This is how you word an ad when you want to be Firm on the price

[Mark Gregory]

Not Mine

 

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-motorcycle-other/city-of-toronto/1912-indian-boardtrack-racer-project-motorcycle/1410114605

 

"THIS IS NOT A FANTASY PIECE!!!". Up for sale is an 1912 Indian Board-track racer. 4hp, 30.5 cu. in. Hedstrom / Henderson improved, air cooled single-cylinder engine "ORIGINAL 1912 INDIAN MOTOR". "IF THE AD IS UP, IT"S STILL FOR SALE". IF INTERESTED MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO VIEW, NO TIME TO ANSWER EMAILS.. For details see pics and write-up. No tire kickers or low-ball offers price is firm no exceptions. Do your homework on these bikes and you will see just how much they are worth, so don't waste my time, and your time, with ridiculous low-ball offers. If you cant offer the asking price then you cant afford the bike. Low offers and ridiculous questions will be ignored. If interested and don't know anything about an Indian Board-track racer, do your research online tons of information on them. LOCATED IN THE NIAGARA REGION See website for more pics http://antiquevintagegasp.wixsite.com/agedgaspump

 

[1937hd45]

I'd rather have a Harley.

 

Bob 

[Matt Harwood]

I feel his pain but that's a good way to not sell a vehicle.

[auburnseeker]

I welcome Email inquiry and often then send them a big file full of photos.  That usually ends the inquiry and the car is either sold or not.  I hate the phone where guys waste your time for hours and never come to look at the car.   Even better if they are on their cell phone and have crappy service so they keep fading in and out, then you get cut off and are talking to dead air.  

[mercer09]

I feel his pain but that's a good way to not sell a vehicle.

 

 

for 10k? really................... bet it doesnt even exist.

[Curti]

I don't mind email, but phone calls sometimes irritate me , as they are always made at the convenience of the caller.  

[kgreen]

No matter how hard a seller fights, it is hard to disprove the old adage that the buyer determines the price.

[vermontboy]

8 minutes ago, kgreen said:

No matter how hard a seller fights, it is hard to disprove the old adage that the buyer determines the price.

 How true

 

About 50 years ago I was in a gun shop when a customer walked in with an old German target rifle. He said "I want to sell this - do you have any interest". The elderly shop owner asked him how much he wanted for it and the man replied "$2000". The shop owner said "I'll give you $1500". The customer became belligerent and restated that he would take no less than $2000. The shop owner pulled out a large wad of $100 bills and slowly began to place them on the counter while counting aloud "one, two, three ........ fifteen". He then slowly pushed the stack of bills over in front of the customer without saying a word. The customer stood there looking back and forth between his rifle and the pile of $100's and slowly handed the rifle over to the shop owner, picked up  the cash and said "deal".

 

That lesson served me well when I had an antique shop for a couple of years.

 

 

[joe_padavano]

1 hour ago, vermontboy said:

 That lesson served me well when I had an antique shop for a couple of years.

 

 

 

That same technique has served me well when I go to buy project cars. Show up with a trailer and when the asking and selling prices aren't getting any closer, put out the wad of cash.  Almost always works.  It also reinforces that you are a no-BS buyer.

[joe_padavano]

I'll also add that when I read ads like this, where it is obvious that the seller knows his price is high and won't budge, I let it ride for a while.  I've often tracked cars (and items) on ebay where the outrageous reserve price solicits zero bids. After relisting the item continually for a few months, the price starts to come down. I'm watching a couple of those right now.

 

[John_Mereness]

Aware of a story of a very lovely CCCA car that is for sale and owner says people just will not step up to buy - so he has now decided to part the car out as it potentially is worth more.  Well, it is not that people will not step up - it is that you actually have to participate (aka, type, talk, open the garage door, not be egregiously irritable, know where the title is, and ...) in the sale process and put some effort into it as well.  Just a thought too - you probably will have to talk to people in the parting out process as well. 

