How best to sell

[danno]

I have a small collection of bikes. I'm too busy to ride them so I'm thinking of selling them, I tried selling one on here before but got mucked about. Sometimes I can't see why people would sell their bike, but now I have to put my son through Uni and try to move house so I sympathise with people selling their pride and joy....it sucks
So I'm just wondering what would YOU do (apart from keep them) sell them in one go or break things down and sell it all separately over time i.e. spares, Akro exhaust system, bike 1, 2 and 3 etc?

[dicky]

If you've modded a bike to make it handle better, such as more modern performance in brakes and suspension, you probably won't get your money back over the price of selling the bike as stock.
If you've modded the engine, write off the money as lost, no one will be willing to pay what it cost you on top of the price of the stock bike.
Maybe for the TRX you could get a decent price for a basically stock bike with blue spot brakes, but after that your investment in improvements is basically lost.
Unless you find someone who wants exactly what you built.
Otherwise strip the go-fast bits off and put the bike back to stock, sell the bike and parts separately and over time. Don't bung them all on ebay on the same day coz someone will call you with an offer you cant refuse. You can.
I'd put any of my bikes up on the web sales sites if I really wanted to sell them, but get a good idea of what it is really worth on the market and stick to that price.
Just my opinion, and I have paid good money for a TRX with mods that I wanted, as well as keeping my original 96 model stock standard.

For what it's worth, I've now got ten bikes stored up at my Dad's. None of them are worth much but I can't see myself selling any of them. As a job lot I be lucky to get $20k, for the right buyer I might get $5k for one or two of them.
In my experience, bikes aren't worth the money you paid for them.

[danno]

Cheers Dicky. The only mods are race replica paint jobs, akro system on one of them, some nice cans on the other and a spare tank, all came with the bikes so I've not spent loads on them at all, but I spent a long time trying to find low mileage examples so their value will count for something, though I do agree with not getting money back mods.

[trixynut]

I tend to only do reversible mods on bikes if I can so I can put back to standard if I ever need to 'get out' in a hurry and make as much as I can back.

Stuff like cans or full systems are easy to strip off if you've kept the original bits. Brake upgrades are more of a pain to put back to stock, but still do-able. All of these things will not really get you much more, if anything, on the price of the bike when sold with the bike.

Don't sell bikes as a job lot, do them individually. I've bought and sold plenty of bikes on Ebay with success. Yeah, you get a few wasters, but I can tell if someone is serious or not and give the wasters short shrift.

Really comes down to you, your mechanical ability and the time available to you, plus how much hassle you can or want to put up with.

Are you in the UK?

[danno]

Zero mechanical and zero time. I think as and when I can if I can get around to it, sell the bikes separately and also sell off the exhaust system and tank separately too. Would it be better to have them up and running with any blemmishes and issues sorted out plus to put a years MOT on them, or sell them as they are now, clean and in storage?
UK.

[Overlord Neil]

Hi Danno,

I hear your pain, I've only got three (ish) bikes to worry about and constantly in a state of flux over which to sell/keep.

As a BUYER when I'm looking for a bike, I won't buy anything that doesn't have a new MOT, the cost of an MOT is so trivial if the seller hasn't got one it would ring alarm bells that something big (and expensive) needs doing.

Likewise Service History, it doesn't need to be a dealer serviced bike but as long as there is evidence of regular oil changes and depending on mileage major things like valve clearance checks.

I'm not averse to a few blemishes, I generally buy with the intention of riding rather than leaving it in the garage and looking at it, bumps and scrapes happen.

I completely agree with what others have said regards to bolt on goodies, but one the flip side, if there are two bikes for sale yours is stock and the other has common mods (like end cans) I'd go for the bike with the end cans to save me the cost of buying them later. When you mods start getting very specialised or very personal you are loosing money but minor sensible mods I think can appeal.

Good luck with it all, for starters put your bikes up on this forum, we're all bike people not that any of us need another bike... but that doesn't mean we're not going to buy another one...