Bottom has dropped out of used bike market..... (Harley, ride, buying)
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Buyers market for sure.....millenials don't seem to be bike buyers or even care about driving all that much. If you want book value you will sit on your bike for a year. I watched a guy I know try to sell his farkled out FJR with some cools stripes on it for a year and a half.......I think he gave up on it. Another retired pilot up in Vegas with a $28K Harley he owned for a few years called down here to SoCal and was shopping it around for $8K with no takers......$20K down and still struggling. Nobody seems to have any cash..........
Wish it were true at the bottom end (under $5k), but it's not... at least around me. Bikes in that price range are still over-priced and sit for ages with sellers who are unwilling to budge.
I speak of this from sad personal experience.......I foolishly fell in love with a 2007 FJRAE about 18 months ago and violated my rule of buying a bike with selling in mind and no emotional stuff. I paid $5,900 cash. With any luck after 2 months of pumping it on all sorts of media I may get lucky and sell it for $4K today. A real bath. Over the years I've made some screaming deals in wealthy neighborhoods who want to sell a nice scoot for cheap. On the plus side I picked up my 2013 F6B for low book.........
I speak of this from sad personal experience.......I foolishly fell in love with a 2007 FJRAE about 18 months ago and violated my rule of buying a bike with selling in mind and no emotional stuff. I paid $5,900 cash. With any luck after 2 months of pumping it on all sorts of media I may get lucky and sell it for $4K today. A real bath. Over the years I've made some screaming deals in wealthy neighborhoods who want to sell a nice scoot for cheap. On the plus side I picked up my 2013 F6B for low book.........
Well, $2k loss isn't terrible.. as you pointed out in post one, you could have bought in for $28k and have no buyers at $8k...
I found that for my own enjoyment, it's foolish to spend over $3k (or was, I live in central Georgia, a lovely place to ride if you don't mind long, straight stretches of road, hemmed in by 100' tall pine trees and riding conditions that more often than not have temps and humidity in the 90's ~ so stopped riding). It didn't take a whole lot of waiting to find a $1k bike that fit my wants. Bought a Concours 1000, needed the carbs cleaned. Bought a KLR650 with title issues (husband passed, widow was distraught and needed some hand holding to get the title sorted). Bought a CBR600 for $20 once, it'd been sitting for ~8 years and needed a few days of simple work plus a carb clean and new tank. VFR750 for $500 because the owner disassembled it and couldn't get it back together. The list goes on (those were 'my' bikes, I bought more for simple flipping), and every last one of them did what's needed to bring a smile to my face.
But like I said, the bottom priced bikes have all risen in value. When I look now, things are priced at about double what I'd expect. A 99 SV650 with 50k miles and road rash for $2.5k seems insane to me.
I do have to chuckle about your "low book" comment. That Concours I owned was bought for "book".... which was Roughly 1/3rd of actual market value that I got a few years later. That was an odd one, it's usually the other way around where "book rate" is substantially higher than actual market value and people refuse to come off those silly prices, so the bikes never sell.
Well, $2k loss isn't terrible.. as you pointed out in post one, you could have bought in for $28k and have no buyers at $8k...
I found that for my own enjoyment, it's foolish to spend over $3k (or was, I live in central Georgia, a lovely place to ride if you don't mind long, straight stretches of road, hemmed in by 100' tall pine trees and riding conditions that more often than not have temps and humidity in the 90's ~ so stopped riding). It didn't take a whole lot of waiting to find a $1k bike that fit my wants. Bought a Concours 1000, needed the carbs cleaned. Bought a KLR650 with title issues (husband passed, widow was distraught and needed some hand holding to get the title sorted). Bought a CBR600 for $20 once, it'd been sitting for ~8 years and needed a few days of simple work plus a carb clean and new tank. VFR750 for $500 because the owner disassembled it and couldn't get it back together. The list goes on (those were 'my' bikes, I bought more for simple flipping), and every last one of them did what's needed to bring a smile to my face.
But like I said, the bottom priced bikes have all risen in value. When I look now, things are priced at about double what I'd expect. A 99 SV650 with 50k miles and road rash for $2.5k seems insane to me.
I do have to chuckle about your "low book" comment. That Concours I owned was bought for "book".... which was Roughly 1/3rd of actual market value that I got a few years later. That was an odd one, it's usually the other way around where "book rate" is substantially higher than actual market value and people refuse to come off those silly prices, so the bikes never sell.
Like a fool I haven't hired you to do my bike deals.......some have the knack......I bow to your superior trading skills......
Like a fool I haven't hired you to do my bike deals.......some have the knack......I bow to your superior trading skills......
Er... you bow to me spending Countless hours scanning classifieds? Or that I have the freedom to move on a deal the instant I see it? Because, honestly, that's all there is to it. I'm not negotiating these prices, they are the LISTED price (most of the time at least, my "negotiating" tactic is "I'm here with money, will you take 90% of listed?")
No skill involved. Patience an a willingness to start driving at any given moment (and keeping some cash on hand), yes.
I do have skill in repairing bikes, which is more important. I'm still way Way, WAY behind the curve on that $30k MMI "experience" though.
Flying is the best, as I sit here with my lapsed 3rd class looking wistfully at the birds in the pattern I do miss it a little. My possible way out is an add-on glider rating......will see
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