Periodically the Bunion is so captivated by a new venture that it deserves a profile. This week we had just such an experience when we encountered the Berkeley Bicycle Buy Back Bus. Quint B, as it is called by founder Dun Bendingover, is an enterprise that buys recently stolen bicycles for cash from what it calls its “front end users”, finds the original owner “back end users” and resells the bicycle at cost to the back end user. The bus has taken up a permanent location under the I-80 overpass at University so it is convenient for both the front and back end customers.
Repeat Customer Pehr Enielvictim raves, “this is the second time this week that I have bought back my RAD powerbike at the Berkeley Bicycle Buy Back Bus! I am so happy that I am indirectly supporting those in need and not permanently losing my property.”
The idea came to Bendingover in a dream a week or so prior to founding the enterprise. “In hindsight it is really obvious. There is so much value destruction in the fencing of individual bike parts by the bike chop shop on full display at University and 80, that I knew there had to be a better way. That way came to me in a vision as I rested.”
The Berkeley Bicycle Buy Back Bus, in just 4 weeks of operation, claims to have returned over 100 bikes to their back end users. The average purchase price has been $174, and the average MSRP of the bikes that have gone through the system was $1339. The business claims that in a single month in operation to have preserved over $100,000 in bike value while delivering great value to the front end and preserving it on the back end.
Dun Bendingover is looking to expand into the Mission District in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and other crime tolerant West Coast cities.