deal or no deal? (a complaint, not a question!)

I'm constanly reading about great deals, or 'Should I Buy This Bike?" and i'm wondering why i'm getting so screwed up here in Alberta, Canada? I recently purchased an 81 750 seca for CAD$1350 (USD$1200), and I felt like that was a fair price. I come on here and read that if someone is asking USD$1300 (CAD$1450) in the states, it better be a smokin' good bike. I was kind of feeling screwed, so I searched again, a month after my purchase, to see if there was a better deal to be had locally, and I found this ad:

http://www.buysell.com/root/detail/Edmo ... 00kms.aspx

If the link doesn't work, or if you don't care to click it, it is an 83 750 maxim, for CAD$2400 (USD$2150) On the same site was an 82 XS650 for CAD$1900 (USD$1700). Those were the cheapest ones... Why am I getting screwed up here? I thought with the end of the riding season, and the start of the college/drinking season, they would be going for cheap...
I guess i'll just have to bend over and smile, because I love the city, and I love the country... sorry for wasting your time...

 

doesnt matter what time of the season it is in canada your gonna pay top buck!!, trust me i know ive bought enough bikes and been bent over more than once buying them. I live in one of the most southern towns in Canada and i get reemed here also, i mean ive seen some real pieces of s**t go for big bucks and guess what people pay it!!, the last bike i bought about 4 months ago 85 xj700n maxim i beat the guy down $500.00 and still got ripped off. and the thing has spent more time in the garage torn apart than i did riding it. seems like they pay alot less in the states for the same bike, ohh well maybe i should move to the states.

 

Before I bought the XJ, I looked at a Honda 750, 1980 i think, and the guy wanted $1200, I showed up, and i couldn't even test drive it, the throttle cable was broken. Other things I noticed, he didn't offer of course (the ad said EXCELLENT CONDITION) the master cylinder cover was held on with lockwire, safetywire, chickenwire, whatever you want to call it. It had been laid down, the exhaust was rusting off the bike, the side panels were falling off, and there was rust everywhere. I took one look, told him GOOD LUCK, and left, I came back later of course, to show it to my brother and have a second laugh.

 

The guys in the Southern states complain that the Northern states get the best deals.

There are not a lot of these bikes out there. I just did a search on eBay for all 1981 - 1983 Yamaha 750 class bikes. There are only 17. That's a very thin market. Local conditions can vary significantly.

Condition will also affect the value of these bikes. A lot of listings seem to be quite optimistic about the potential of the machines.

I paid $1000US for my 82 650 Maxim. I also popped another $200 to the seller as a goodwill gesture because he had $471 worth of work done on the bike after we'd agreed on the price.

In addition to the $1200 already mentioned, I've got another 200 in tires and minor repairs. So I've got $1400 in a pretty decent '82 650 Maxim.

Did I get the best deal anywhere? No. If I'd been willing to drive hundreds of miles looking at bikes to sort through the junk to find a good one I probably could have done better by a few hundred. I did, however, get the best deal available within 5 miles of my home near Detroit.

 

I got a steal on my bike - it was sitting for years. My brother bought the bike for 4 packs of cigs and I gave my brother a $30.00 guitar in trade. You could say I paid 30 bucks for my bike.

Now if you really wanna talk about getting hosed, let's talk about those hosers in the insurance business!

 

Well i dont know if bikes are any cheaper here in the southern states or up north i think it just depends on bein at the right place at the right time..with cash in hand...

 

I think that's a big part of it, being in the right place at the right time, especially with these older bikes. You hear of deals every so often of a guy getting a bike for $150-200 and all it needed was the carbs cleaned out, but if the bike is running and in good condition, and advertised on the net/classifieds/etc, I'd expect to pay from $1000 for a decent bike needing some work, to $2000 for a really nice one (and this is still talking about older Max's, I could see 85-86's or Max-X's going for more).

The used bike market is kind of a wierd thing...

