller (the bikes time at the GPD big house was not kind to the ano). There was also a huge misunderstanding with the good guy who started this thread, sorry yet again 1azbikeman. The next time I'm in PHX, you, me, Haselhorst, and Pete are gonna go munch some wings and tip some brewskis, I'm buyin. If that Reilley1 guy is in town I might let him come too

I got off work early one day and was heading home on my usual route and noticed a guy on a bike. I always keep an eye out for bikes when I'm out driving around. So I see this bike notice its all chrome, and has Tuffs. I was thinking man who still rides Tuffs (besides collectors). So I follow the guy for like 6 blocks and finally get in front of him. I pull over flag him down and ask him how much. He said 25, I said OK.

Yowza!! Sweet!

A few months ago my chiropractor told me about a couple old BMX bikes that his coffee vendor had offered him. He contemplated checking them out himself for about a month before he offered the vendors phone number to me. I had to inquire about these bikes since I couldn't sleep that night dreaming about this potential score. So I call the coffee guy and arrange a time the next day to check them out. This guy tells me that he won't be present while I check them out but his brother will be there to accept a reasonable offer. So I arrive to find a yellow / black box stock '98 Torker 24 inch cruiser which had hardly been ridden and... an absolutely mint chrome / blue '84 GHP with green label Comp 3s that still have nubs on them. The older brother explains to me that they lived 2 doors down from Todd Blaser when they were teenagers and Blaser handed down most of his race parts to him when sponsors would give Blaser new products to race with. This explains the complete team SUNDANCE padset on the bike along with Araya Bike Valley wheelset and Takagi 175 mm 1 piece cranks... remember when Todd Blaser was the fastest up and coming AA Pro in the nation and he was still using short 1 piece cranks? So I tell the guy that I am really only interested in buying the GHP and he replies " That old thing? I was gonna just give it to you if you bought the Torker cruiser... how about $150 for everything?" My heart just about jumped out of my chest and I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. He then offers me a cup of gourmet coffee and conversation about riding around with Blaser and I couldn't get out of there quick enough since I was afraid that he might change his mind about our deal. Both bikes are on display in my BMX basement and the GHP survivor has become one of my most favorite in my collection.

I can't come up with anything that cool, LOL...

I don't have a collection, per se. The only "old school" thing I have now is the 3-bar Powerlite I built for my wife. I bought that from a guy near me that always has dozens of bikes out in his yard for sale...and lawnmowers, and go-karts, minibikes, and sometimes boats and cars. Usually just cheap Wal-mart type stuff or 10 speeds, but sometimes he'll take something in. I passed up a rough but complete Kos for $15, still kicking myself there. That was before I found out about oxalic acid. Also I scored an early Eastern Ace of Spades, and a '90s Mongoose Expert there, both were $10. Both rough, but easy refinish jobs. I still stop by once a week, just in case.

Since I work on a major university campus I am always surrounded by bicyclists on the street. So one day I noticed a rusty old looptail cruiser with flat tires impacted with dry leaves still chained to a bike rack near our campus dairy store. It appeared to be a 26 inch Kos Kruiser but I wasn't sure. I watched over this bike for at least a month and inquired about it at the dairy store with no luck whatsoever as to who owned it. Students abandon bikes here all the time when they score a car or fail out of school. So after watching it disappear in a snow bank... I liberated it and brought it home for a complete restoration. This was the white Mongoose Two/Four on display at Rockford last summer, it was not a 26 incher after all!

I scored a very nice looptail PK Ripper from a drunk middle aged guy on State Street one summer day too. I spotted the large floval tubing and looptail rearend while walking around at lunchtime and commented to the guy that he had a nice bike. He was so drunk that he could only slurr back something that I could not understand. I asked him if it was for sale and again he slurred back uncomprehendible babble... and then he used his finger to scribble 2 and 0 on the dusty frame. At first I thought yeah I'll give you $200 for the mostly complete looptail ripper with Landing Gear forks and mostly mid school parts. He finally said twenty dollars in understandable language and I gave him $25 and got out of there ASAP.

Vintage.com For Sale ads: guy posted a Patterson frame, fork and bars with photos for I think $225.00. Nobody asked but me and I didn't rush the sale either. The frame's chrome was near-perfect condition, and the bars were JMC Darrell Youngs.

