Not a single bid

The relisted Black 400 four did not even get a single bid.
Grrrrr

Looks like I will have to wait until the market picks up in the spring.
OTOH I might try to sell the blue one, I really need to make some space
and it might find a home as a winter hack, it has Comstar wheels so
not exactly desireable but long T&T and reasonably tidy otherwise.
Time to try listing it on TradeIT.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique,
typed

You want too much for it.

 

It is actually a bloody nice one, the black paint job and the aftermarket
front mudguard are the only wrong bits, the Motad exhaust is all you can
get nowadays and not really an issue IMHO although purists might wince.
I have seen much worse selling for more money, bikes are just not
selling at the moment because people are skint after the holidays.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique,
typed

Nonetheless, you want too much for it.

99p, no reserve, no BIN.

That way you find out what it's worth, and you sell it.

 

So, aside from it having the wrong paint, wrong mudguard and wrong
exhaust, it's 'bloody nice'.

Sadly, the exhaust is one of the features people want a 400/4 for - and
the other non-standard bits don't help, either.

Or maybe yours isn't as 'bloody nice' as you think it is? - it may be
tidy, but the Motad will be killing the value stone dead.

 

What's with the 'letterbox' around the tank decals?

If I were looking for something like that, I'd not exactly be
enamoured by the studs holding the seat cover on, either.

Both this and the 'letterboxes' on the tank would make me ponder as to
the standard of any other work it's had done on it.

....and?

Location can have an influence over price and demand - maybe some of
the ones you feel fit the description above happened to be on the
doorstep of the winners compared to yours.

Bikes of that ilk tend to fetch solid prices whatever time of year
they're sold, but you still have yours - go figure.

 

What is the problem, the studs are correct for the 400 Four.
They were missing when I got it, as was the strap.

 

Fair enough - I'm not into these, so didn't know that's how they came
from the factory.

What about the rest of the points I raised, though - the letterbox
effect round the tank logos etc?

Looking at pics of others, shouldn't it say 'Super Sport' under the
Honda logo on the tank as well?

 

Another thing... the fork gaiters.

These don't do it any favours at all, both in terms of how they look
and the raising of the question 'What are they hiding?'

 

A worse one got a decent price.

Your auction was crap. Lousy pix, crap description.

 

Others have already pointed out that if it's not selling it's either
the bike or the way you describe it rather than the market that's the
problem.

It's not a good example of the model and it's not as if there aren't
plenty of decent ones cropping up on a regular basis so you need to
either market it better of take a lower price.

 

Ouch.

 

Pictures are everything.

People are now getting used to buying cars/bikes unseen through eBay [1]
but decent pictures are worth their weight in gold.

The BMW scrubbed up quite nicely so I took it out on to the Downs to take
a few pictures with nice, plain, scenery rather than surrounded by
distracting local stuff (my road is full of cars and the courtyard of my
lockup looks like Steptoe's yard).

Also, it meant it didn't have its picture taken on the wet patch, looking
lie it had pissed itself or only cleaned for the pictures.

I'm happy to take a punt on auctions with shit pictures and shit
descriptions but only at prices where I can afford to lose the money or
get it back by breaking.


[1] No-one has ever looked at one I'm selling and I've never gone to
look at one. Except in a recent case of a Renault 4 with a note in the
window I'd looked at was also on eBay.

 

They're not selling because it's the wrong time of year for "classic" or
sports bikes.

Cheap winter hacks, yes.

 

A Renault 4? Good heavens I haven't see one of those for <sucks teeth>
ages. The last time I had a lift in one was well over 20 years ago.

 

Try writing a better description, use better pics and lower your expectations.

You might actually be surprised.

 

I'm still after one. Fiona learnt to drive in our old one (nearly 20
years ago) and she quite fancies another.

So do I.

 

They're stupid money now though.

 

Seems logical. A pretty original 79 Morini 350 Strada seemingly
requiring just a little work to finish went for £730 recently. OK, a
cast wheel model rather than the more sort after wire wheel sport, but
they usually achieve better than that.

You would think that it might be the right time of year for people
looking for a winter project, but perhaps not these days.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Hah. "90% of work completed, 90% to go".

I've lost count of the POS that I've done bits to, that the proud new
owner has bought on that basis: "just needs engine wiring to finish" -
that was because there wasn't any. Wiring to the engine, that is - no
engine loom, no ignition loom, no electrical componants at all,
actually. A month of evenings and weekends with a sparky assisting,
that was.

"New loom supplied" - aka no wiring in the car at all, no clues given
and the new loom had been made up by somebody during teabreaks and
consisted entirely of brown wires.

"Small amount of welding to rear of chassis to get MoT" - what rear
chassis? It appears to have transformed into dust on the trailer - so,
first make a rear chassis, then attach it to the one under the front of
the car, then attach the rear of the car to it and hope it doesn't fold
in half on the MoT rollers, for a start.

"Only needs lights and ignition" - aka parts that had been unobtainable
for a decade or more.

All that and the floorpans that disappeared when blasted to clean off
the "surface rust", the highly complicated and technically wonderful
Kawasaki rear suspension that was seized in more ways than I'd ever
seen before - oh, and the anti-dive system that was frozen in the
fully-dived position: we thought it was a bit low at the front.

It's a jungle out there, I tell you.