Market Place > For Sale (Bike related)

Seller Info: What is your bike worth?

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LaKraven:
Thinking of selling your bike? Well, it's always useful to know the "blue book" value of your vehicle before you name your price. The most common mistake sellers make is that they overestimate the value of their vehicle, resulting in little interest (and possibly no sale).
It's also not uncommon for sellers to be shocked by the gulf between their expected price and what prospective buyers are willing to pay.

This website (I'm not affiliated with it in any way, just so you know) will enable you to find the "blue book" price on your bike. Use this as a good aproximation of what your bike is worth.

Another misconception sellers tend to make is that their modifications and accessories add verbatim value to the bike. This is almost never true (especially in the case of accesories). In fact, some mods (anything that increases the insurance price on the bike) actually devalue your bike... and you can even sometimes make more money by removing the modifications and reverting the bike back to stock condition as much as realistically possible!

You can often make more money by selling accessories and mods separate to the vehicle, so it's important to recognise which accessories and mods add real value to the vehicle.

As a general rule of thumb, if a modification protects the vehicle (crash bars, skid plate and the like), it will add value to the vehicle. If a modification reduces maintenance overhead (such as NGK spark plugs and oiled-foam filters), it adds value to the vehicle.
If the modification changes the vehicles performance, this will most likely DEvalue the vehicle as the insurance rate will likely be increased.
If the modification wouldn't pass an MOT, it's likely to cost you a sale entirely!

Accessories (such as GPS units) are pretty-much worthless when sold with the vehicle, and you'll make more money on them if sold separate.

Pictures are essential when selling a bike! Nobody is going to pay good money for something they've never seen.

Now that you've read this information, it might be worth seeing what prospective buyers are looking for. See my "Buyer's Guide" (thread on this forum) so that you can assess your bike from a potential buyer's perspective. Best way to ensure it sells it to ensure it's going to meet the buyer's criteria.

And remember: no pictures = no chance of sale!

Juvecu:
Good post, I'll sticky it so people can refer back to it :thumb:

LaKraven:
Thanks, Juvecu. I noticed recently a few 'Stroms going up for sale with pricetags as ludacris as they are insulting... figured it'd be good to have a post people can point sellers in the direction of when their asking price is unrealistic.

Descolada:
Agree completely with this, the Wisebuyer site is a great reference and guide, but it doesn't seem to bear much resemblance to what's going on in the second hand sales market. Dealers seem to ask wildly inflated prices and private are not much better. I was very disappointing when I looked at the site, thought "Great, that's really in my budget range" and then looked at what people were selling these machines for.

Not sure now which one is more unrealistic, Wisebuyers or the people selling their bikes?

I am told that, right now, it's a "Buyers market", I am also told that "after the first day of sunshine come February the prices will skyrocket". From my search for a V-Strom I see little evidence of it being a "Buyer's Market". As I can't figure out which is more unrealistic I am struggling to decide on what is a well spec'ed bike at a great price and what's not.

Des

LaKraven:
It really does depend on what you'd like.
Would you like a VStrom that someone has "uprated" in the key areas (brakes, suspension, NGK plugs, oiled foam air filter), or would you rather get "stock" and uprate it yourself to your own tastes?
If you're talking about a bike that's been "pimped out" (kitted out with all sorts of accessories), well then the value is just as likely to be lower as it is to be the same as stock (but rarely would be worth more). See, the problem there is the level of competance with which modifications have been made, and accessories fitted, by the previous owner(s).

My Wee, for example, is worth less because I've drilled out the front fairing to install useful sockets (lighter socket, USB charging sockets). Even though these modifications add value for me, because the fairing panel would have to be replaced to restore the bike to stock condition, it's considered a devauling modification.
In my case, I don't care as I intend to run this bike until there's nothing left of it (I would add bikes to the collection rather than getting rid of one in favour of another), but if I were ever to sell the bike, I would have to reflect things like this in the asking price.

Now, a lot of people will set their asking price high expecting that offers will always be below asking (that tends to be how people try to buy, since a penny saved on the bike is a penny they can add to the "pimping" or "uprating" budget). So if they're asking £4k, chances are they're expecting to get an offer around £3.5-3.7k (which is likely much closer to the book price).

When I buy a bike, I never offer more than book at maximum... even if the bike's been uprated.

There's nothing to lose by making an offer that's lower than their asking price! Worst-case scenario is they reject your offer, and you've lost nothing.

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