79josh81
XS650 Addict
The title says it all. lol
So since I just finished my new bike, I started throwing around the idea of selling the bobber in my profile pic that I finished this past December because I would like to get a used fishing boat for my family. The way I look at it is that I can always build another cooler bike and building is the really fun part to me anyways. So yesterday I put the bike up for sale on craigslist and facebook. Guessing what would be a fair price for the bike (being that i've only put about 100 miles on it since it's been built), just off the top of my head from what I thought I spent and what I was hoping to make extra, I came to $5,500 (I know, I know, hear me out. lol).
So today when I got up I thought about the price. I knew I hadn't priced it with any sentimental value included but I also would like it to sell so I promptly lowered the price to $4,400 thinking that I would still make a little bit on the bike just so I could feel good about myself.
At this point I got curious as to what the actual total cost was to me throughout the build just so I knew. The costs I wanted to figure out were just the cost of the donor bike and the brand new parts I added. I didn't include all of the "extras" in the total cost like welding gas/wire, new fluids, LED bulbs...blah blah blah etc...etc. So I went through my email from the date I started the project to the date I finished it and found every receipt for every online order I had for all of the brand new parts that were put into the bike. The donor bike I bought was $900 cash. And the total of all of the new parts was ..... get ready....$2,904.62!!! So on a bare minimum I'm at least into the bike for $3,800.
Jesus I thought, if my wife knew this I might have to include another $500 into that cost just for the new bed I would have to buy so I have something to sleep in at night. So, I now understand that if you want to make a couple bucks on building bikes, don't build it for yourself. lol Because I built it for myself, I literally went through everything and replaced and upgraded everything. Even if I didn't need to upgrade certain parts or replace them I did because I wanted this bike to run like it just came off the assembly line in 1979. I think I mostly succeeded in that goal because the bike really does run about as good as any newer bike but trying to sell it for what it would be worth just wouldn't be practical. Hopefully if I do sell it to someone who knows these bikes they’ll appreciate the time and parts put into it and at least see it’s value in what was spent.
So...if you want to make money on building these bikes (which I never planned on doing anyways), build shitty bikes with shitty parts, and as long as the current shitty parts work, keep the shitty parts because anything other than shitty costs money. lol Jeeezzeeee....
So since I just finished my new bike, I started throwing around the idea of selling the bobber in my profile pic that I finished this past December because I would like to get a used fishing boat for my family. The way I look at it is that I can always build another cooler bike and building is the really fun part to me anyways. So yesterday I put the bike up for sale on craigslist and facebook. Guessing what would be a fair price for the bike (being that i've only put about 100 miles on it since it's been built), just off the top of my head from what I thought I spent and what I was hoping to make extra, I came to $5,500 (I know, I know, hear me out. lol).
So today when I got up I thought about the price. I knew I hadn't priced it with any sentimental value included but I also would like it to sell so I promptly lowered the price to $4,400 thinking that I would still make a little bit on the bike just so I could feel good about myself.
At this point I got curious as to what the actual total cost was to me throughout the build just so I knew. The costs I wanted to figure out were just the cost of the donor bike and the brand new parts I added. I didn't include all of the "extras" in the total cost like welding gas/wire, new fluids, LED bulbs...blah blah blah etc...etc. So I went through my email from the date I started the project to the date I finished it and found every receipt for every online order I had for all of the brand new parts that were put into the bike. The donor bike I bought was $900 cash. And the total of all of the new parts was ..... get ready....$2,904.62!!! So on a bare minimum I'm at least into the bike for $3,800.
Jesus I thought, if my wife knew this I might have to include another $500 into that cost just for the new bed I would have to buy so I have something to sleep in at night. So, I now understand that if you want to make a couple bucks on building bikes, don't build it for yourself. lol Because I built it for myself, I literally went through everything and replaced and upgraded everything. Even if I didn't need to upgrade certain parts or replace them I did because I wanted this bike to run like it just came off the assembly line in 1979. I think I mostly succeeded in that goal because the bike really does run about as good as any newer bike but trying to sell it for what it would be worth just wouldn't be practical. Hopefully if I do sell it to someone who knows these bikes they’ll appreciate the time and parts put into it and at least see it’s value in what was spent.
So...if you want to make money on building these bikes (which I never planned on doing anyways), build shitty bikes with shitty parts, and as long as the current shitty parts work, keep the shitty parts because anything other than shitty costs money. lol Jeeezzeeee....
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