moosehead wrote:You did a beautiful job...
I was trolling for airheads on craigslist and found this one....
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bnc/m ... 99867.html
$5500...wow...trust you did well with the /5!
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/m ... 12649.html
Yikes...nice bike and 77 too...
Bought my 82 RS off craigslist in Vancouver 6 years ago...flew out, visited daughter, changed oil and rode it home...4600kms...with nary a problem. Always looking for another "beater" out there so can do the same thing again. It was a fun way to see the BIG country! But don't think will happen at these prices
Lot cheaper 6 years ago. Just shows you what a good investment some classics have turned out to be!
I've been on Boise, ID Craig's List a lot this summer, mostly looking for tools for the shop. There are bargains to be had and I've bought several items. But there have been several times more when I say to myself, you've got to be kidding. I have the distinct impression that there are a lot of people advertising there who are doing what I call trolling. Since Craig's list is free, it literally costs them nothing to place an ad. So there are a lot of people listing items that they don't seriously need to sell, but if somebody should bite and buy, well hurrah for Craig's list.
So if you have something a bit esoteric, such as an airhead, you just might be able to sell it to somebody for much more than the bike is worth. Since so few show up for sale it's pretty hard for a buyer to know what a real market value might be.
As an example of a fair market value price disconnect I've seen a lot of Shop Smiths on Craig's list with asking prices of say, $1,000 to even $3,500. For those who don't know what a Shop Smith is, it's a sort of all in one woodworker's tool. The basis is a sort of woodworking lathe with a power unit that slides along two horizontal rails. With an attachment the power unit can be the basis for a tilting table, table saw. With the horizontal rails rotated to a vertical position the tool becomes sort of a drill press. A 12" sanding disk can be attached to the power unit for a, well, sanding disk. There is a small band saw unit which can be attached to the base and powered by, you guessed it, the power unit. There are probably a couple other functions I can't think of at the minute either.
I'm not bad mouthing Shop Smiths here. They have their place. Typically they are useful where a woodworker is very limited for space. And they probably have a following, though I don't ever remember an article featuring them in some wood working magazine.
The thing is, if space isn't a major issue, all those functions can be had with stand alone machines with much better versatility and, yes, better results. (For example if I need a board to have a 45 degree ripping cut I'd much rather do it with a tilting arbor saw than a tilting table saw. Correspondingly, If I need to cut something on a band saw I'd much rather do it on a stand alone machine than to get the Shop Smith bandsaw unit and move it to the main Shop Smith unit, and then hook the power head up to it.)
The point I'm heading toward is that If I had only $1,000 to spend, by watching Craig's list carefully, I could come up with a good quality but old 10" contractor's style table saw, a wood lathe, a 14" band saw, and a good floor standing drill press. A 12" disk sander, well that might be harder to come by, but an old Craftsman 6" x 48" belt sander with 9" disk though not a common item like a table saw can be had. I've seen about 4 of them show up on the Boise Craig's list.
I'm really getting quite far away from talking about old BMW motorcycles (or other motorcycles for that matter) but I'm trying to support my point that high asking prices for airheads on Craig's List can an do happen. But actually selling them for something near those inflated asking prices might be a bit of a rare event.
Or maybe it's me that doesn't have a good handle on Airhead market values.
Ken