 

My brothers old roommate bought an 81 seca 750 for real cheap (a couple hundred canadian) because it wasn't making power at all, and one day while filling the bikes up, my brother noticed him grab a rag out from the seat and wipe his tank and throw it under the seat again, right on top of the intake... My brother gave him the "what the hell are you doing?" they moved the rag, and that was the quickest, and easiest power boost EVER. I honestly don't know how you could miss seeing the intake port, but his defence was that the rag had always been there. His friend who had sold him the bike was pissed, and when later bought the bike back... for a thousand.

 

Served him right, I'd a nailed him for more for being dense!

 

Sound's like the pickup I bought that the guy thought the clutch was bad. He lived on a hill. I took it for a test drive and determine the clutch was fine...offered him half his asking price,with cash in hand...went home put in new fuel filter and voila....60,000 mile pickup truck for less than $700. Never told him cuz' I didn't feel right about stealing it out from under him.

 

Knowledge IS power!

 

A friend of mine just bought a 2001 Hyundai elantra for $500 because 'transmission was blown' The guy he bought it from said 2nd, 4th and Reverse work, but 1st 3rd and 5th don't. Turns out the bolt connecting the shifter to the transmission was bent, so the stick shift stops in the car were stopping the stick before it could get the car into the 'Up' gears. 8 cent bolt, 4 seconds later fixed!

As for the price of the bikes, I'm in eastern Canada, and bikes usually go for about $1 per cc, that being said as of recently, that has doubled. I paid 1200 for my 650 in decent condition, and that was a good deal for what was available at the time, and I had looked for 2 months to find it.

 

Hmmm.... maybe the skyrocketing economy is raising the price of bikes as well? When I lived there from 92 - 02, you could find older bikes pretty cheaply. I bought a GS550E for $700 with 38k on it, a GS1000S for $1500 (from a friend though), and an abandoned XJ900 for $500. A lot of the older bikes were sent off to Europe in the 90's by the container-load, which is why it is getting harder to find the older stuff. You can't go more than a couple of month in Classic and Motorcycle Mechanics magazine without some guy showing off his old 80's bike saying "It was a low mileage import from Canada (or the US)." They are paying new prices for old bikes over there. I don't know if the bikes still hang out at Tim Horton's on Whyte, but it shouldn't be that hard to find decent older bikes in Alberta. I known Johansen's (spelling) in Ponoka used to have a nice stock of older machines for sale. There used to be a car dealer on Stony Plain Road called Basic Auto Sales, which always seemed to have a bunch of old bikes out back for sale (they've gone a bit upmarket now though). Don't forget to drive by the police impound auction compound on Yellowhead Trail, across from the Harley dealer, on, I think, 124St. They always have some old bike coming up for sale there, The auction was on Thursdays though, when I left Edmonton, so it was hard for me to get to it.

 

Maybe if you ride your bike daily instead of driving your car...You can then equate the gas money you saved on buying the bike as opposed to driving your car...I dont know how it is in canada but gas here in ks is up way up its going going gone its out of the park ladys and gentlemen. Sounds like you did nt do to bad! next time you ride it think about the gas monies you are going to save and....The theraputic goodness you get from the ride...There is 2 money savers right there...ridz safe ridz 8) !

 

Fuel price in Canada In southern Alberta is $1.03 Liter. currently.

I got a deal on my XJ750 Seca, my brother owed me money over a bet(figured i would never get the money anyway).
And one day my brother decided to sell his bike, and had problems running/ idleing, it was poping out the exaust, so i tpld him he should give it to me for the money he owed me, and after cleaning carbs and new shorter electrod spark plugs, it runs great.

 

I paid $37.50 for mine, thats 37 dollars and 50 cents the price of a case of beer ...I got a great deal...you just need to find a drunk looking for cash

 

Yea, I agree with this. I live in Edmonton too - and just accidently bought a running 1982 Maxim XJ650 at a garage sale (off 23ave) for $270 (& a Starbucks Frappachino).

The wife was PO'd he bought it, and was sitting in their garage for the past 2 years.

Right place, right time.

 

I bought my 82 XJ650 last year from ebay for $750. Picked it up in upstate NY. Put tires on to pass inspection for about $300 and re-did the carbs over the winter. I think I got a decent deal all things considered.

 

Bought my 81 xj650 on ebay for $281USD. 4 months and another $300USD and it purrrrs like a kitten. Put 300 miles on it last weekend.