TOPIC:

I've not had any KZ stuff to sell but I've parted out Hondas over the last 3-4 years and made good bux, especially on the pre-1970 bikes. Most of the items went for serious money so I was pretty happy. You folks in the USA, as mentioned by SandRacer, should definitely sell worldwide....or at least Canada/Europe/Australia/Japan. You get a lot more action on any given item.....and a simple customs declaration form is pretty easy to fill out when you're at the post office.
Heck, I even sold a frame to a guy in San Diego, shipped it to him with no probs and then helped him get a title through the CA DMV. It took about 1 month altogether but he was a seriously happy camper at the end of it all.

I get outbidded on ebay all the time. Ebay is frustrating for poor ppl.. lol.. HOWEVER, in my disgust for ebay, I decided to use a junkyard for a gas tank on an 82 Honda. SAC cycle in Sacremento.. Hope nobody here works there. Told him i was looking for a rust free tank, they sent one. But it wasnt rust free. It was worse than the one i had on that was leaking. The inside looked like a volcano erupted and it was littered with dents and dings. I sent it back. THEN, they gave me the runaround for a month and a half, told me they shipped another one out, the parts guy forgot to pull it, the paint guy forgot to paint it, and the shipping guy forgot to ship it. After 2 months i finally got another tank from them with 5 coats of what looks like household paint on it, and the inside still has rust.. 200$ after shipping it back and forth.. And all the while 2 tanks sold on ebay for half and price and twice better condition.. I got screwed, but i only screwed myself..So as much as i hate ebay, i will be using them again..
By the way, still looking for a harness for an 82 KZ550 A3..

I bought my LTD 1000 on e bay, it wasnt mech, as advertised but still didnt think it was that bad of a deal, a little work and few parts later, and then some more parts, I think I have put another 1000 into it since,
But

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I like the bike

I just did a count and it looks like I've bought 10 bikes off ebay. Of those 10 I only got screwed on one, I bought a 550 LTD that was advertised as having a starter problem that turned out to have a pooched engine. Luckily I happened upon a member here that had a spare 550 engine for sale so in the end it worked out OK (thanks again Shoe 48). All in all for me Ebay has not been too bad.

My bike was built by eBay. Dammit. And as things went along, I ended up selling quite a lot of stuff too. The market for the 900/1000 stuff is just steady and salvageable or better stuff sells very well. I made a lot more than I thought I would -- there is the typical late run-up in price, a lot of which you can predict based on number of people "watching".

I had very good experiences with all my deals - most disagreements come down to condition "surprises", so good pics are important.

If you had time on your hands and space (and wife approval) to do it, you could definitely clear money by buying junkers and parting 'em out.

If you are selling. Put "Eddie Lawson" in the description. You'll get 5 times the money for it.

OEM NOS handle bar switch that I bought for $68.00. I sold 2 weeks ago for $405.00...

Richard Z.

Agreed, GOOD pics make a huge diff!
And the better the description of the part and it's condition is, the better chance you have of selling it.

Over the past few years I've only had a few purchases go south on me. I completly got screwed out of my money auction. Another was an item that was supposedly shipped but I never received it, and then was replaced with a damaged item. The most recent (about 2 years ago) was an item stated as "rust-free" and in "useable" condition - it was neither. The seller did end up refunding all of my money, but I had to resort to leaving him bad feedback and filing a complaint.

I chock up not having any problems/issues as a seller to providing plenty of info, part numbers if available and their application(s), being prompt in answering questions before/during/after an auction, and of course shipping quickly.
I've never charged a handling fee, so that may factor into it as well.

Within a 2 & 1/2 week period I watched 3 diff KZ650 seats in fairly equal condition sell for vastly diff prices. The first sold for about $22, the second sold 4 days later for almost $150, and the third one that ended a week later brought $43.
Seasonal does play into it, but I think it's a gamble anytime you list anything - sometimes you cash in BIG time, and other times you barely break even.

About 4 years ago I bought a '77 KZ650 basket case from a guy locally. I kept the wheels, brakes, oil cooler, frame (gave that to Mark Wing), and the cases.
The rest I listed on ebay, and ended up pocketing almost $700!
Did the same with the '82 GPz750 I drove over 500 miles round-trip to get for about $119.
Made enough on eBay that I not only recouped what I paid for the bike, but also enough that it paid for the trip itself and I still made about $200 on top of that!
Sometimes it's a buyers market, sometimes it's a sellers. AFAIC it's just like gambling, you just never know when you're gonna hit it big.

As R4 mentioned, part numbers and applications can be a big part. Here is where the Kawasaki Cross Reference pays off. Kawasaki is famous for using existing parts rather than reinventing the wheel for each new model.

A part from a common bike might also fit on very rare (read collectable) models. As an example, I had a gauge mount from an F8 that was also used on the early H1. It sold at a good price.

I always try to provide a good accurate photo(s) but strive to not have the item look better in the pic than in real life. I would much rather have the buyer pleasantly surprised.

neilage66 wrote:

I've had great experiences with limited buying and selling on ebay. There are still deals to be had despite what some believe. Met some nice folks too...like the pilot who flew from Minnesota to Wisconsin to pick up a Vetter fairing I sold him on ebay. He brought his daughter and a lady friend along. Or the guy who drove up from South Chicago with his little girl to pick up the 900 pipes I sold awhile ago. And there's also a lady that emails me pictures of her deceased husbands 900 that she is fixing up to sell sometime soon.

Wireman: "A friend in need is a friend indeed"

the wife just headed out the door with a box for ya,2 3 ohm dyna coils and a factory shop manual for ya ill send ya the tracking # later.its 77-78 manual but it has a 79 section in back.it should work for most things you need to know,if you come acrossed an actual 79-80 manual down the road give the 77-78 manual to someone else who can use it;)

I love ebay!!

The only bad experience I had was when paypal started doing the e-check stuff. I got an email saying that the buyer was paying for the item, so I went ahead and sent the item even though the payment didn't process directly into my account yet. Two days later the buyer cancelled the payment but I already had sent the item. Never heard from him again. But I suppose it was my bad for not paying enough attention, and it was just a cheap brake caliper that didn't work well anyways, haha.

Other than that, yeah, I built my bike from ebay and have survived college by selling anything I could on ebay

Alright, all my auctions closed for mostly kz stuff. i made about 700 dollars. Good lord. I've been sitting on this stuff for a long time. I still have a shed full of things similar to these. I'm gonna be posting a lot more.

I was surprised by these sales:

uncleaned, unhoned engine block. $41
item 250116069509

dented up little front fender. $21
item 250116877769

front fender i'm not sure even goes to a kz. $43
item 250116429267

crank. 100 dollars

tranny. $92

cases. $102

crappy old tank. Bad paint, some rust.$41
item 250116899619

incomplete kz head. $152
item 250116891675


anyway, i'm surprised. Also, i dropped kzrider.com to like a dozen people on ebay getting stuff for their bike.

Edit: Formatted URLs for readability - Nate

Post edited by: N0NB, at: 2007/05/25 19:07

So, I've got some FZR electrical components on ebay right now (finally got around to parting out the carcass after the seized oil pump a couple years ago) and just got a pleasant shock when one of them (CDI) jumped from the $52 it's been sitting at for the past 3 days to $102.50, with 6 hours still left in the auction! The kicker is, if you search for FZR600 CDI the auction right below my listing is still sitting at 19.99 and has had no bids for it's 5 day run so far. I can't figure it out, but I'm not complaining!!!