Edited April 21, 2019 by John_Mereness (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

1 hour ago, John_Mereness said:

Aware of a story of a very lovely CCCA car that is for sale and owner says people just will not step up to buy - so he has now decided to part the car out as it potentially is worth more.  Well, it is not that people will not step up - it is that you actually have to participate (aka, type, talk, open the garage door, not be egregiously irritable, know where the title is, and ...) in the sale process and put some effort into it as well.  Just a thought too - you probably will have to talk to people in the parting out process as well. 

There are a few cars that can be parted out for more money than the whole car, lot of work, and in some cases a lot of unsalable left over  iron. Bob 

[John_Mereness]

44 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

There are a few cars that can be parted out for more money than the whole car, lot of work, and in some cases a lot of unsalable left over  iron. Bob 

Agreed !  And if they cannot discuss the condition of the car, is it any different if they cannot discuss the condition of the parts ?  

[JamesR]

I see both sides of the argument. I agree that the seller doesn't have a very positive attitude for someone who wants to sell their vehicle for a sizeable amount. On the other hand, that's a great way to filter out at least some of the losers. I really hate to say this about two communities that I generally feel a strong kinship with, but whenever I used to put an ad in the local newspaper to sell either a motorcycle or a gun, I could count on every weirdo in the county calling me up. More than once I had to refuse to sell a gun or a motorcycle to someone who claimed they wanted to buy it.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-motorcycle-other/city-of-toronto/1912-indian-boardtrack-racer-project-motorcycle/1410114605

of

[John_S_in_Penna]

17 minutes ago, JamesR said:

 On the other hand, that's a great way to filter out at least some of the losers....

 

Surely we don't think of everyone who has a

different idea of value as a "loser!"

 

A business has to value its diverse customer base--

people from all sorts of backgrounds--and even a 

private seller should learn to appreciate other folks,

even if they're different.

[JamesR]

 

2 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Surely we don't think of everyone who has a

different idea of value as a "loser!"

 

A business has to value its diverse customer base--

people from all sorts of backgrounds--and even a 

private seller should learn to appreciate other folks,

even if they're different.

 

You're correct John. That's a proper and moral attitude, and one that I embrace, but I also have to acknowledge that there are such things as "losers" in the world - people who have problems beyond the scope of my ability to help them. Or deal with them.

 

There is a legitimate concept that some management professionals have called "knowing when to fire your customers." In other words, you can't take the generally admirable concept of "the customer is always right" to it's most absurd extreme: suffering the most foolish of fools. The problem with the guy who placed the rude ad is that he he seemed to PRESUME that a large part of the people reading his ads were losers or fools. The point of my comment was that I appreciate his frustration but I personally don't approve of his tactic.

[vermontboy]

Looking at the project nature of the purchase on the OP''s website link he may be trying to protect himself from selling to someone that doesn't understand that this is not a bunch of parts to be assembled. This is a project for someone knowledgeable with parts fabrication and machining, or someone who is willing to spend the time and money to pay someone who is knowledgeable. Sometimes you have to protect fools from themselves.

 

I have refused to sell vehicles to people who have no business owning them (where the limitations of the vehicle would obviously not be in the best interest of the purchaser). The only time I caved in I regretted it. I was selling a 1980 LeCar (sunroof and A/C ) that would be fun to tool around in for a couple of summers but that as a daily driver had at best one winter left before the tinworm destroyed it. A local farmhand with a wife and two kids wanted it. I did everything I could to talk him out of it to no avail - he stopped by every day and begged to buy it. I finally relented and knocked $259 off the price telling him he would need it for repairs at some point.

 

For a couple of months that summer every time he drove by the house he would wave through the open sunroof. Then the wave stopped and his eyes were straight ahead as he drove by. The next step was sticking his hand through the sunroof but it was definitely  no longer a wave.  It wasn't long before he drove by in an old falling apart (but running) pickup truck.

 

I never allowed that to happen again.

