Best bike selling medium

[daveuprite]

In order of increasing orribleness I believe it goes:

n'er -do-wells
scallywags
vagabonds
rotters
bounders
Politicians

Glad we've cleared that up.

[frenchy3]

I have sold several bikes on Ebay with great success.. Recently i have sold and purchased bikes on Facebook marketplace and got a lot of interest straight away. It is free as well.

[daveuprite]

I like ebay, sure you get timewasters, but you get them everywhere. You're less likely to get them when you advertise at a fixed price, rather than an auction - although you usually get more interest with a low start price auction.

There are ways to winnow out the worst of the tyre-kickers. Insist that the winner of the auction or the 'buy now' purchaser contacts you via ebay within a fixed timeframe and try to exchange telephone numbers (unfortunately ebay doesn't like this because they are worried that you will do a deal off ebay and they won't get their fees, but there are ways around it).

There's nothing quite like actually talking with the buyer/seller, or preferably meeting up. Personally I much prefer to see a bike before bidding, but I've bought lots of race/track bikes unseen and taken a gamble rather than lose them. In which case, the key is to ask lots of probing questions and judge the condition by the replies, and ask for extra photos of the whole bike from every angle. An honest seller won't hesitate to do any of that. I sold a lot of bikes with long and detailed descriptions, to the point of boredom. If the window-shopper gets bored, then they wouldn't buy it anyway. A serious shopper will welcome loads of information. There's nothing worse than two badly taken photos and a one-line "Nice bike, good runner" description. I just click straight past those ads.

You need to deter that awful kind of buyer who bids and wins, then turns up to pay and tries to beat the winning price down. Insist in the advert on a good size non-returnable deposit within a fixed timeframe of auction-end (and if it doesn't arrive, move to the second bidder or re-advertise). State in the ad that the winning price is a commitment to buy at that price and not to enter into further negotiations later.

Personally I'd say that buyers on ebay are more of a problem than sellers, although ebay nearly always comes down on the side of buyers in any dispute. With the exception of willful scammers, most buyers just want to get their bike sold for as much as possible, while many on the buying side are just serial window-shoppers or looking for an unrealistic bargain. It's always re-assuring to get a message from an interested buyer (before they bid) that they are 'a serious buyer with cash funds available today, in the market to buy a CBR600RR' or whatever. If this is accompanied by some intelligent questions about the bike that show some pre-knowledge, it's very encouraging for sellers. Lots of timewasters would not bother to do this.

[Tonibe63]

I have sold several bikes on Ebay with great success.. Recently i have sold and purchased bikes on Facebook marketplace and got a lot of interest straight away. It is free as well.

What sort of buyers do you get via Facebook Frenchy? I am getting to the point of selling a couple of my unused possessions and have found myself looking on there before Ebay these days when buying but I'm a bit wary of selling stuff on there.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Kate buys and sells furniture and other household stuff on FB marketplace...all good so far.

[frenchy3]

I have sold several bikes on Ebay with great success.. Recently i have sold and purchased bikes on Facebook marketplace and got a lot of interest straight away. It is free as well.

What sort of buyers do you get via Facebook Frenchy? I am getting to the point of selling a couple of my unused possessions and have found myself looking on there before Ebay these days when buying but I'm a bit wary of selling stuff on there.

Hi,i sold a CZ175 at a realistic price. I had about 25 messages some of which were badly spelled and contained questions like Wot will U take M8! but i had nine genuine enquiries two of which were prepared to come down with cash the next day. There was an attempt to ask what was my best price but i stuck to my guns as i was selling cheap anyway and he happily handed over the full amount. I purchased a Montesa Cota 247 unseen and sent a bike courier and the seller could not have been more helpful and genuine. I was pleased with the bike when it turned up. With the instant messenger which is linked to Facebook you can generally have an online chat with the most likely buyers and suss out who is likely to be genuine. It costs nothing unless you use the boost your sale option and i was very pleased with the transactions. I would definately use this service again.

[daveuprite]

Wot will U take M8!

Reply: "Wot I'm arksing 4 it..."

[GFJ1]

Surely if you think you need a medium to sell a bike, then won't all the good ones find you anyway

[daveuprite]

Surely if you think you need a medium to sell a bike, then won't all the good ones find you anyway

The clairvoyants' meeting was cancelled due to unforeseen events.

[Flipflop]

Thanks for the replies.
I tried eBay but just got scammers. I’ve put it on auto trader bikes.
Fingers crossed