Selling a bike on market place

No trades, don’t ask if it’s available….. Hello, is this available and will you trade for a ……Marketplace is such a good time. It’s unfortunately just a reflection of society at the moment. Everyone is broke as a joke, can’t comprehend the English language and can easily insult someone with a ridiculous offer like half price from the comfort of their couch. 

I wouldn’t offer my bike for sale on FBMP or CL even under threat of death.

It definitely can be frustrating. I don’t understand those that ask you questions about your “item” after you’ve sold it. Or, they tell you they would’ve given you more $$$. Recently though, I did work out a deal where I had a limo for sale and couldn’t sell it, wanted $4500…. Anyway, dude proposed trade of a HD equipment trailer and $500 and I took it…. I’m content. *Worth noting, Carvana offered me $800 for my limo

I had a friend trying to buy a supermini on there recently.  My friend is a smaller person (100lbs) and rides street bikes so they looked all over

We went to this kids house to check out a kawi supermini way out in the sticks.  Kid comes out with the bike…missing 15 spokes.  Pipe and silencer are not connected.  Linkage had a missing bolt.  Every single part on the bike was f****d.  He’s asking $2200 or something.  I told him it wasn’t worth $600 and that he needed to fix like 8 things for the bike to be safe to ride on flat ground let alone a track or trails.  Kid lost it.  “it’s worth every penny I know what the f I got”

FBMP makes me legitimately afraid for society. 

Yeah, it can be a crap shoot - but this one caught my eye the other day.

It doesn't help that Facebook has a button that's super easy to tap by accident when scrolling on your phone that sends the seller this message.

This is what I do, I have had good luck selling on Mp, buts its a last resort…I try to sell bikes to my friends first..

I wasn’t even contacted. 

Like others said, don’t post pictures from your house, only meet at public places, and scan profiles before you commit.

Take it one step further and lock down your public profile. When I sell things on MP I put my location as a few towns over, even though my location on my profile is hidden. 

We have had dirtbikes stolen in my area solely because of people posting pictures at their homes, they won’t even have anyone message them or go to see the bike… it isn’t hard to find where people live these days based on photos alone…

Your name is on your seller profile and addresses/property tax info are public record.

Response to me GIVING AWAY something on market place: "Can you deliver it?"

I either go the a) low price, get it in and out quick, or b) only list on group pages that tend to trim down the amount of "uneducated" buyers. I also have location disabled or set it to areas that are 10-15 miles away, then only agree to meet at a police station with other "safety measurements" as allowed by law. The last few things I've lucked out with friends-of-friends wanting to buy them. 

The offers are comical. I sold a nicely equipped Africa Twin 2 years ago, was easily worth $9500, but listed it for $8700 so I could quickly use the money to get my new bike paid off. The trade offers for clapped out corollas or offers of "$5500 today only, location" were mind boggling. 

You would think FB marketplace "stores" would pop up. Like somewhere to meet up where a 3rd party can notarize and take a commission on the item. Could even be existing businesses, like amazon returns at UPS. My last transaction from marketplace, I met the guy at the bank and took in the cash for them to count and verify the bills were real.

I have had pretty good luck selling dirt bikes, Harley’s and other home/ farm items on there. I take pictures and meet them at the county building near my property that is open 24 hours a day (mental health place)   I also review the buyer and will go after a lower offer just to make sure I have mutual friends with them and the profile has been up for a long time. I just ignore an offer or stupid question. Half the time it’s someone that ends up buying a custom made knife from me afterwards. My wife makes fun of me for interacting to much after selling something. I’ve went riding with a guy that bought my last enduro bike lol. I think it all depends on the area your in. 

I removed my address and phone number from my profile a long time ago. Even if it's private, once they start messaging you if you respond they get access to at least some of your profile. If they weren't contacted and someone figured it out than at least part of their profile is public, which I would advise against 100%. 

Lots of FB listings around here end up being stolen between Balt/DC. No contact ever made.

When I rode at Budds Creek, thieves used to go to the track and write down license plates. 

Then they visited my shed in 2018 and helped themselves to my YZ 450. 

Progressive insured and paid me blue book. Insurance is cheap and is a must IMO.

I once was offered 1/3 of my asking price and "extensive tattoo work".

Location settings should also be turned off on your phone when taking the picture of the item for sale.  Smartphones embed GPS metadata into the image file when location services are on.

I price my stuff below market value as mentioned and always include "cash only, no trades". That seems to get less riff raff than before I did that.

There is a guy in my home town that has been trying to sell a 24 KTM 450 since spring. He also had a 96 CR125 for sale at the same time. On FB…

I offered him $8500 for both- ($6000 for the KTM and $2500 for the CR) to which he rejected my offer.. months later the price on the CR he dropped below $2500 and it must have eventually sold.. the KTM is still for sale and is currently priced down to $5500. 

Point is- know your bikes value and price it accordingly. I rather take a few hundred under value and sell fast, then constantly relist and sort thru dozens half assed messages. 

I always giggle when I see someone write “No scammers”, which, assuredly, scares off any scamming.  “Porch pick up only. Title in hand. No joyrides. I know what I got. Never raced. No law-ballers ! No looky-loos.”

Meet them at the nearest Police Department if one is close and tell them in advance that you will be meeting them there for both of your safety. .

I make it a point to apologize for fat fingering the auto message lol

I just find a dealer to take my bike and get a new one.  Im lazy af.

This!

By default, every image has the location it was taken embedded in the image data.

I've sold plenty of vehicles on Craigslist.

I don't post my phone number. Initial contact has to be through CL anonymous email.  Unless I feel confident that I'm dealing with an honest person, I don't ever give out my phone number.

As for price, almost everyone wants a discount.

So, I price slightly above what I think it's worth, then lower the price every 4 or 5 days if I'm not getting responses.

You can get what it’s worth if you’re patient. A year ago Carvana and CarMax offered us $3,500 for our 2013 Prius, I cleaned it up and posted it to Marketplace and had a dude buy it for $6,500. A few weeks ago, after a month of having my ‘23 CRF250 on there, I sold it for $6,100, which seemed fair in my eyes.

I was offered a number of trades for the bike. Looking through some of my messages, I was offered: a Harley, a CRF110, a YZ85 and a Pentora (?) quad, a 1999 F250, a Chevy Tahoe, a TRX450R, and some dude just said “$1,500?” thinking that would warrant a response. Just hit ‘em with “cash only” until the offer you want comes through. Give it a month or so, you’ll probably get what you’re looking for.

Have a 24 factory edition listed for 7200. Guy offered me a grand less. I was like screw it, I’ll take the hit. We messaged back and forth for a few days, set up a meeting time, and he completely ghosted me. After messaging him I got, “oh sorry I bought another bike” Even when you lower your price you still get the runaround on marketplace unfortunately. 

I deleted Facebook years ago, and every time I see a thread like this I am glad I did.

There are lots of marketplace parodies on YouTube, and you can see why 

FB truly is a breeding ground for mental illness 

Where do you buy and sell stuff without marketplace? I get facebook is a cesspool but really don’t know where to look for used stuff other than that

I buy and sell stuff on the places that worked well and existed before Facebook was invented.

I know it's hard for some people to believe there was life before Facebook.

If you asked a scammer for an ideal place to sell I bet they would say Marketplace

eBay seems to have less time wasters

Probably because you have to register as a seller / buyer, with bank details etc.,

 the Facebook dumb fcuks find this too difficult, or not ideal for scamming,

 plus the feedback system on eBay  exposes the idiots quickly