Selling your bike on ebay?

When I got my SV650s I tucked my little 125 up for the winter in a nice warm garage, now that the weather is improving I am going to sell her.

Has any one ever sold a bike via ebay and is it worth it?
Also any tips regarding the selling of bikes is greatly appriciated.

My girlfriend is in a similar boat. Come on peeps - how is it best done?

[Rich]

I was going to sell my old bike on ebay but when we check out how much they wud take off you for selling it,,it turned out cheaper to put it in the biketrader and the local paper. Depends on price of bike though ofcourse, they work it all out by percentage, "we'll take so much for the first £500, then another so much for another £500 and so on!"

Isn't it just the same as selling anything else on Ebay?

You clean it, photo it, list it on Ebay, sell it to some African Doctor for his wife, ship it, never see your money, live unhappily ever after.

Me an Ebay cynic? hmmmmm....

I had a bike advertised on ebay last year- there was a bidder interested in it (e.g they gave me their email address to get more info on the bike). So i cancelled the auction early and they came and paid cash for the bike. That way i only paid for the initial fee for posting the item on ebay.
HTH

Loads of bikes get cash offers for them on ebay, my bike sold in less than 24 hours and the same with my mates bikes who have been put on there, thus only paying the listing fee as said above.

basic rules,

- clean bike
- loads of pics, sunny day preferably
- all the info (dont put email for more info, whats the point list it all in the first place, include pic of all the docs & receipts of works as well)
- clear text, in a larger size, good punctuation
- put viewings welcome
- list a mobile number so people can contact you sooner and the start of your postcode so people can do a search to see how far away you are

hope that helps, good luck

i was wondering what the costs involved would be like? i flog a bit of stuff on ebay and everytime i look at my sellers account i owe them a small fortune! and then when you get paid into paypal (an ebay company) they charge you again? me thinks selling a bike on ebay could work out expencive.

I've sold 3 bikes on there and it's wonderful, no more tyre kickers or unsavouries round the house and less bother all round. As a guide, a £3000 sale will incur about £75 in fees.

I used their new classified ad service to sell the last bike, £28 for a month and you'll come up in eBay searches. You don't owe any commision on that, it's a flat fee. I had about 600 views and sold it in ten days for full market value. You can't beat eBay for exposure to keen buyers.

As M1TCH says, clean bike, good pics, good copy without spelling errors or capital letters/exclamation marks If you don't know how to take good pics, find a friend who can, they mean EVERYTHING to the auction.

I have been looking on Ebay and various other sources for an SV1000 and I would say that there a 3 major things that put me off certain ebay bikes. ( I know that most of these are obvious but what the hell)

• not enough piccies or poor quality piccies (hiding something?)
• Bike described as a bike rather than my bike. (suggests trade seller)
• "selling for a friend" nuff said
• piccies not outside a private domicile
• Sparce description

As I said, I know that these are obvious but they put me off any bike advertised anywhere.

Originally Posted by Rog

I have been looking on Ebay and various other sources for an SV1000 and I would say that there a 3 major things that put me off certain ebay bikes. ( I know that most of these are obvious but what the hell)

• not enough piccies or poor quality piccies (hiding something?)
• Bike described as a bike rather than my bike. (suggests trade seller)
• "selling for a friend" nuff said
• piccies not outside a private domicile
• Sparce description

As I said, I know that these are obvious but they put me off any bike advertised anywhere.

I'd agree with all of that except 'piccies not outside a private domicile'. I for one wouldn't want to take my pictures outside a distinctive house, especially if my location is listed. I prefer to take my high-value item pictures at a quiet and attractive location in the countryside.