Should I sell bike now or wait until spring?

[pasmith73]

I've had a bike up for sale for a few weeks now and have not had a single inquiry. It's a 2017 CBR500R in pretty good condition. I think the price is about right. It's advertised on BikeTrader and ebay classified.

I'm really surprised that I've had no interest at all. Is that purely because it's the end of summer? Will it be better if I wait until March/April? Of course I could keep reducing the price but in no rush for the cash and wouldn't want to lose money unnecessarily.

[thelostboy]

Had my partner's Striple R on eBay and Autotrader for well over a month and had just two serious enquiries. It's a great bike, with loads of genuine Triumph options, and I pulled out the stops with my SLR camera to make sure it was a better presented ad than anything. Oh, and the bike was cheap! All this great weather we've had I thought it would go within days, but it's still there in the garage.

My next step was to see what trade-in values and the Webuyanycar equivalents would offer, as that will be the reality check I guess.

[Spevs]

Perhaps an advert on Autotrader would reach another audience.

[Tonberry]

There's a lot of choice out there and a finite number of buyers.

Drop the price or wait until you find the right buyer. Time of year matters but there is always a buyer at the right price.

This is a £7.5k bike but it won't achieve that: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387337645941

Edited by Tonberry on Wednesday 4th September 17:46

[KTMsm]

Cheap bikes will sell regardless

Really there's another 2 months of riding so I'd say advertise it for them

Demand will increase next spring but your bike being a year older will probably be worth less (less so with older bikes)

I'm currently looking buying a few bikes - in almost every case the best deals are with the Dealers

If you want to sell it needs to be the best value on offer (ie the cheapest for it's condition, mileage and spec) it also needs to be well presented

IE Diavel on ebay - the cheapest is a private seller at £6250 but it's done 22k -he's probably wondering why it hasn't sold

But a Trader is selling a Carbon with 11k for £6795 which is arguably a £2k better deal yet is only £545 more

Edited by KTMsm on Wednesday 4th September 19:20

[carinaman]

Tonberry said:

This is a £7.5k bike but it won't achieve that: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387337645941

Crikey, that's about to finish.

[Donbot]

£4695

[carinaman]

It 'sold' in the last minute?

'This listing was ended by the seller on Wed, 4 Sep at 8:32 PM because the item was sold.'

[trickywoo]

At least they pulled it rather than shilled.

[snagzie]

carinaman said:

It 'sold' in the last minute?

'This listing was ended by the seller on Wed, 4 Sep at 8:32 PM because the item was sold.'

Im sure (at least at one point) the seller couldnt cancel the auction in the last 12 hours

edit: even if they can now, ebay cant enforce it being actually sold. Seller was very silly not putting a reserve or starting at a reasonable price

Edited by snagzie on Thursday 5th September 07:29

[snagzie]

It did actually sell (green colour) as far as ebay rules anyway:

[KTMsm]

trickywoo said:

At least they pulled it rather than shilled.

Silly to pull it rather than either reserve or get a mate to bid a 'reserve' because the smart bidders only bid in the last few seconds

[trickywoo]

KTMsm said:

Silly to pull it rather than either reserve or get a mate to bid a 'reserve' because the smart bidders only bid in the last few seconds

Unless you have a low reserve you may as well just do a classified. Also can people still bid it up to find the reserve and then retract the bid?

[KTMsm]

trickywoo said:

Unless you have a low reserve you may as well just do a classified.

Also can people still bid it up to find the reserve and then retract the bid?

Agreed - auctions only work to sell things quickly and (generally) cheaply or to sell highly desirable things

I don't know - I always bid the maximum I will pay, within the last few seconds, then whatever happens, happens

[Tonberry]

Unless you're selling something desirable or have months to wait around for a buyer, auction every time for me.

Facebook car and bike groups are full of posts complaining that nothing is selling. Lower the price, part exchange or auction it if you want it gone.

[tim0409]

I sold my bike last week for the advertised price and with hindsight I think I was fortunate. It was a rare(ish) bike and the prices have always hovered around the £3k to £3.5k mark, and whilst mine was relatively high miles it was well maintained.

I advertised it three weeks ago and sat back waiting to be inundated with enquiries….which isn’t quite how it worked out. The only serious nibble came from Facebook Marketplace of all places, and the buyer arrived the next day and bought it. If he hadn’t I think I might have struggled going by the prices achieved with eBay auctions at the moment for other makes. I also have a Caddy van and there also seems to be a bit of a reality check going on with owners online at the moment. I think there is just a lot less cash around for discretionary purchases like bikes

[carinaman]

snagzie said:

It did actually sell (green colour) as far as ebay rules anyway:

My mistake.

I was watching it count down and mistakenly thought it was pulled. I thought it would say something like 'Auction Ended' rather than 'sold'.

I apologise for the bumpsteer.

[romft123]

Autotrader.......I had 1 enquiry in 4 weeks on there, Faceache marketplace, zero. Fleabay, nada.

Autotrader also advertise bikes that arent for sale or sold.. And they do feck all about it.

Took the bike to a large, and I mean 500+ bikers meet. Stuck a for sale sticker with info on it....4 enquiries and sold it!

Hey ho.

[darkyoung1000]

Everything will sell for the right price, but that might not be one you’re willing to accept.
My Ducati went to its new owner today after going up for sale over 3 months ago, but I got nowhere with eBay, PH or Gumtree, and it ended up selling to a mate of a mate by chance. It also went for less than I originally had it up for after some reflection on my originally unrealistic price.

I think there’s a lot of choice out there and not a great deal of money.

[Rubin215]

darkyoung1000 said:

Everything will sell for the right price, but that might not be one you’re willing to accept.
My Ducati went to its new owner today after going up for sale over 3 months ago, but I got nowhere with eBay, PH or Gumtree, and it ended up selling to a mate of a mate by chance. It also went for less than I originally had it up for after some reflection on my originally unrealistic price.

I think there’s a lot of choice out there and not a great deal of money.

Very much this, I always recommend that people look at the 'completed items' section of ebay to see what things actually sold for rather than what people advertised them for in the first place.

Having said that, I actually started a post earlier this summer about how many bikes I was seeing being advertised again and again; my take was that none of them were overpriced, most were fairly well advertised but they just didn't seem to be selling.

My opinion is that the used bike market is gong to have to take a massive hit in bike values thanks to the number of people now buying smaller and more pocket-friendly bikes; just look at how well Royal Enfield are doing as an example.

No one wants to spend big bucks on bikes any more.