Ridiculous used prices around here!

[Swordsman]

Man, I dunno what the deal is, but about 90% of the Craigslist ads in my area for used Chinese scooters are priced the same as or even higher than the cost of a brand new purchased online. I'm talking bikes that are 5 years old, and ridden! It's totally bizarre. Prices for better-known scoots (Genuine, Kymco, SYM, etc) show standard depreciation. What gives?

~SM

[cookees]

I guess they're hoping to find the "one born every minute" that P.T.Barnum referred to.

[thumper650]

We have bunch of those in Boston on CL as well. I think cookees is right, they're hoping for somone who doesen't google anything.

[ckizer]

Yes they are terrible! I notice they are worse in rural areas where people don't use computers or CL for everything. I found deals on East and West coast, but come to the midwest where the economy sucks people value there old scooter with upgrades for almost a thousand dollars. Some guy was furious when I told everyone who was looking at his scooter that they could get the same thing online brand new for $30 cheeper if they wanted to put it together.

It really makes me angry. I worked for ebay (which owns craiglist, on kijiji, the european craiglist. We were starting to put a system in when you advertised something it tried to find the average price and if you tried to sell something for $1000 that we valued at only $200 the consumer would see a big alert with link to average prices. This way everyone knew what they were getting in too.

Often I email people on craiglist and post a link to target or walmart where the new item is cheeper or same price. I can't stand jerks who try to screw people over.

[inuyasha]

Hi
Any one can ask any price for their items, getting it is something else
Prices for new and used scoots are low imho and quite nice in my area
http://newhaven.craigslist.org/searc...inAsk=&maxAsk=
Take care and ride safely
Yours Hank

[wheelbender6]

They do the same thing on my local CL. Sellers are hoping that the buyer will not do their homework and will not know the difference between scooters made in China and Taiwan.

[spandi]

Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but according to CNN, Chinese scoots are now seen as an "alternative" fashion statement, totally rad and hip, and are commanding prices like a Gucci bag.

[jct842]

I find that any where that has free advertising you find much higher prices. When some one has to pay a fee to list, they are more motivated to sell. There are some auction sites that might have 50 or more items listed before you have one with a single bid on it and the prices for the most part are more than you can buy the same item at a legitimate on line seller.