classen":244ernjj said:
incorrigible":244ernjj said:
if they don't sell, I'd be happy to keep them and continue looking at them indefinitely.
What exactly is your motivation for throwing all this chum in the water?
It sounds to me like you're not really interested in selling these bikes, and are just listing them on eBay with an exorbitant reserve in order to somehow justify the high price that you admit having paid for them.
I understand setting a reserve price so that you don't accidentally get caught in a situation where you are obliged to let them go for less than you feel they are worth, but I do not agree with the practice of setting a reserve at some astronomical price in order to flush out what the market is willing to pay... without being obligated to ever sell.
I personally would never bid on an item for which the seller was not willing to disclose their reserve price.
If you’re referring to my statement that I’m just as happy to sell them as I am to keep them, I’m not trying to throw chum in the water, and I didn’t mean to give anybody that impression; that was not my intent. I’m just telling it like it is; I like these bikes, and I’d be happy to keep them, but if someone wants to lay a bunch of money on me, I’d be happy to sell. A reserve simply gives me an option to sell if it’s not met, but it outright OBLIGATES me to sell if it IS met. Whether or not you agree with the practice, it is one of the principles upon which eBay was originally established: it allows an individual to sell to the highest bidder (or not) depending on what the market is willing to bear. Setting a reserve is a service that
I pay for, whether or not my item sells. It’s a free market economy wherein a seller can choose to sell and a bidder/buyer can choose to bid/buy without obligation, except under certain circumstances, one of those circumstances being a reserve auction. Whether or not I set a reserve price is my choice to make, and whether or not you bid is entirely your choice. Whether or not it’s customary for a seller to disclose their reserve is not my concern; I’ve never been one to bend to peer pressure, especially when I’m operating well within the established rules. In addition, I’ve bid on plenty of auctions that I didn’t know the reserve, and if the reserve wasn’t met, I simply came to terms with the fact that I obviously chose not to pay as much as a seller was willing to sell for.
If you’re referring to all the pics I posted here, I was merely attempting to illustrate the amount of care that I had already put into these somewhat neglected and/or forgotten bikes when I first got them.
I know of a retrobiker that posted one of his bikes on this site in response to someone’s “bike wanted” ad, and then posted something to the effect that “I have one of them, here’s a picture of it, but no, you can’t have it”, whereas I, on the other hand, am actually giving someone an opportunity to buy what I have. I don’t see how giving virtually the entire free world an opportunity to buy these bikes is a bad thing.
In my auction description, I was trying to impart the fact that I paid a lot of money for them when I used the term “stupid high”, but I don’t mean to imply that I have any regrets at all for the price I paid, because I don’t. Now that I think about it, though, I probably should have phrased that differently in my auction description because, again, I don’t want to give the wrong impression.
I have been a collector for only a few years now, and I’ve only sold bikes that I have determined were too big for me. I’ve bought about 4 dozen bikes in the last 3 years, and I’ve sold only 4. I’m a collector and an end-user, and some might say I’m a hoarder, but I’m not a dealer. I’ve even bid on items for other people that are not able to do so, and then I took the time to re-package and re-ship those items because the seller was not willing to ship to the buyer’s location, and I did that FOR FREE.
One thing I’ve never done is lament the price of a bike. Quite the contrary, in fact; I’ve lamented the few times that I let a bike I could afford get away from me because I did not bid as high as I could have, or I did not offer a seller on Craigslist a few more dollars to hold a bike for me until I could drive across town to get it. Just last month I spent all day (14 hours) driving to and from Las Vegas for
ANOTHER 1990 Alien that had about 10 miles put on it before it was parked years ago, and I think I spent as much money on gas as I did on the bike, but I have no regrets. I was willing to put in the effort to get it because I wanted it. Anybody else that wanted it that wasn’t willing to put in the effort missed the opportunity. What I DIDN’T do was to offer less than the asking price, or complain about the time or the distance involved in getting it. The reason I have these NOS bikes to begin with is that I was willing to do what
most people
aren’t willing to do.
When I had an opportunity to buy these bikes, I jumped at the chance because I thought I’d never see bikes like these ever again (I’ve been scouring the internet several times a day EVERY day for about 3 years now). Because they were NOS, however, I thought it would be a sin to ride them, so they have remained hidden from the world. As it turned out, I was lucky enough to find exact copies (same size, model, parts) of these bikes that were used (one of them being that other 1990 Alien mentioned above), and I can ride those used bikes without feeling that I’m irreparably damaging a part of history, so suddenly I don’t feel as strongly as I once did about keeping these NOS bikes that I will never ride.
I will say that one of the reasons that I chose to list them all right now is that Paypal wants me to submit to monitoring of all of my transactions beginning January 1st, and the only reason I can think that they want to do that is so that the IRS can tax me on any payments I receive thru Paypal. I don’t mind paying taxes (I pay a lot of taxes already as it is), but let’s be honest, if I can save money by selling before the deadline, why wouldn’t I?
In any case, I’d say it’s a safe bet that I was right about the ability of 30 lbs of material to stir the emotions.
