I live in a town with tons of pro bikers, you can buy used Quintana Roo tri bikes here for less than $700, that’s my next purchase. They cost 10k+ new. Sponsored athletes get the bikes for nothing, then basically give them away when they upgrade every year.
The specialized was a 5 year old bike, ridden in two races (she trained on a different bike!) then it sat in a garage. So I got it for nothing. It was aluminum not carbon, so I guess people weren’t super excited about it, and it’s a model before they switched to disc brakes and electronic shifters. I swapped all the components to a Chinese carbon frame from aliexpress, it’s my comp bike now lol I’m not sponsored.