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> Going into a bike shop, I couldn't just purchase the cheapest bike.

There is a term called "gear acquisition syndrome" (GAS). When I got into biking, I was the one thinking that I wanted the carbon fiber bike. It was so expensive that I feared it would get stolen, so I hardly rode it. The cheap junk bike I had before that was one I rode everywhere: stores, movies, to the park. I didn't worry that the $300 bike would get stolen. The $3k bike? It went to work and back. When my coworkers would do group rides, I'd go with them. It went nowhere else. I was scared it would get stolen, or the bike lock would damage it - the lock & chain weighed more than the bike.

>Going into a bike shop, I couldn't just purchase the cheapest bike. The person said maybe now I want to bike for 20 minutes on weekends for fun, but in 1 year I'll want to bike 50 miles. So I should consider buying bike that is 3X as expensive that is made of carbon fiber. Want to buy a pair of shoes to go for a 20 minute run? Well, then you want a custom measurement and evaluation of your gait and ... you see where this is going. When you go into a sports store to buy something they want to sell you a lifestyle, not a product.

Agreed, a lot of hobbies have these "gearheads" or "hardcore" people and they can be quite intimidating for a beginner.

That bike salesperson is (probably deliberately) steering you away from the secondary market. Bikes hold value decently well in the current moment, so selling your cheap hybrid in a few years and picking up a local dentist's second hand race machine is totally viable.

>That bike salesperson is (probably deliberately) steering you away from the secondary market.

This interaction happened many years ago. I wish I could give that person that much credit about being so savvy about the secondary market, but I think it's really just a question of cost sensitivity. A person who really wants a cheap bike is going to Walmart (my conversation happened before Amazon existed) or another big-box store. Anybody who goes into a bike store either a) didn't realize bikes would be more expensive there or b) less cost sensitive compared to somebody who would never consider going to a bike shop in the first place.

The point being, by selling a lifestyle choice instead of a bike, they were trying to upsell me.

Which is exactly what I've seen with so many things on social media sites. It isn't just a hobby, it's a lifestyle.