maddog5150 said:
So I am just curious, when you guys sell bikes do you typically strip all the farkles off and sell them, then sell the bike, or do you keep it all together as "package"?
It seems that financially you would get a better return on your money by selling the parts one by one. On the other hand, I would think people would rather buy a bike that is "done up" and has a lot of goodies already. Plus it would be a lot less work to just sell it all together.
Your thoughts?
I strip the farkles off. I netted about $1500 more by doing this with the last bike. Some stuff I simply couldn't easily take off. As it was, the buyer paid for a runner, and got a bunch of nice add ons that didn't mean anything to him, until he compared it to a much newer bike owned by a friend and only then could appreciate the aftermarket suspension and other items I left on the bike. I was trying to sell the fully farkled FJR, including a rare custom fuel cell, for $4500. I sold $3k of farkles and sold the bike for $3k in the end.
Most people buying a used bike don't really know what they want in terms of farkles yet. Selling it with the farkles on is great for the buyer, as you're not getting much for them. People will buy a new stripped bike for the same as a used fully farkled bike, just because it makes them feel better, then spend the extra money farkling it, that they wouldn't have necessary considered spending when they bought the bike.
Forget what people would or should want to buy. It boils down to money. If you want to maximize your return, strip it back to as stock as you can. Sure, offer the take offs as potential bargaining points if you want, but don't give them away if you have a solid price on the bike that is fair market value.
