AdirondackJack Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 (Unless I win the lottery or my Solar business suddenly takes off) Need the group's input on what the best way is to maximize my investment in the RT. With needing to raise money to send the kid to college next year, do I sell the bike with all the gear on it, or do I de-farkle it and sell everything separately? total investment in the farkles is $9,000 over and above what the bike cost (does not include my time). Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Just need to do the right thing here. P.S. RT has 8,500 miles on it, a 6-year extended warranty to 2014, and is in top condition! What do you think? Link to comment
BerndM Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 The $$ you spent on Farkles is on you. You did it for YOUR enjoyment. Don't expect to get anything for them when you sell. If you're lucky enough to find a potential buyer who just happens to really like your choices, you MAY retrieve Some of your farkle investments. When I sold my nicely farkled 06 R1200GS, I don't think I made a penny on my farkles, BUT it did help sell the bike. Good Luck Link to comment
SuperG Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I agree usually you don't get your money back on farkles, sooo.... If it is not much work and can be removed cleanly, then remove and sell the farkle to recoup some of your money invested in it. If you get half of your money back you are lucky. Some used bike/car buyers looking for unmodified vehicles. The cleaner and closer to stock the better. This may not be true if OEM item is junk to begin with. Second thought BMW stuff is pricey and BMW owners will fork out some $$ if the deal is good on used farkle. But economy is in the slum for some, so who knows? I am looking for a peg lowering kit...what you got? Link to comment
JR356 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Sell your farkles,you can get 50 percent or better return on your investment,depending on the item. Big ticket items such as shocks,custom seats and GPS systems command the highest prices.Low mile aftermarket shocks typically sell for 2/3 to 3/4 of new price. You will get zero if you trade it and may get 25 plus percent or so return if sold with the bike to a private party who knows what they are looking at.Your average Joe will not want to pay extra. Try selling the bike here,fully farkled and if that does not work,start selling off the bits. People here are always looking to upgrade their rides and know the value of the farkles,so this and www.ibmwr.org are probably your two best markets. Search the classifieds here and ibmwr to help you set a price. JR356 Link to comment
ryan_a1982 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I just got a 2007 RT with 3K miles on it in October. It was farkled out, with about $8-9K worth of goodies that were installed very nicely (no warranty though). I feel this made it easier for me to pay a premium for the bike, I paid what Kelly Bluebook said it was worth. The only reason I didn't haggle too much was because of the "worth" to ME of all the farkles on the bike. I am not electrically savvy enough to do what was done to my bike. So it was worth the premium for me. I say leave them on, they are the carrot for someone to buy the bike. Check out KBB.com and then you can actually click on a link and they tell you what certain farkles are worth. I would start at that price. -Good luck, -Ryan Link to comment
bmw_rider Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 You won't get 100% of the farkle money back. Example - you replaced stock shocks with better - the bike has to have a pair of shocks. You added high tech electronic equipment- buyer may or may not want it. Depending on the various difficulty to uninstall and replace to stock I'd evaluate the items case by case. Link to comment
Selden Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Try selling the bike here, fully farkled and if that does not work,start selling off the bits. This seems like the best advice to me. When I bought my used 1999 RT, I didn't do very much haggling because it had all the mods that I would have wanted to do (windscreen, Sargent seats, Ohlins shocks, Throttlemeister, brakelight modulator). I still ended up doing a bunch of tweaking, but the expensive stuff was already done for me by the previous owner. Link to comment
hopz Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I sold my last Harley... minus the farkles. Later, I sold them off one-by-one along with 20 years of accumulated detritus related to all things Harley. (I didn't realize I had so much "stuff" until I started making piles)... "Parting out" is the term frequently encountered. I believe the sell-off was profitable for me and that is the way I would go if I ever sold my RT. Your actual mileage may vary.... Link to comment
Chip Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 No doubt, the best way to recoup some of your farkle money is to, "part out" (sell separately). If it was me, this would be my plan: Remove farkles Take pics of bike and list for sale Determine retail price of each farkle and list for sale (e.g., here, IBMWR, craigslist) for 1/2 of that price + shipping. To me, that is fair (provided farkles are in good shape). Of course, offer the buyer of your "de-farkled" bike a chance to buy the farkles they want...they'll save shipping costs. Parting out farkles takes more time...but hey, college is at least four years Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 This is an example of why I love this board and of how "pay it forward-minded" and helpful the people here are. The only frame of reference I have for a situation like this is that in the "olden days" before I saw the BMW light I took the 'parting out' approach on my FJR and it worked pretty well. I have sold some items on this board in the past and everyone I sold to was a real pleasure to deal with. My problem is that I have a fondness for accessories that are absolutely top quality, and I have spent many long hours engineering and installing those items. Invariably, the farkles I put on bikes end up being adopted as OEM equipment a year or two later by bike manufacturers. In other words, I am an early adopter who typically is ahead of the wave that comes along later as standard or optional manufacturer-available equipment. I read this board constantly, have learned a tremendous amount from its generous participants, and usually take the advice offered. Iam very grateful for your input, here, and intend to put the bike up for sale in the next 1-2 weeks. My last question is: Do you think that I will offend a potential buyer if I take the group's advice and establish a baseline price for the bike with no accessories, and then add 50% of the $9,000 spent on farkles to arrive at a selling price? After going to Kelley Blue book I come up with the following: Base Retail Price (no farkles) [also, this includes my 6-yr. extended warranty, so it's like they were buying it from a dealer, but is for a bike that would have 13,200 miles on it-mine only has 8,500 on it!]