Motorcycle Shopping Preferences

[cowboyup3371]

Where do you prefer to shop for your motorcycles - old or newer? Is any one better than the other and is there any that a person should stay away from?

[cowboyup3371]

As an afterthought, how trustworthy is Ebay for buying vehicles? We all have had some horror stories on not getting exactly what you bought for some of the individual parts but are bike purchases pretty much as honest as going to a dealer?

[azr]

Up here in Canada Kijiji is popular across the country but here on Vancouver Island, UsedCa is popular as well but not much in other parts of the country.

[Steve]

The way you are asking how we shop for bikes almost makes it sound like we do this often.

Well, maybe some do acquire bikes to fix and re-sell, but some of us are happy enough with what we have, that we don't bother 'shopping'.

When I retire (yeah, right), I might have enough time to flip a few bikes, but right now, there is soo much "life" happening to devote that much time to buying, fixing and selling bikes.

.

[tkent02]

The good ones seem to come to me.

[BurntKittyForge]

Too Many thoughts to mention all...

I prefer Craigslist because I can see pics, and also especially looking at cars, the traffic has gotten so bad I often type in different town/city names nearby and a price range is my main criteria LOL.

I almost always prefer "for sale by owner" over BUT there's been a few good deals at pawn shops for MC's it looked like a few times.

Dealer tends to be way overpriced. UNLESS it's a tiny shop with the owner present from my experience.

-I gave up on Ebay a while back because the price kept changing drastically. The "Buy it now" ?
How / why buy an MC off the pic alone(?)
Also one ad was a dealership and the price when I called was for their "financing plan only" that one really had me P'd (told story elsewhere where I'd prepared to travel to Ohio, figured truck rental, schedule etc. in advance before calling...URGH!)

ALSO, an auction (any) could be easily rigged IMO. For example , offers not good enough? then just buy it from self or have a friend...RIGGED auction BS... course sometimes I suspect CL posters do similar by placing fake ads to manipulate the market at times maybe (?)

Newspaper might be ok but seems a bit stone-age in comparison. And probably not much selection.
I'd be interested to check out cycle trader site, the old paper one was good back then...

I stay away from Baltimore (completely ignore), mostly since the race riot.
One can get a feel for ad sometimes based on ad wording, but I judged my current bike's seller badly, Ad read "could use paint, just no time for it" I figured it was a guy with good job/ money /unskilled to work on it/$ for better one/prestige LOL...Needed everything, rotten shape and no time because he was a fisherman crabber boat guy w/ wife and baby etc...
well just my .02 since I voted on it. Oh, I bought 3 motorcycles total off CL ads By the way.
One (first one) from a used car dealer ,for cheap ($100), he wanted it off lot because it was causing trespassers stealing parts he said...[EDIT: This one was a car lot, not from an ad, other 3 were CL ad]

[Guest]

I bought my '81 Honda CB900 Custom off of an ad on CL. I live in Ann Arbor, MI, and the seller lived in one of the little towns north of Detroit - close enough for me to drive to to look at the bike in person. The seller was a straight-up kind of guy, and we made a deal and he even delivered it for me.

My '81 Suzuki GS850G I bought on the strength of a few pictures that the Harley dealer in Ames, Iowa had posted on a website (I don't remember which website). I found the ad on a Sunday night by doing a Google search for "GS850's for sale", and this one popped up. I had to wait until Monday morning to confirm that it was still for sale. When I asked the dealer for the price, and he said $600, I decided there on the spot that I'd buy it (although I did make the salesman take a bunch of additional pictures for me - especially the exhaust because it seems the exhaust is always the first to go). I hired a guy on U-Ship to transport it for me, and even after I paid him, it was still a pretty good buy. It's one of those bikes that looks great in pictures, and from about 15 feet away, but when you get up close to inspect it, there were lots of little details that needed attending to. I've spent more on it than I'll ever get out of it, but all-in-all, I'm glad I bought it.

[kaufen]

I almost always prefer "for sale by owner" over BUT there's been a few good deals at pawn shops for MC's it looked like a few times.

[storm 64]

I voted Other... There's a website called GS Resource that I like to use to find what I'm looking for 👍

[JJ]

As an afterthought, how trustworthy is Ebay for buying vehicles? We all have had some horror stories on not getting exactly what you bought for some of the individual parts but are bike purchases pretty much as honest as going to a dealer?

I have bought two motorcycles and one Jeep Cherokee on Ebay. All were as advertised by honest sellers. No surprises.

[Wingsconsin]

Searchtempest.com

Try it - it's ALL of Craigslist in one place.

I found my GS850 this way --

[Sandy]

The good ones seem to come to me.

Same here. Last bike I actually bought that wasn't through a friend or close acquaintance was the 1977 XS750-2D I bought new at a dealer.

[kerrfunk]

My first bike, 1982 GS 550L, I found on Clist. I didn't know thing one about motorcycles, and I had sat on another one, didn't like it, and found this 550L and I liked it. The seller brought it to my house. Shortly after that, I found GSR.

Second bike, 1982 1100GL, I bought direct from ddaniels, right here in river city.

Third bike, 1985 700E, I bought on Ebay. It was 700 miles away. I took a train to Chicago, met the seller, gave him the cash, did the title transfer, and rode home 700 miles in one day. I bought it because it was sexy and I at least knew a little about motorcycles and what to look for in an ad.

Fourth and current bike, 1983 650GL, I bought on Ebay. Kind of an accident. I met the minimum bid and nobody bid over me. It wasn't running. I borrowed a buddy's pickup and drove 150 miles and picked up the bike. I rode it around my parking lot, and then when I went to change the oil, I drained it and then could not for anything get the oil cap off. Later I took the bike apart and it sat in pieces in my garage for a year. Then gsrick offered to rebuild it, so I sent it to Florida and he rebuilt it and sent it back.

I'm not particularly interested in looking at GSes on Ebay any more. Clist, yes, and GSR, definitely.

[glib]

I bought five GS's in two years off of CL and got fair deals on each. One shipped across country. Risky but I had a good feeling about the guy and got lucky. The shipping cost double what I had budgeted and spoiled the fun a bit but it's a good bike. The others were good transactions with reasonable people. I like inspecting before buying. I have run across some inconsiderate boobs on CL though too. Travel to buy something and get a text before you arrive that it's sold. Only had one bad deal on eBay and it got resolved. Whether buying or selling I'd say the key to success is patience.

[adamdaz]

facebook marketplace has replaced craigslist for me.