Selling A Used Motorcycle
Tips you can use to move it fast
 Selling
your motorcycle can be as simple as taking a picture and running an ad… Or it
can be a terrifying experience finding out what your bike is actually worth
in the market place – opposed to what you think it’s worth. Having sold a
number of bikes and being the facilitator for many bikes that are bought and
sold in the Northwest, here is some sound advice to help you along the A-Z’s of
selling your bike.
Get your paperwork in order
The first thing you want to do when you sell is
to get together the paperwork that you will need to close the sale. This includes not
only your current registration and pink slip, but a buyers/sellers declaration
which you can obtain from your local Department of Licensing. In Washington you
can download one from the
DOL website.
If you’ve been consistent with your maintenance and have the paperwork on file from past
servicing, pull it together and present it to your prospective buyer when they
come to see the bike. It shows that you cared well for the bike during its life with
you.
Tune it up
If the bike is overdue for service, you owe it to the new
buyer to have it ready to ride before they pick it up. If you don’t, you
may be setting yourself up for getting nickeled-and-dimed down. While you’re at
it, replace the tires if need be, make sure your chain is in good order,
adjusted and lubed. These are all things a meticulous buyer will look at.
Clean it up
You want top dollar for your bike? If so it better look
good. Set aside an hour or two to thoroughly detail your bike. Don’t just give
it a 15 minute washing - instead wax it, remove any exposed corrosion, treat your
seat and any other rubber or vinyl parts with the right rejuvenators. Caution:
Do not apply such to the riding surface of your tires.
Take a nice photo
We see a lot of photos of used bikes come through here.
Most of which are pretty good, a few are so-so and some are just downright painful. If you plan
to shoot the bike outside, be sure the sun is shining on the side of the bike
you’re shooting (provided it’s a sunny day), the sun should be behind your back
as you take the photo.
Also pay attention to what’s around the bike. Is there a
garbage can in the photo, is there clutter behind the bike or are there other
vehicles in your photo that will take away from the good looks of your machine?
Shoot the bike so there’s no clutter in the background and try to shoot the bike
outside, not in a garage where inevitably the lighting will be horrid and other
things nearby will clutter the shot.
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| Which owner took
the time to get a nice photo of their bike? What would that say about
how well they maintained it while they had it? |
Price it right - THIS IS VERY
IMPORTANT
It costs money to change the price in an ad. Price your
bike right the first time, which will help you sell it faster and eliminate the
cost involved with changing a price.
To find out what your bike is worth, you can go online for
free and visit two sites that will let you know where you stand on price:
What’s Effective – What’s Not?
At Sound RIDER! we’ve been running used bike
ads since 1999. We watch our competition and keep tabs on how our sellers
ultimately sell their bikes. It’s allowed us to determine what works best
and get rid of formats that are not effective.
In a recent study we found that indeed we’re
selling bikes for our sellers better than the competition. 61% of the people who advertise their bikes
through Sound RIDER! sell it through our publication as a direct result of a
buyer finding it in our Pre-owned pages. That means you're six times more
likely to sell your bike here than on Craig's list, Ebay, Cycle Trader or
otherwise.
The other thing buyers like about Sound
RIDER! is knowing the bike is nearby and not off in some desolate part of
the Minnesota wilderness where you’d need a float plane to go see the bike in
person. All our bikes are here in the Northwest. |
As you play with these two great tools you may soon
realize that all your aftermarket goodies are adding little or nothing to the
value of your bike. What’s a custom seat, performance pipe and windscreen do for
the value of a modern day bike – very little in terms of resale? Very
little.
"Upside down" is a term dealers use to describe a seller
who owes more on a bike than it’s worth. It’s most common in the Harley market
where owners load their bikes up with aftermarket accessories and later find out
they can’t get what they need when it comes time to sell the bike. It’s a sad
thing, but sometimes you’ve got to suck it up, bite the bullet and lose a little
dough in the process of selling your bike.
If you’re upside down on your bike, better ask yourself if
you’d rather sell the bike today at a fair price, or wait x number of months for
it to sink in that you will eventually sell the bike... at a fair price. It’s
unlikely your buyer is going to pay for you to get clean on a bike by paying
over market value.
If you’re going to be negotiable on your price, always
include "obo" next to the price in your ad. Which leads us to the final step of
placing your ad.
Placing your ad
Decide what media you plan to use to run your ad. Will it
be the daily paper, online, an auto monthly or perhaps a combination of them.
Talk to others in the riding community and find out what works best for them.
Talk to local dealers who sell used bikes and ask them the same.
Be sure to consider what you’re getting for your money.
Would a $29 online ad that allows you 25 words and a full color photo
"until-it-sells" be better than a two line classified in a daily paper for three
days at $35? Probably.
If your bike is loaded to the hilt with extra goodies,
chances are you will not be able to fit it all into the ad. Leave the door open
by saying "and much more…call for details." Some web savvy types even create a
special web page just so they can send interested parties there to see all the
details.
Foreign Scams
Sellers are advised to stay clear of foreign scam artists.
For more details see our scam page.
If an overseas seller offers to send you a money order, decline and counter
offer by allowing them to do a wire transfer into your bank account (check with
your bank first for details on this type of transaction). Never give out
your social security number or place of birth to any stranger.
PT/Summer 03
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