Buying and Selling bikes for PROFIT..What u think?

[CaptainJust1]

I have thought about this before, and one of my friends do it and had made a good bit of money off of it. What I am thinking about doing is buying dirt bikes and quads for less than they are worth, riding them for a bit, then selling them. I have done a little research and for example, a yamaha banshee quad often goes for about $2800 or so on ebay at this current time before winter. This same quad is worth more than that and could be sold for around $3500 or more locally. The same goes with the yamaha raptor and many dirt bikes. Has anyone tried this and what results have you had? Thanks for the replies.

 

[KiwiBird]

Personally I support the buy high, sell low, don't waste time theory - I'm very good at it if you want advice.:confused:

 

[mx547]

i've bought several bikes and cars then sold them on ebay. i'm not getting rich but i haven't taken a loss yet. as a matter of fact, i have a honda ct 90 on there right now.

 

[Dr.billZ]

Sounds a little Capitalistic to me. You ought to be ashamed ;) I usually try to buy a Z-50 or 2(or similar) during the Summer and sell them at Christmas. I really think you could buy and sell the same Z-50 for about 100 years in a row.
I waited too long for this year.........

 

[KawieKX125]

Heck, I do that for work as I am 16.
I recently sold a blaster for about 800 dolars profit and 10 hours of work!
I got it for 200, fixed it with alot of used, but good parts and sold it to one of those silly quad riders.

 

[kingriz1]

I am looking into the same myself.

I love horses too and I started a small tack business on Ebay. I am doing better than I thought I would but not as much as I hoped. (I am greedy though).

I figured out the secret to making money on any product be it motorcycles or saddles or anything else,it is not as hard as people think. I will let you in on it.

Buy low sell high.

So many people forget that important rule. If you have a passion for bikes then find a way to make money at it. Even part time, the business will grow.
Next thing you know your doing for a living what you used to do a living to do. If you like doing it then it is not work.

I see you are young, that is great start now and risk while you have nothing to lose. It is a lot harder to take risks when you have a mortgage and the kids need braces.

Good Luck! Work hard and dont ever give up!

Kingriz1

 

[wayneo426]

From my exp, its alot easier said than done. Even w/ a ride thats priced well below retail, the abuse these things take makes them much less valuable than book prices. IF you can buy really clean and cheap, I say go for it.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

There sure are a lot of poor people in the motorcycle business who started with this same basic idea :silly:

 

[JMD]

I had the same idea you have, and I started doing exactly that about three years ago. Here are some truths I found, for what it's worth:

1) It's tough to sell dirt bikes for book value; you need to buy them way below wholesale to make any money.

2) It's often expensive to fix hidden defects, and as often as not you lose money on the bikes. Plus, while you have the bike, you will want to ride it a little. Who wouldn't? If something breaks, you'll have to fix it before you sell it. I bought a year-old YZ 125 for a thousand bucks below wholesale and thought I was going to make a pile. It seemed like a great bike: glossy and crisp. I took it riding a couple of times, and the top end gave out, blew combustion down into the lower end and completely ruined the engine. Needed a new piston, rings, cylinder, crank rebuild, bearings, seals, etc. Like Super Hunky says, there is nothing so worn out as a year-old 125 that's been ridden hard and maintained poorly. I lost my shirt on that bike when I finally got it sold. This will happen to you eventually, if you ride the bikes you buy.

3) It's expensive to advertise, and it takes up a lot of your time showing bikes.

4) You will be inviting all kinds of people into your garage, possibly into your house, to get a good look at what you own. There are lots of nice people interested in motorcycles. Some of the people who come, however, will be criminals looking to rip you off. I have had such crooks in my house, as I was later able to determine. By the way, these thieves often identify themselves as policemen, and may flash some kind of badge quickly. Don't trust anybody, don't take a check, and try not to show them any more of your household goods and garage stuff than necessary. I bring the motorcycle out into the driveway and close the garage door. They don't need to see the other three bikes, the drum set, the guitars and amps, the tools, etc.

5) Auctions can be good places to buy bikes cheap, if you are disciplined, and don't get caught up in the bidding and go too far.

Eventually, I found that I was unwilling to put up with the inconvenience, the hassles, and the parade of people trooping through my place. I have given up trying too hard to make money selling dirt bikes. I now use the knowledge I gained to buy bikes for myself and my family at very reasonable prices. I can usually buy a bike, ride it a year, and sell it for what I paid. That way, I don't lose too much money on depreciation of my machines. Sometimes I even make enough to defray some of the costs of upkeep. If I see a great bargain, from time to time I will still take a crack at making a few bucks. But I don't expect to get rich doing it.

 

[FLBob]

Even better idea - buy where you are in the late fall when it starts getting cold. Load them into your trailer. Hook onto your motorhome bring'em down to Florida where the season is just getting going, spend the winter riding and selling, living off your profits. Buy them back in the spring, take them back to Md, ride and sell. Repeat.;)

We ride year round, but a lot of the wimps take the summer off.:confused:

By the way, what good is "book value", if you can always buy below book.

 

[mx547]

Originally posted by JMD
[BThey don't need to see the other three bikes, the drum set, the guitars and amps, the tools, etc.

