How do you put a value on a finished bike in order to sell it

jimmiejoe

jimmiejoe

Active Member
After spending a year building my CB500F and showing it a some local shows, and receiving some of the nicest complaments ever this bike is now for sale...With all the cool ass custom shizz l put into this bike was woundering how to put a value on it...l have all the receipts and most of my time spent building that 'bad ass cafe'
l've seen ad s out of Los Angles CA for custom bike and they are asking close to $10,000 holly crap seems like alot of money, but when l start adding up my cost's on this bike and a little profit l'm thinking this is pretty close to what l thinking as well...Yeah seems out raggest l know but other builders are demanding some pretty hi prices as well...Build one and keep the recieipts and find out for ur self ..or have one builted...Just the time alone spent finding the parts on the web is time consuming...
Any imput would be appreciated
Jimmiejoe
 

Attachments

  • Risng Sun 2 resized.jpg
    Risng Sun 2 resized.jpg
    666 KB · Views: 243
A bike is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I've seen CB360s go for over five grand and I've seen some really nice CB750s come in at close to one.

Most of the time, you're never going to make money on a bike when you consider the parts you put into it (let alone the labor), but it doesn't have to stop you from trying.

Put it up for what you want to get for it and see if you get any bites.
 
Bikes are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. That being said I've never heard of, seen or would believe anyone paying $10K for a Honda CB-anything unless it was an all-original 1969 CB750, an original CB450 etc. Something collectible and even then, those sorts of prices are rare.

Your bike is clearly done to your specific tastes and you need to find someone who shares that taste to buy it.

None of us ever expect to sell our bikes at a profit, especially when you start factoring in the time involved.
 
Normally when you build a custom bike like yours you are most likely going to lose money on it. You built it to your specific taste, finding another person with that same taste would be tough. You would likely get more for the stock version of your bike if it was in really good shape. As Sonrier said, put it up for what you want and see if you get any bites!
 
Sell? You should trad it for three project bikes that are complete junk. Thats what I do and it works out great. ???
 
Like everyone said, your bike is unique, but unique to your tastes. To sell it for a great sum you have to find the right buyer, and that is hard to do. I just sold my last project for WAY more than I had in it, but I also had some extraordinary luck both in finding parts for next to nothing, and finding a buyer that shared the same appreciation for style.

Here's what I did. I didn't try to sell the bike. I wrote up a nice ad with lots of pictures and a video of the bike running and riding. Then I posted it on Craigslist and Ebay for way too much money. I had no real desire or need to sell the bike, I simply put it out there so that if someone REALLY wanted it and wanted to pay me a sum I couldn't say no to they might find it. It took probably 6 months of on and off for sale postings.
 
Put some rearsets on that thing. Bad for the back having a cafe seat, low bars, and stock pegs.
 
Here's the deal in the real world. Somebody who spends $10k on a café bike, has it built to their specs. Your bike is beautiful, but finding somebody who wants a neon bike. Personally I like a bike that is a little more subdued. Your bike is pretty striking, but still finding a buyer who prefers that type of bike and has $10k of disposable income is lotto odds. Also you talk about other builders asking that type of $. Do you have a shop? A reputation? A following? I had a friend once who had a neat Hot Rod and would tell anybody who would listen that it was a Coddington car. Now... the car was a p.o.s. but because Coddington had built it, it garnered a crowd pretty much every where it went.

I live in the L.A. area and I hawk C.L. and other sales orientated litreture daily, and I know for a fact that most of those $10k bikes have been for sale for months, if not years. Same bikes, day in- day out. If you built a bike to make a profit, you made a huge mistake. Preference is everything and finding a person who has same preference as you, is slim.

Also you seem very talented, and your bike is pretty cool, so on top of your $ you spent on the bike, your man hours have a value, which brings almost any bike to negative on the loss/profit ledger. This is why people pitch a fit when they find that the restorer down the street wants $15-20k to restore their Norton. I know my time has value, but after decades of flipping cars and bikes, I learned to buy decent projects, spend minimal time on upgrading and flip. That's where the $ is, Not in tearing something to the ground and building back up. That burns time and $.

I'd go ahead and place your bike up everywhere you can, and ask the price where you could let the bike go and hope for the best. It's a neat bike and there may be a buyer, but you'll never know till you get it out there. To go back to your earlier statement "Builders are asking", asking and getting are two different things. I f$10-20k bikes were moving, shops wouldn't need to sell T-shirts. About the only builder I know that sells enough bikes to pay the bills, is Mule. He builds $30k bikes, but they are all to spec. Guys who know what they want, have $, but little talent, go this this guy for his talent and time.

Good luck, that is a cool bike and I hope you find somebody who respects the time and talent invested....
 
