I HATE selling vehicles!

Bikes that sell for $2,500 and wholesale for $900 don't exist in this world. I was kind of like the poor guy looking for the nickle slot machines and making a wrong turn and ending up on the floor at Monte Carlo. The Harley Dealer down the road is even bigger and more elaborate. I can see why American bike manufacturers are having trouble. Young people are, for the most part, priced out. They are buying used Chinese scooters from each other on the Crapbike Group on Facebook. 

Also, If you aren't a Boomer who grew up watching movies like Wild Angels and Easy Rider and listening to music like Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, you just don't get this culture. I was a young kid riding dirt bikes with my friends in Northern California when the infamous Rolling Stones Concert in Altamont happened about an hours drive away. We knew about it and talked about it. We saw some of those same Hells Angels riding down the road.

One entire post I made here about the dealer I went to just disappeared. It was right before my last post. What happened?

I think it's still there on page 3. Is it the one where you tried to get it inspected and the rear tire failed. $300 to put a new one?

I agree it sucks when a seller sells an item when he knows you are on the way. Especially when they don't tell you until you arrive. 

But I also agree the sellers goal is to sell.. and if somebody else shows up first with cash in hand then why should they hold an item without a deposit?

If you can sit on it till spring, I think you'll have a better time selling it. People are thinking about snowmobiles and snow blowers right now.

I feel your pain. Anything I have had for sale I've had no problem selling quickly. period. Until my current issues selling my e28 M5.  I put it out on the local BMW facebook group back in 2016, then mye28.com then GRM vehicle forum, where granted, I was asking more than the car was worth. Then I tried bring a trailer. Was short by 4 grand, looking back I should have dropped the reserve, but whats done is done.  Now its for sale on autotrader, and I've had about 50 "serious" inquiries that about a dozen actually got back to me after I emailed each person(within 24 hours of their email, most within 8 hours.) More than a year later, I still have it for sale. Frustrating, but I had one guy try to scam me, one try to steal it, several are serious buyers at 18 grand. (I'll keep it for that) One guy who is serious at 21 grand (I still have interest so I hesitate to sell to him but I might end up doing that to get this done)  my asking is 22535 after starting at 26500 and dropping it over the past year. it appraised for sale at 28500 in January. Im the mean time, life goes on.

In reply to OHSCrifle :

I totally get what you are saying, and agree.  I have been frustrated multiple, and I mean multiple times from not receiving a call back for days.  They they pick up and tell me someone is on the way.  I once went weeks on a mustang with no call backs when I thought the guy had sold it, only to see it pop back up.  Then he took my call only to let me know if "this guy doesn't buy it, I'll call you back".   Two things that have shocked me:  One was the guy who held the miata with the hard top for me, no deposit (and he had had the first buyer flake out), two was the guy who sold the miata to someone over the phone while I was on the way to buy it, as I said, it was a forty minute drive.  I had cash and he was holding it for someone who was at least a five hour drive away.  After we drove the car, I certainly would have sold it to a guy standing there with cash!

Man, we should start a forum just on stories...

In reply to gunner (Forum Supporter) :

Someone tried to steal it?  Wow, would love to hear that story.  I dunno, it's just me but after trying to sell a car for 4 years, I'd happily accept $1500 under my current asking price to get rid of it...  Doesn't matter what an appraiser says a car is worth, it's worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay you for it.  Clearly that's quite a bit less than appraised value...

Snowdoggie said:

The latest:

The bike rides real well. It has four carburetors and a shaft drive. Nobody else really values it at all. I may just keep it.

I know that feeling but it's really unlikely to be worth more later on.  In the meantime, you have to maintain it or it will cost you more later.

I do this all the time.  I was just in my basement looking at the Easykart I bought and played with ... a dozen years ago (?).  Paid $4500 for it.  Could have sold it for $2500 after I stopped using it.  A decade on, I wonder what it's worth?  I think the 'local' kart track has closed too.

I do have a good Facebook Marketplace story though.  On Saturday, I put my very clean CRF50 yard bike up for sale.  I also put a few bicycles for my daughter.  I didn't even have the ad finished for the first bicycle before someone Venmo'd me a deposit on the Honda.  Paid $900 4 years ago.  Sold for $750.

Then I sold a push bike to someone who wanted to buy my V70R, which has been largely unused (and not getting any nicer) for nearly a year.  I think I talked him out of it.  :)  It's not a car for anyone who will be using someone else for most service.

The worst is when an active member here fluffs you up and gets your blood flowing with their interests only to go dark on comms. Then you reach back out to follow up and you get the "oh sorry i wasn't interested anymore" like thanks dude was it really that hard to let me know that? 

In reply to docwyte :

So this guy emails me back and forth for about a month and plans to fly out and see the car, then backs out due to pandemic.  No problem.  A month later says he wants to fly out again on the 28th of August and is bringing a friend to drive it back to California when he pays me cash.

By the way, he wants a ppi and will then pick the car up from the ppi and drive it around that night and meet me the next morning to pay for it if he decides to buy it.

I emailed him back and said, im sorry, I'm not comfortable not being with the car when its being test driven, but I can pick up the car and meet you that evening with it.

He ghosted me. I figured since you don't fly 1500 miles to joy ride in a car and fly home, he was going to steal it. So berkeley him.

OHSCrifle said:

I agree it sucks when a seller sells an item when he knows you are on the way. Especially when they don't tell you until you arrive. 

But I also agree the sellers goal is to sell.. and if somebody else shows up first with cash in hand then why should they hold an item without a deposit?

oh i totally agree, if a buyer msged me and said can you hold this car for me until the weekend when I can come see it? My response would be no without a deposit. However if someone msgs me saying, I'd like to come have a look, can I swing by in half an hour? I would not say yes knowing another potential buyer is already on his way. I would at least have the courtesy to ask the guy to wait until the first one leaves. That isn't holding an item without a deposit, it's making sure you don't have half a dozen strangers standing on your driveway at the same time pissed off when you yell them sorry first come first serve. 

twowheeled said:

The biggest irk is people who say I have CASH after throwing out a lowball. How else were you planning on paying? Credit card? Personal cheque? silver bars? Just once I am going to scream OH MY GOD CASH!! HONEY HE'S GOT REAL CASH. PLEASE SIR I'LL TAKE ANY OFFER, MY GOD FINALLY WE CAN AFFORD TO BUY SOME CAT FOOD FOR DINNER. 

I just got another call from a house flipper today. With the insane housing market here I get about two to three of these a week not to mention all the letters and postcards. There are signs all over my neighborhood offering CASH for HOUSES. The guy kept repeating over and over again I have CASH for your house. I can pay CASH CASH CASH. 

First of all I reminded him that housing prices where I live keep going up while his dirty old CASH keeps getting devalued every time the government prints more of it so I would really rather have my house than a pile of CASH. Second of all I need a place to sleep and keep my dogs more than I need his pile of CASH that would have to be either buried in the backyard of the house I no longer have, put in the bank at a stoopid low interest rate, or invested in something else that I would hope would not drop in value during this crazy economy. And, believe it or not, stockbrokers and "investment counselors" actually want to take some of my CASH in order to put the rest of it somewhere where it may or may not make more CASH. But then again, since he is really serious about getting rid of some of that nasty old COVID infected CASH that is burning a hole in his pocket, I offered him this old Kawasaki motorcycle with a bad rear tire that I would be willing to trade him for some of his dirty old CASH. All that I ask is that he wash it with some disinfectant first because the motorcycle is freshly washed and waxed.