Saturday, January 2, 2010

Wide Glide Didn't Sell ...

Well, as expected, the 2002 Wide Glide that the seller declined my offer of $7,000 (http://harley-bound.blogspot.com/2009/12/tale-of-two-wide-glides.html), failed to sell on eBay. (The bike was also listed on Craigslist, and the seller had the right to end the auction early if the bike sold locally.)

Bidding in the seven-day auction, which also had a "Buy It Now" option to purchase the bike for $7,799, started at $150. There were a total of 10 bids from seven bidders, and the high bid was $6,000, which failed to hit the reserve price, so the bike did not sell (even though it has been listed at least twice previously, and had its price reduced for the third time, according to the listing). I don't know how much the seller has been dropping the price, but he was only willing to drop it $150 for me.

The auction's results didn't surprise me, since the bids on the majority of Harleys listed on eBay fail to reach the reserve, so a low percentage of bikes listed are selling. From what I've seen, people are only bidding up to around $5,500 or $6,000 for Dynas. I can sort of understand that, since I would not be willing to pay a lot for a bike if I did not see or inspect it in person, and it had no warranty (this was a private-party bike). In that situation, you are basically taking the seller at his word on the bike's condition (I once saw a classified ad describe a car as "mint condition," only to go find the car looked like it had sat in a junkyard the last five years). Of course, photos help, but they don't tell the whole story.

Personally, I would not buy a motorcycle that I did not see in person (this particular bike was less than 100 miles away from me, so I was able to physically inspect it). I will keep looking on eBay in case there are other prospects that are fairly close to me.

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