[/B]

what's your address?:debil:

 

[JasonJ]

I do it from time to time if I see a good chance. I have a great sopt right on the main road to display the bikes and all I have to do it clean them up and make a sign. Im my findings in my area anyway, the most money is made off older cheap bikes! You can get them running or needing a bit of work or parts, real cheap from yard sales, back yards, the local paper, ect. If it runs and drives its more or less worth $500 on the resale.
Any bike over 800 bucks to say 2500 I have problmes with. People either want a dirt cheap trail bike or a new or next to new MX bike so the mid to late 80s bikes dont sell well in the $1000 to $1700 range even though they are great bikes.
Latley I have noticed the bottom has dropped out of the used dirtbike market due to many people getting brand new bikes and quads, the good ecomomy last year or two has alot of people buying brand new machienes for there first rides. I had to take some of the bikes I was trying to sell and just keep them cause they were worth more to me as good spare rides than selling below $800.
Also, one of the best ways to sell used bikes is to throw em up on your truck and take em out to where you ride and just leave em up ther with the 4 sale on em. A clean bike it a seen bike! People gauk at my 89 YZ 250 backup bike all the time cuase its white and red and all clean and shinny.
LOOK out for stolen bikes. Lets face it, most used dirt bikes dont have titles. Dont take a bike if you think it may be stolen. The local cops will see you are always selling bikes and sooner or later they will stop by looking for a stolen one, if it turns out any of them are hot, your out a bike at best and could be charged with recieving stolen good :( .

 

[dual-sporter]

my brother & i looked at a early nineties RM125 a couple months back.(he wanted one)
the kid advertised it as a '96 for $800.
we called him up, he said it needed a stator& a few other things but 'was good.' we go to look at it & he pulls some story about it being his brother's who is in prison... yada yada yada....looking at the bike, it was a '92 at best. in addition to the stator, it was missing bolts & such all over & was poorly maintained. to make it look good, the guy cleaned it real well, but it was dripping wet in armor all or WD40... which scares me to begin with, makes me wonder what else is wrong...
when i told him it was a '92 at best, he asked me how much it was worth. i didn't even make an offer at all... i just left
was it worth much in parts?... maybe.
was the guy's story legitimate?...doubtful at best.
was it hot?... probably
watch out.

 

[JMD]

LOL, MX 547. But I'll only tell you my address if you flash a badge and tell me you're a cop.

Once a guy came over to look at a guitar I had advertised for $2,000, a real nice Taylor 912CE. He was a tall, slim guy in his mid-thirties, wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and a straw hat. He introduced himself as Officerr Leonard of the Arlington Police Department. (Clue Number One: crooks like to pose as cops, so that you will trust them.) Arlington is a smaller city about half an hour from Dallas. (Clue Number Two: Arlington is far enough away that I would be unlikely to personally know the cops on the force, but close enough to give me a false sense of confidence in him as a local guy.) He came in, played my guitar rather badly, and said that he would take it. I wondered what a guy who could hardly play a G chord wanted with a $2,000 guitar. (Clue Number Three: something wasn't right about the whole deal; it didn't make sense.) He didn't even try to dicker on the price. (Clue Number Four: people who never intend to pay you don't care what the price is.) He said that he liked to play his two little girls to sleep with his guitar, and this one would work great.

He started writing me out a check, and I stopped him. I said that I didn't mean to offend anyone, but my guitar was not leaving the house until I had cash in my hand. He protested that he was a policeman, and he would lose his job if he cheated me. (Clue Number Five: people who are NOT trying to cheat you don't feel the need to reassure you that they are not crooks.)

I said that I would hold the check as a deposit, if he would show me some identification. He said that he had left it in the car, and went out to get it. While he was out, I asked my wife to go pretend to check the mailbox, and get his license number. She did. He came back in and said he must have left his wallet at home. (Clue Number Five: cops don't go anywhere without their guns and badges.)

I kept his check, and he said he'd come back the next day with cash. He asked when we would be home, and I said there would be someone home all day. (I'm not about to tell this guy when we will be gone.) He said he'd be back at 5 p.m. with the money. When he left, I told my wife we'd never see him again.

As soon as he walked out, we called the Arlington Police and checked him out. No officer by that name. We called the phone number on the check he gave us. The people there told us an interesting story. Mr. Leonard was an old guy who went to a Baptist church in Arlington. One day, a tall, slender, young man with two young daughters had shown up at church asking for help. He was down on his luck and needed a place to stay for a while. The old man, Mr. Leonard, took him in and let him stay in a spare room. Shortly thereafter, while Mr. L was away from the house, his guest cleared out, taking with him most of Mr. L's possessions and several books of checks. They told us that the guy had already written more than $3,000 in bad checks. Then we called the police, gave them a description of the guy along with his license number. They were very interested in the information. Don't know whether they ever caught him.

Now, I smelled something fishy about the whole deal right from the start. I'm a lawyer, and I have a pretty good sense of when people are lying. Still, I don't say that I could never be fooled. So be careful out there. :D

 

[johnnymoto]

I always think about this when I find a good deal on a bike, so I tell my wife I can resell it and make alittle profit but once I get it, I think I got such a good deal I have keep it. Yes, I do stay in the Dog House alot, but it's worth it. :)

 

[OnAnySunday]

I bough and sold quite a few of them back in Pa.
(HAD to so i could keep the ex's checking account out of the red. :mad: )
I tryed it here in NW New Mehico too, but there ARE no cheap deals over here!
Low population = very few bikes and even fewer cheap older bikes.
One of my favorites was this old '75 XR75 that i bought.
Repainted it, cleaned it up nice, then the motor took a $%!#.
I had a XL75 parts bike -w- a decent engine that i took to this guy that built dirt dragsters to freshen up.
He said ,if i was in no hurry, to leave it for a couple of weeks and he'd "do a few extras" to it. o.k.
I wish i knew what those "xtras" were. (he wouldnt divulge the secrets)
Cause when i picked it up, it was blowing away 2 stroke 80's.
NEW 2stroke 80's!! -w- ME on it!! :scream:
The kid that bought that one got himself a deal! :)

 

[dheard4992]

money maker

i think if you bought my low hour 99 rm250 for say $2700 you could then take it somewhere that is above 30 degrees with snowflakes falling and sell it for considerably more. 906-475-7116 if interested