With the summer months now well underway and plenty of newly registered motorcycles on the road, there’s plenty of movement in the used bike market.
Here are our top tips for getting the best price for your bike.
Make it sparkle!
An obvious one to start – it might be your rusty old bike, there’s probably an 18 year old saving every penny he can get to make you an offer. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Spend a good few hours cleaning, polishing and oiling the bike and its various locks, stands and other moving components that are OK to oil. It all makes a difference to the buyer.
Also, make sure you check that the bike’s accessories are in fully working order, like the removable seat.
Remove stickers if you can. That MotoGP sticker might have been cool at the time…
Photos, photos and more photos
There’s no surprise that the correlation between the duration that a bike is up for sale and the number of photographs available is a negative one. In other words, the more photos you provide the quicker it sells.
Make sure you get every angle. If people can’t see it, they will presume it has been cropped out for a reason. Cynical I know, but think of it from their perspective. Is it worth taking a drive to inspect what wasn’t shown in your pictures or could they take the safe option and spend an extra £300 at the dealership where their turntable has provided every picture possible?
Do your research and take your time.
It can be easy to undersell yourself. Use multiple websites for valuations of your bike and make sure the specification is exact.
In our experience, in general, accessories add little or no value to the bike. Obviously this is different for big touring bikes that are expected to.
It’s amazing how often you see a 5 grand bike “with over 2k worth of accessories”. No one cares. Take them off if you can and sell them separately at a later date.
Be a biker.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a friend’s bike in the garage alongside mine for the last few years, and it’s surprising how much it can help you sell. Get your gear out, talk about local or abroad trips. It all adds to your credentials and boosts confidence in the buyer.
Be patient and don’t talk to exporters/traders if you can help it
Selling a Fireblade recently, I was inundated with requests to ship it out to Dubai at a cut price “I’ll collect it today, cash ready”. I was desperate to sell as I had my eye on something else, but it paid to wait.
Be forthcoming with information
Make it hard for the buyer to find anything to put them off. Some will want to analyse every document available. Be OK with that and have them ready laid out nicely on a table. MOTs, ownership documents, service history, replacement parts, spare keys etc. It all adds value and there’s nothing worse than be handed a mountain of oily, creased papers to look through while the owner turns the house upside-down looking for the spare key.
Stand your ground
If you’ve been honest from the outset throughout the sales process, you should have no need to take a much-reduced price. Buyers think they have to haggle just because it’s expected.
We would argue that a fixed price helps the bike look more valuable – it’s been cared for and the owner doesn’t really want to sell, but they probably have to for financial reasons to invest in a new bike.
A friend of mine works for AutoTrader, and he recently told me about a focus group they did where they examined how users interact with the website. He said it was shocking how many people presumed there was something wrong with a vehicle because of its low price – most of the time they wouldn’t even look. Interesting hmm!
Don’t take risks
This article is about getting the most money for your motorcycle rather than how to sell it, but if your bike gets damaged in the sales process you sure won’t get.
Let’s be honest, many bikers aren’t the most law abiding of folk when it comes to on road etiquette. Between us here at Tru-Tension, we would estimate that at least half of buyers have turned up and requested a test ride with no insurance “just around the block”. If they don’t have proof of insurance, I’ve offered to take them out as a pillion, which has usually sufficed.
While selling a bike a few years ago, the buyer’s heavily pregnant wife attempted to get on the bike while we were sorting out the paperwork. I watched in horror as the bike fell against the garage wall – luckily with no damage. To make matters worse, they didn’t even buy the bike. Maybe I shouldn’t have left her with the bike, although I certainly wasn’t expecting that to happen!
Consider your own deal
Why are you selling the bike? Are you buying a new one?
Many times in the past I’ve sold a bike to buy another. I’ve rarely given dealerships a moment to insult me with a part ex offer, however I have recently been pleasantly surprised.
Dealerships aren’t particularly keen on offering decent part ex prices against other used bikes. It’s not a healthy business model for them as they don’t make much money on used bikes and most of the buyers won’t use them for servicing.
However, if you’re buying a new bike, part exing with a dealer may be a good option for you. They make enough money on new bikes and there is enough future business opportunities with you to make it worth their while to offer you a decent price.
Again, they are unlikely to offer you at a private sales price, but make sure you consider the cost of advertising the bike in the first place and putting anything right that is wrong on the bike.
They make it easy for you and there is value in that, so don’t discount the dealers!
Refresh it!
No offers coming in? Try rewording the listing, taking new photographs and making a real effort with the way you have presented both the bike and the information available. Perhaps even try a different medium to sell it.
Finally, websites like We Buy Any Bike should be ignored. We have never heard of anyone being pleased with the price offered