Thank You guys for all of your input all very good replays...l've tried ebay a week was $50 or maybe l wasn't doing some thing right...it's fun bike to take out and ride as well as showing...L do have several CB4's and was just hinking of building another so one or two of these fun bikes have to leave my shop...
l've retored several of these bikes and they seem to 'move' a little faster.so l'll considered trading a few bikes for the one l wanna sell and try another approach...
l've only be building for a few years now and have kept the ones l've builted, but keeping them insure and registered is expensive to say the least...
Anyhow thanks again for the input
Jimmiejoe
 
Thanks Bill for the nice note and thoughts....yeah it's first bike that l'm asking $6500 for seems expensive but considering the parts n man hours l might wind up making $10 and hour...it was fun and exciting to build this bike and showing it...just missing lst place a couple times...no big deal...l feell'm on the 'right track' so will just keep it rolling with another project...
JIM

date=1386947094]
Here's the deal in the real world. Somebody who spends $10k on a café bike, has it built to their specs. Your bike is beautiful, but finding somebody who wants a neon bike. Personally I like a bike that is a little more subdued. Your bike is pretty striking, but still finding a buyer who prefers that type of bike and has $10k of disposable income is lotto odds. Also you talk about other builders asking that type of $. Do you have a shop? A reputation? A following? I had a friend once who had a neat Hot Rod and would tell anybody who would listen that it was a Coddington car. Now... the car was a p.o.s. but because Coddington had built it, it garnered a crowd pretty much every where it went.

I live in the L.A. area and I hawk C.L. and other sales orientated litreture daily, and I know for a fact that most of those $10k bikes have been for sale for months, if not years. Same bikes, day in- day out. If you built a bike to make a profit, you made a huge mistake. Preference is everything and finding a person who has same preference as you, is slim.

Also you seem very talented, and your bike is pretty cool, so on top of your $ you spent on the bike, your man hours have a value, which brings almost any bike to negative on the loss/profit ledger. This is why people pitch a fit when they find that the restorer down the street wants $15-20k to restore their Norton. I know my time has value, but after decades of flipping cars and bikes, I learned to buy decent projects, spend minimal time on upgrading and flip. That's where the $ is, Not in tearing something to the ground and building back up. That burns time and $.

I'd go ahead and place your bike up everywhere you can, and ask the price where you could let the bike go and hope for the best. It's a neat bike and there may be a buyer, but you'll never know till you get it out there. To go back to your earlier statement "Builders are asking", asking and getting are two different things. I f$10-20k bikes were moving, shops wouldn't need to sell T-shirts. About the only builder I know that sells enough bikes to pay the bills, is Mule. He builds $30k bikes, but they are all to spec. Guys who know what they want, have $, but little talent, go this this guy for his talent and time.

Good luck, that is a cool bike and I hope you find somebody who respects the time and talent invested....
[/quote]
 
ApriliaBill said:
Here's the deal in the real world. Somebody who spends $10k on a café bike, has it built to their specs.

About the only builder I know that sells enough bikes to pay the bills, is Mule. He builds $30k bikes, but they are all to spec. Guys who know what they want, have $, but little talent, go this this guy for his talent and time.
Click to expand...
[/quote]

I agree, the only way to really make money on custom bikes is to build to a customers spec ala Mule Motorcycles. Even so you probably won't be making much for the first few bikes until you get a good reputation going.
 
here's the deal with old jap bikes: you can either build a really high quality build and lose money selling it, or you can build a really crappy bike and make a few dimes on it, what someone is willing to pay for a customized old jap bike of high quality and one of questionable quality is actually very close. So unfortunately you can build a super high quality custom and make less on it than joe hammerhands down the street who makes a deathtrap with checkers. sorry for that, but it's pretty much how it goes. if you want to make money on customs, you need to go exotic, italian, english, the upfront costs for the base bike are higher, but there are more people with taste and money to back it up who will be interested.
 
Think about all the nice bikes you could buy if you had $10k to spend and tell me if you think your bike would be on that list? You could have a nice Hayabusa for $10k
 
I was going to say it's worth what one in a typical modified state is worth, minus the cost of a paint job, common seat base and fashion of the times muffler. but then I realised you've painted the engine orange too. I'd say it's almost unsellable.

I've been there, and it really sucks.
 
Auctions like ebay tell you how much appeal that bike will have. The bike is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Most owners don't get this. This is not a way to make money.
The painted engine limits someone's ability to tweak to their taste. If you intended on selling, you need to consider aspects of the bike that can be customized away from those gaudy colors. Some may love the colors, I would see it as an immediate need to fix.

The chopper craze of the early 2000s left a lot of highly bespoke bikes that were sold for a fraction of cost, and usually refinished.
 
yeah honestly put it on ebay set the reserve at the least youd be willing to take and see what happens. The market will tell you what it's worth. I'd say 2500 sounds about right for it. I've made money on bikes or at least usually break even. i don't know how popular a cb500f is so i don't know what you can expect to recoup hopefully you get your money back out of it at least so you can keep working on bikes and enjoy yourself.

All that said i think it's a a pretty cool bike nice work. wrench on buddy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DTT Light or Dark

  • DTT Light
    • www.jadusmotorcycleparts.com
    www.lostapostle.ca/
    www.sparckmoto.com

    Spread the Love

    Back
    Top Bottom