. . . . . . . . . . . . .$14,947 Plus 50% of the farkles actual Parts cost (does not include any labor). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4,500 Therefore, total asking price would be. .$19,447? If I decide that this would put people off, then I should immediately begin de-farkling and plan to sell just the close-to-stock bike for the KBB price. Also, once offered with all the farkles intact, does this send a message that I am not willing to be reasonable in this transaction. Remember, the whole reason for this is to be in a better position to send Kelsey to college next year. There is nothing wrong with the bike. In fact, it is the best bike I have ever owned, and I have been at this two-wheeled activity since 1964. I definitely know what I like! What do you all think? Again, thank you for your generous and candid input. Dave R. Link to comment
Rinkydink Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Spend an afternoon and defarkle and sell it all here. Some of us would love to have it hence quick turnover for you. Otherwise you give it away. Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hey Linc G- I think you're right. As soon as I get a free afternoon I'll start the process. Look for some good deals to be coming up. Believe me, this stuff is top quality and in great condition. will advise as soon as I am ready. Thanks for the common sense advice. If I can help you guys, as well as raise $ for Kelsey's education, that will be the best of both worlds and a real opportunity to give back to the board. Dave R. Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 As you can imagine, at over $9K of accessories, this bike has most of the farkles known to modern man. If any of you guys are looking for something in particular, I probably have available at least one of them in excellent condition, and they will be for sale at a good price in the classifieds section of this board soon. If you want to get first shot at something in particular please feel free to PM me with any specific items you may be looking for. I thank you, my daughter's college thanks you. . . . . . . . . . .etc. etc. Link to comment
GRB60 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 That's the way to go, I think. There's not much market for a used bike at a price that exceeds the cost of a new one, no matter how nicely done your bike is. Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Agreed. Thanks for your input. Link to comment
Rob L Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I am just wondering......how far is the bike sale going to go toward paying for college? The sale of the bike is probably a drop in the bucket compared to what you need. You may never have an opportunity to replace what you have or at the very least it will be 4-5 years. No bike? Is that your answer? You will probably end up financing at least some tuition anyway; why not keep and enjoy the bike and pay a little more along the way. Just a thought! I don't know your total situation, but sometimes the most obvious answer is not the best! Good luck! Rob Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Dear Rob- Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Thanks for your words of wisdom. The short answer is that sometimes we must go through a self examination of all we have at stake. I agree wholeheartedly with the points you made. There is an outside chance that I will be saved by the bell and will be able to salvage this riding season. Briefly, there is a new government subsidy for Solar Thermal which may very well impact my solar business in a positive way and cause sales to skyrocket. The problem is, based on the schedule of our financial planning, I won't know that answer until significantly after this bike is completely de-farkled and sold (I have already gotten a lot of interest in it and I haven't even officially put it up for sale). So that's it in a nutshell. It is actually possible that once I have sold everything off (the bike is only a small part of what I have to sell-trust me, you don't want to know the details), that I will find that I am in a position to re-invest in a bike this season. Notwithstanding, this doesn't change the predicament in which I currently find myself. For good and valid reasons I am not at liberty to speak about, I have to go about selling the best bike I have ever owned. Believe me, it doesn't feel very good. Just gotta grin and bear it, though. Dave R. Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Well. . . . .the ice is broken. Sold my first part off the RT tonight (footpeg lowering kit). I know it is only a drop in the bucket, but you gotta start somewhere, and I know he got a good deal. I must say, it makes me, at least, feel good that this will be helping people here on this forum, as well. Here we go. . . . . . . . . .start watching the classifieds section of this forum. Best to all, and may you all get the good deals you are looking for! Dave R. Link to comment
wbrissette Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I'm curious, is anybody really getting anything close to Bluebook on bikes? I know around here, bikes haven't been going for anything close to what they use to go for a few years ago. Wayne Link to comment
Powers77 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 When I sold my C14 last Summer it was 15%+ lower than KBB. Guy had a very similar highly farkeled one for sale at the same time and I noted it took him till January to get it sold. Even after a couple of price drops (I thought he had it priced well) Just think the economy makes them kind of tough to sell right now. Link to comment
AdirondackJack Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 Just an update to all you guys who offered welcome advice that I took: without doing much advertising, I'm already launched on my college fund and sales are very brisk. Look for a bunch of great deals in the next week, as I start to put stuff up for sale. Remember, I only buy top quality stuff, so the things I'm selling will carry tremendous value. Best to all and thanks, Dave R. Link to comment
cris nitro Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Tremendous? You got my attention. lol Link to comment
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