TOPIC:

OMR, you're so totally right!

A couple of years ago I got tangled in this bidding war for a NOS Yoshi/Gemini system for my 440, thing was commisioned by Race Canada back in the 80's, then the order was cancelled/unpaid, so it wound up in a storage shed. I just got SLAUGHTERED!! Way too rich for my blood. But the seller had been watching the auction, saw that I was the first guy in by a couple of weeks and saw me get snowed under, (this was before bidders' ID's went anonymous) so he gets in touch. Turns out he was getting bids from Europe, Asia, every damn place in the world with more money than me, EVERYWHERE.

But he was an old school guy from New Orleans. Turned out that he'd picked up 2 of these, he'd already made a killing off of his deal through the sale of the first one, and he gave me the second chance offer for my final bid on the second. Only hitch was, he wanted to do the deal offsite, oh shit. So I send him an email, I say yes, (I'm pretty sure it's a scam, but when am I ever going to get this kind of a part again? Fuck it, I go for it). Now it turns out that he'd made a second chance offer to 2 of us and the other guy, rather than send the requested email, just hits "accept" so now the old biker dude has to sell the other guy the second Yoshi system.

Shit, shit, doubledy-shit.

Old biker dude apologizes profusely and promises to see if the crazy old engineer guy he scored them from in the first place has any more squirreled away. Turns out he does, two more as a matter of fact. I have the choice of Chrome or Gun Kote. I chose the Gun-Kote, sent the cash, clenched my asscheeks and prayed.

Two days later I get this weird email with a series of pics. Takes me a few minutes to realize that the pics are of a large crate in the back of an El Camino with Louisiana plates & the same large crate being processed through a courier's conveyor belt.

Got my system a little over a week later and it's my pride and joy. Some day I'm going to meet that guy and thank him for the email with the pics beforehand. WAY cool! Sometimes you just gotta Hail Mary it and hope for the best.

same thing here...i used to watch stuff for like week...checking all day etc...,or get in bidding wars with some chain jerkers..and get stuck with something i really did not need for a few bucks more than i needed to waste that week.....now mostly I've stopped watching the big bucks hot items stuff...and started this year doing buy it now/free shipping stuff only or...like others said...i see something that i know would be cool/not made anymore,or not worth- not trying- to toss a number at for luck...I bid say 60...then think if I would pay 60...would i pay 67 ??? etc...raise it once more and walk away...e-mails almost always say Sorry you did not win la la la........once in a while though ...BINGO

the watching and not winning is to Vegas strip blues like for me....

Enjoying my 1970's Motorcycle Mechanics textbook as we speak Killman.

You welcome to borrow it brother...

As long as it's not sitting on some dweebs shelf, unread and unused...

If you have a smart phone (android) you can download "Myibidder Auctions Sniper" for free. You set a max bid tell it to bid for you for the last 3-5 seconds, whamo-bamo you got your item on the cheap. I have a 90% success rate. Is it cheating maybe but it has saved me a ton of time and money.

Happier bidding awaits you sir! Technology is your friend.

Old Man Rock wrote: Bingo!
Last minute snipers (Seller):

Have had this happen a couple times now.... I said oh well, then a day or two later received an e-mail where the buyer backed out... Yeah right!

Seller writes " Buyer backed out so if you still want, still for sale at bumped price"
OMR replies "Still interested but at my last bidding price only otherwise stick it in your ass"
Seller "OK, send paypal"

Seriously I picket up the brand spanking new ZX6 front fender for 1/2 price and they paid shipping. Same with the ignition advancer I just recently picked, went from my $9 to $45 at the last moment... got it for $9 plus shipping ~$15 total)...

Just the way the game plays...

GO DAVE!!!!
Hope all is going well!'
ED

Since we're cursing out the online services, I'd just like to send a big finger to all the guys on craigslist who are posting new ads almost daily to buy up all the KZ bikes and parts. Seriously, there's about a dozen different ads just in the last two days in my local area. Ebay has been about the only resource for me to pick up any parts.

On the other hand, I did manage to grab two items recently... The first was a whole bike (missing previously mentioned parts), and the second is a half a bike that someone took a chop-saw to, but left me with all the parts I needed, including a spare engine, for $200.

Still... It drives me nuts. These guys are probably getting a lot of really great deals because the sellers have no idea people are looking for these parts. I haven't even seen any of these local buyers reselling anything, so who knows what they're doing with the stuff they collect?

Shdwdrgn wrote: Since we're cursing out the online services, I'd just like to send a big finger to all the guys on craigslist who are posting new ads almost daily to buy up all the KZ bikes and parts. Seriously, there's about a dozen different ads just in the last two days in my local area. Ebay has been about the only resource for me to pick up any parts.

On the other hand, I did manage to grab two items recently... The first was a whole bike (missing previously mentioned parts), and the second is a half a bike that someone took a chop-saw to, but left me with all the parts I needed, including a spare engine, for $200.

Still... It drives me nuts. These guys are probably getting a lot of really great deals because the sellers have no idea people are looking for these parts. I haven't even seen any of these local buyers reselling anything, so who knows what they're doing with the stuff they collect?

Hopefully they are building bikes.

kaw-a-holic wrote: Hopefully they are building bikes.

Well yeah, I would *hope* so... but I see way too many of these "We buy old cars!" guys all over the place, and what I'm afraid of is that they're just collecting scrap metal to send to the crusher.

Shdwdrgn wrote:

kaw-a-holic wrote: Hopefully they are building bikes.

Well yeah, I would *hope* so... but I see way too many of these "We buy old cars!" guys all over the place, and what I'm afraid of is that they're just collecting scrap metal to send to the crusher.

That's exactly what they're doing with the cars, I know several who do it to make a living.

Lot of guys looking for bikes are parting them out on eBay.

.

Wow that freaks me out. What a waste. At least if they are parting them out we get a chance to buy the parts.

I have seen those adds of people looking to buy KZs in the last couple years on CL. I assume thats why KZ prices a have more than doubled where i live. I bought my first KZ750four in 2004 for $900 bucks and it was absolutely cherry. a couple years later i got the KZ1000 very nice but not stock for $1200. now when i look at Craigslist i mostly see shitty KZ choppers and half assed cafe projects that don't even run listed for $4000 bucks. WTF.