Another eBay question. (Sigh)...

[dwire]

Is this used/rebuilt Motometer speedo/tach worth anywhere near what they are asking?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-Slas ... 941wt_1165

The reason I am inquiring is that I have a NOS unit in its box with no miles (OK, the test 1/2 mile or so from the factory) and well frankly, if that beat-up-bezel rebuilt unit is worth $400.00, I need to go dig up my spare and use the revenue to finish the bike up for riding this year.

$400 for a rebuilt one, maybe $600 for my OEM/NIB one? Both that listing and my fantasy sound a bit optimistic price-wise. Though $600 would put new rubber, spokes, throttle tube/planetary gear and a fork rebuild on my bike and it would be done, less my labor and maybe tossing a bit of $$ to a pro I know that would do the factory pin striping for me. While I've not done anything with the original paint, it is really ready for one - hopefully its first and last (re-)paint job.

[Rob Frankham]

Who knows... with items like this, if you find the right buyer, the skys the limit... but... the right buyers are few and far between. If you seriously want to 'test the water', list the part with a high starting price and an even higher reserve. You may just get lucky. Myself, I'd probably be thinking 'swap it for the one on the bike, then sell the old one'.

Rob

[tenni128]

I just bought one maybe six months ago that was also rebuilt, but it had 12k on the odo. I ended up paying ~250 I think. I guess it's worth what someone will pay, but I think it seems a little high. Some people think these airhead parts are made of gold.

[wirewrkr]

Just because someone is asking $400.00 doesn't necessarily guarantee that it's worth that much.
Especially on Ebay.
A brand new one is $583.00
If I had a nos one I would advertise it for whatever it was worth to me.

[Garnet]

Ulis have them in KMs for 238 Euros, new.

[mattcfish]

Ulis have them in KMs for 238 Euros, new.

I was happy to get
$60.00 for a clock that did not work.

[Major Softie]

Buy It Now prices on eBay are frequently (perhaps "usually") higher than you can get the same thing almost anywhere else. If it is something that is not really available anywhere else, well, you pays your money and suck it up. If it is something that is available somewhere else (new product vendors, craigslist, IBMWR ads, etc.) then BIN ebay is very pricey.

[dwire]

I should clarify for the record, I think it is essentially highway robbery anyway. That being said, I know what I paid for this unit about 10 years ago and it DID in fact come from eBay. Minutes after I bought it for what I felt was a rather excellent price (somewhere in the range of half to a quarter of what it cost to back then, get one "fixed" at a place like Palo-Alto) I had ten emails in my inbox only minutes after I won the auction. One of which was a fellow from Chicago that offered to double my money AND wanted to drive down to Ohio and pick it up the next day. I declined, for all of the obvious reasons, as I had gotten it very cheaply and as well, at the time had an attachment to a certain wife (mine at the time - don't get any ideas here) for which had a working speedo/tach unit, but all of the colored lenses for oil, alternator, brights, neutral, etc. the color in the lens had apparently flaked out of them (which made them annoying, as the high-beam indicator was like shining a mini-mag light in your eyes at night). So I "had" a reason to have purchased the unit; and I could never have touched even the cosmetic repairs to hers for what I had won the auction for. When the woman and the bike attached to said woman evaporated, the need was no longer there, so I held onto it.

I can identify with swap them out and sell yours idea, but there is nothing wrong with mine, unless being original is "wrong" and I think just the opposite; surely most would agree.

Unless I am wrong, that is a BIN price, but there is not a bidding option, so we shall see if this "person" gets that gold-clad price out of his/her unit. If they do, I'd think the absurdity of $400 for a rebuilt one makes pretty well the sky the limit on such things, that are NOS/NIB from the early seventies. I can say though, that entire listing is disturbing at the very least. Who "rebuilds" one of these units and installs a bent-up/dinged up bezel on it?

Personally, if my house was in order and I had money in my pockets, etc. etc. I'd be about as pleased essentially giving it away to a fellow rider in distress without one. In this case, I AM THAT poor broke bloke, so that sort of notion does not really work well. I guess my post was a lot more rhetorical than I likely stated above and sadly, I already know all about the deal with these sorts of outrageous prices for parts. As people continue to pay such premiums for parts, it gets no better. - My "junk/spares" bin has likely a thousand dollars worth of stuff in it according to eBay's prices, though admittedly, the eBay sellers asking $50 or whatever for a forty year old bean can are simply out of there mind and I'd hope think no one would ever pay such a price for one. Thank you all for weighing in.

[dwire]

Ulis have them in KMs for 238 Euros, new.

Yeah, but I am in the states - and even before the politicians make a further mess of our dollar, less shipping, you are talking about $345.00 for a non-original unit, that they did not try really hard to make it look much like the original. Who here has a tenths marker on their odometer; I know I've never seen one... That unit would easily eclipse $400 to anyone in the USA - likely more too.

That being said, who knows, perhaps these less visually appealing knock-offs actually work better. Simple vibration from revving the engine on my bike, or the earlier '70 production 1971 R75/5 will make the speedo needle deflect at a stand-still; no shocker that the speedo needle dances about running down the highway on these things. (No, and I'm not talking about what they do when they or the cables are messed up or "broken" either).

Just for grins, I'd love hear someone's account of these knock-offs - NOT THAT I NEED ONE!

[Garnet]

I too would like to hear from someone who has an aftermarket /5 speedo.

I need one but there is on way I,m spending big bucks on an OE Motometer. They are such shyte. How they ever found their way onto a BMW is beyond me.