[JamesR]

22 minutes ago, vermontboy said:

A local farmhand with a wife and two kids wanted it. I did everything I could to talk him out of it to no avail - he stopped by every day and begged to buy it. I finally relented and knocked $259 off the price telling him he would need it for repairs at some point.

 

For a couple of months that summer every time he drove by the house he would wave through the open sunroof. Then the wave stopped and his eyes were straight ahead as he drove by. The next step was sticking his hand through the sunroof but it was definitely  no longer a wave. 

 

That's a farmhand who's destined to remain a farmhand. Some people can't reasonably anticipate what's ahead for the next couple of hours, let alone the next couple of months.

 

I bought two hobby cars from a small lot across the street from my business. It was owned and run (for fun) by an acquaintance who shared my interest in old cars. One day I was over there and there was a young family buying a large mid-1960's Chrysler for no other reason than it was different and cool. That's great...except it wasn't going to be a hobby car for them, it was going to to be their daily driver. Their ONLY daily driver...no other vehicles. It maybe had lap belts and no other safety restraints. Yes, that's the type of car I was hauled around in when I was little, but I still felt sorry for the two or three toddler to elementary school age children who would be riding around in that beast. It ran ok, but needed a tune up. Who knows what the brakes were like. Mom was probably oblivious to that, telling me that she and her husband didn't know anything about cars.

[29hupp]

A friend of mine last week was telling me that him and three other friends were at a large flea market where he found some oddball part he wanted that was grossly overpriced.  He made a reasonable offer that was refused.  He then had each of his friends make the same offer 30 minutes apart.  He went back a little later and bought it for his original offer. 

[Steve Moskowitz]

I'm still trying to wrap my head about it being only $10K !  If it is the bike and engine seems to be too good to be true.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, JamesR said:

 

 

You're correct John. That's a proper and moral attitude, and one that I embrace, but I also have to acknowledge that there are such things as "losers" in the world - people who have problems beyond the scope of my ability to help them. Or deal with them.

 

There is a legitimate concept that some management professionals have called "knowing when to fire your customers." In other words, you can't take the generally admirable concept of "the customer is always right" to it's most absurd extreme: suffering the most foolish of fools. The problem with the guy who placed the rude ad is that he he seemed to PRESUME that a large part of the people reading his ads were losers or fools. The point of my comment was that I appreciate his frustration but I personally don't approve of his tactic.

GREAT post! 👍👍

[1937hd45]

9 hours ago, Steve Moskowitz said:

I'm still trying to wrap my head about it being only $10K !  If it is the bike and engine seems to be too good to be true.

That was my reaction, IF it was a factory racer, and not a clone that seams to be a low entry level bike. if it was a twin someone else would own it by now. 

 

 

Bob 

[1937hd45]

23 hours ago, Steve Moskowitz said:

I'm still trying to wrap my head about it being only $10K !  If it is the bike and engine seems to be too good to be true.

Steve, Take a close look at the pile of parts, The engine may have seen the inside of the Springfield factory, but everything else looks like freshly fabricated parts. Not that it is the first one ever made out of a gas tank cap. Bob 

[Fleetwood Meadow]

Why do people put words like “original” or the year of the vehicle in quotes? Is that like when people use air quotes to make a sarcastic claim? Like when you say someone you hate is a “great guy?”

[Paul Dobbin]

I knew a guy that usually had one car or another at show with a For Sale sign in the seat.   In response to price inquiries, he would start high and go up it there was a responding lower offer and never go back to his asking price.  He didn't  sell many cars, but his widow did.  (With help of his surviving club members)

Edited April 29, 2019 by Paul Dobbin (see edit history)

[Digger914]

Needing more garage space means moving the storage shed and having as many contents of my shed as I can stand to part with posted for sale on craigslist, some of them for half value to get them out of the way as fast as possible, I can empathize with the poster of this motorcycle add.  

 

That said, my response to people who call and email that ever popular question, "What is the least you will take?" is I don't know, guess I'll find out when somebody puts that much cash on the table.