I am a seller on Ebay, and I have noticed that my painted/airbrushed stuff is not moving like it did last year at this time. I think all business is slowed at this time of year though. But, I also think that Spring will bring some folks some tax returns and some folks looking to buy their first or bike or upgrade to a newer one. I bought my 06 Road King earlier this year that had a measly 6k miles on it, for $10k. I never thought I would see bike prices drop so dramatically. But, you can also trace this a little further back to around 03 when Harley announced they would up production on bike by 30%. That has also helped create a glut of bikes on the market. It is most definitely a buyers market, no doubt.

 

It has been difficult to sell a used bike for a "fair" price for about 3 years. It took me a year to sell my last bike and the buyer got a hell of a deal in my opinion.

 

I noticed the same trend on Ebay. It made me think their old lady told them to sell it and they can just say they tried to but no offers lol. I finally found a guy on ebay that just buys at dealer auctions and just flips them with low opening bids, no reserve. Got this 92 FXLR for $6800. Runs great and looks brand new....I got lucky but I knew where to look.

 

and with things the way they are, I'm sure there will be more used bikes coming into the marketplace.
Not sure if it will be enough to drive down overall used prices though.....but ya never know

 

I'm "very thankful" to be in a position to be where I do not have to sell a Harley right now. That would be tough! As a matter of fact, I don't care if the price on mine dropped to $2.00 each. I'm the only person in the world that they are worth anything to anyway.

 

Before I finally got my 07 I was the winning bidder on I don't know how many Ebay auctions where the reserve wasn't met. In quite a few cases I was within $200-$300 of the seller's reserve price (they told me) and they still wouldn't budge. It used to be pretty common in my area for guys to buy a brand new Harley and immediately put it in the paper for sale for $1k-$2k more than they paid for it . . and for awhile (early-mid 90's) they seemed to get it after 2-3 months.

I guess if it doesn't cost you too much to list it and you can make money on it . . .

 

A lot of people are 'underwater' on the value of their bike (just as they are on the value of their home)....they're still mentally living in the days when they bought the thing....and can't understand that the market has changed. Doesn't affect me much because I generally keep things a very long time.

I was looking at a 2003 Valkyrie standard that was in absolutely mint condition...and would have bought it but the guy just couldn't get it into his head that just because it only had 4K on the odometer it wasn't going to sell $3K above high book.

 

The H-D market is tanking, and it's not over yet IMO. Real estate is even scarier, get a Realtor around and be ready for a shock! This recession that people keep saying is "over" .........

 

I've been watching Dyna's on ebay for a while now and they all seem to end w/o hitting the reserve.... Local shops are worse, they want 1k less than MSRP for a bike that is 4 years old....
Still looking, honestly I am getting closer to looking new due to the lack of deals on used around here.... if new is only 2k more and comes with a 2year warranty that is worth it to me, and I never by vehicles new.

 

Monkey_boy, that is exactly how I ended up with a new FXD. The private owners wanted more for an old one than the dealers did for a new one. Easy decision.