Local classified newspaper ad: my first ad, my first day, my first call. Local barn find chrome XL24 complete with cruiser bars for $50.00. Probably rarely or never raced since none of us recall anyone running an XL24 in cruiser class locally BITD. The frame's chrome is in near-perfect condition.

No freebies, dumpster finds, or ride-by's though.

The first time I placed an ad in the local paper a guy calls and says he has an old GT with flights, as my ad keyed on flights and some two & three lettered bikes. He comes downtown and it turns out it is a Pro Freestyle Tour with 180 full wraps. When I asked him what he wanted, he made the crucial mistake of answering like a question..." I was thinking $200" with a weird look. I told him I was thinkin $75. He him-hawed and then I said, "since you came to me, I will go $100". He bit. So when I got it home and tore it down, I found a really nice Techmatic BB.

Second ad of the same sort got me a mint Haro FS-1 with flights for $100. That guy even threw in extras.

Haven't been so lucky since.

Years ago I used to work off my rent by helping my landlady
take care of her other rental houses. We pulled up to one
that needed painted and there's a candy-blue '81 team
minigoose laying in the yard. With a bunch of other
crummy wallybikes.

So I ask the 15 year old kid that lives there, 'what's up
with that blue bike, there?' He says, 'oh some kid that
lived down the street had to move and just left it for us.'
I say, 'hmm, ya think you'd take 15 bucks for it?'
'Sure', he says.
It had mostly og stuff and a still near mint blue pro neck.
Faded blue MX1000. Blue ACS hubs/arayas.
So when I'm about to leave I asked if he would take a
check since I only had ten bucks cash on me. He says,
"aw, just gimme the ten, it's cool'. He talked ME down! LOL

Funny thing about the bike, I know it was never taken care of.
The bars were BADLY rusted. But there was almost no rust
anywhere else

That was my one and only 'score'. I think I've been paying
for that one ever since.

How I got started in collecting happened like this:

I bought my 1982 GT 24 from a seller in the states. It turned out that deal, with how bad it turned out, should have put me off ever buying another bike, but, after getting the 24 the way I wanted it, I emailed a photo to Ginny, as I had bought several items from her to complete it.

She then replied, "are you interested in a GT 26? I have one in my warehouse". Needless to say, I bought it, and biy, was I pleased

From there, as it always happens, I then got a Pro, and an Expert, and then a Patterson PR240. I would like to say it has now stopped, but if I can find a RRS 24, a JMC 24 or a Kuwahara 24, well...who knows... LOL

I was out for lunch one day in 2002 or was it early 2003. I happened to pass this old bike shop and I just stopped in there to have a look. As I was walking out of the shop, my eyes chanced upon this old bike on the grass verge next to the shop. I asked the owner of the shop what he wanted for that bike. It had no wheels or anything but my heart was beating fast as I asked him that question. He just shrugged and said $20, that is about 13 US dollars. I took out 20 bucks, grabbed the bike and walked out of there pronto! This is the bike that I got

"walked outta there pronto"

Is there any other rush that compares to finding that ONE score
and trying not to give yourself away? Hold that poker-face,
keeping your voice level and unconcerened...

Yeah, those things literally haunt my dreams...

The first OS bike that got me back into this belonged to a buddy of mine. In high school I had a party he was too drunk to drive or something and he left his car at my house. The next day he rode his bike to my house to get his car. It was a PK Ripper. He had acquired the bike by trading a quarter pipe to another guy. He left the bike in my garage. About two years later me and some other guys are in my garage and one says hey that's my PK Ripper it was stolen when I was in JR high. I said take it I don't think the other guy is coming back for it. He never took it. I informed my mom to keep the bike and not sell it or give it away. (Unlike me who sold my Hutch while I was in college.) She kept it even moved it to a new house with her. A few years ago I saw some guys with some Schwinn Krates and they were talking about restoring them. I thought I should do that with that PK I wonder of anyone else does that. So I started looking for parts, found this site and the rest is history.

Probably my last get was mt best so far. I saw a CL ad for a Trickstar for $500. Called the dude and he said many called and some were coming to look. Figured it was gone for sure. This was a Thursday. Monday, I come to work, there is an email that he was showing it Sunday. (day before). Called and left a message, if you still got it, etc. He calls me right back and says NO ONE SHOWED. I left ASAP to SF under cover of night.



Had MX1000, Suntour Vx cranks, uni seat, Proclass 3 wheels.
Oh and US made!!