"demo-ing" another FS frame

I found a killer deal on an excellent condition 2004 Iron Horse Hollowpoint. I did tons of research on it. It is supposed to have some of the most efficient pedalling of an FS out there.



It's not that I don't like my new Salsa. It is fast, light, and plush. But there are times when the pedaling action seems to work against me, which I don't like. Ideally, I should have demo-ed it and other frames. But there is a problem being out here. We only have one good bike shop, which I love to death, but they are a Trek /Fisher dealer, so that is all that is around here to test out. Sure they are good bikes, but I just don't want to get what 80% of the population out here has. Well that and I am a cheap-ass-skate, and take pride in finding something that is a good value, meaning cheap but good.

Regardless of which one I decide to keep, I am confident in my scouting and my ebay prowess to make a profit or break even. The selling is as fun as the buying. Seeing if you can take something that you bought, and turn it around with better presentation and sell it more. We are SUCH visual creatures, hence why we like blogs with lots of pictures and have a hard time sticking with ones that don't. That it amazes me how little time people take to present their auctions.

One crappy picture and a little text. VS this one guy who takes pics of his items like it is a model shoot, with red velvet backgrounds, and angle shots. Incredibly well done, and also high end stuff. He always gets tons of bids and sells at the higher end of the market value.



vs


I could have made the contrast more but you get the picture. I bet there was a lot of time that went in that photoshoot.

I asked him how he did it. He is a nice guy and we share bikes and ebay as passions and he basicaclly said he finds them at ebay/mtbr, and buys them at a good price, strips them and parts them out. He is doing it FULL time now. Not sure I could do that.

I'd like to try it sometime soon. Finding a bike, dismantling it and selling each part as it's own auction. Could be fun, could be a ton of work to make all of 5$, but it least it was fun and had to do with bikes.

I wonder what some good guidelinies should be:
no compoents over 1 year old
no components scratched/broken
frame in good condition, must be a popular botique brand or main brand.
I dunno, I think I need some general rules of thumb to go by before starting ou.