I was chatting with a mate of mine today and, inspired as he was by me getting my act together enough to mail a few bike bits out on eBay, he started talking about clearing out his shed and selling the stuff that's there. Now apart from most of a Suzuki Beamish and a box of H1 (which may have passed through a few hands round here) it sounds like he has quite a lot of 70s/80s miscellany of unknown value - a Ducati Pantah frame[1][2], 2 Z1R tanks[3], etc. My gut feel is that if you punt stuff like that on eBay it's the roll of a dice whether you get lucky and get two punters who'll fight to the death over it or get no interest at all[4] and wave goodbye to it for a quid. So, any tips for getting (or guessing) the value of whatever random shit a rake through his shed uncovers? Is it just worth pitching up at an auto jumble and seeing what he can get for it? Your advice gratefully received[5] [1] No, I don't know why [2] He did mention a plan to put an RD350LC motor in to it, but given the general lack of tuits owned by the person involved he might just as well have planned to use it as the basis for a manned space mission [3] See [1] [4] i.e. item 270251113141 [5] No hurry, though, for reasons discussed in [2] -- AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas) Aprilia RSV-1000R, Honda VFR750F-L, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL) BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR# The speccy Geordie twat.
Starting bid, thirty quid. The twat. -- Dave GS850x2 XS650 SE6a "It's a moron working with power tools. How much more suspenseful can you get?" - House
He might get lucky on Ebay: I find it much more lucrative for selling bits and bobs rather than whole bikes (which can be a bit hit & miss) because if someone is restoring an XYZ750, and there are bits for it, then they'll be determined to get them. In other words, fewer impulse buys for bits and more serious bidders.
Not much chance of that - other than the Beamish (which is *still* lacking an exhaust and a rear mud-guard, despite him talking about getting it back on the road for over 10 years) I doubt he's got anything in the shed that's even close to a complete bike[1]. I did say he was probably best of raking through the box of H1, sorting out what everything was and selling it separately, rather than as a job lot of an unknown percentage of an H1[2]. **** knows what else is in the shed or how long it's been there - it must be the neck end of 20 years since he owned a Z1[3], so it's anybody's guess what kind of shit he's collected. [1] Well he's got a complete late 80s CBR6, but I don't think he was planning to sell that ... although he might as well. [2] Does having 2 complete front-ends make up for not having any carbs? [3] He took a temporary job at Performance Bikes and they said his Z1 was such a death trap that they fixed it for him in lieu of payment. It appeared in the magazine under the title "Project pig-dog" -- AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas) Aprilia RSV-1000R, Honda VFR750F-L, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL) BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR# The speccy Geordie twat.
