Topic: Noticed how prices for parts on ebay are going up?

[Master Ted]

I've been tracking parts for quite sometime and they are moving up, considerably. Purchasing a parts bike is on my radar screen for fear these increases may get out of hand. Are these bikes becoming more collectable?

[redips]

I believe a lot of people are begining to take an interest in these bikes. Carpy may have something to do with this along with
the steady flow of CB 750 publications. Check out "Motorcycle Classics" and other bike magazines.
Retro is definately in!
Have you also noticed the increase in price for a complete bike?
Can't even begin to tell you how man people ask me about the bike when I'm at an intersection or gas stop. The saying always usually
starts with ... "Hey, what year is that?"  and "Cool bike".
What's even cooler is the expression on peoples faces when you kick start 30 year old bike and its running on the first try.
Gotta love it!!!

[techy5025]

If you had a storeroom full of anything that is painted for a K0 plus a few original
ignition switches, you would be a rich man. 

Oh forgot...some no-number pipes! 

Jim

[75750SS]

I think the surge in gas prices last year has a lot to do with it.  People (me included) are dragging their old bikes out and getting them running again.  There was a guy in California that did mostly a vintage parts business, but switched to repair and servicing of old bikes for this reason. I've noticed when parts are advertised locally, they disappear quickly.

[WJL75]

I bought my 76 550K in late summer for around $600 and was just told that I could sell it for $1700 by the guys at my local garage.  There is definatly more of an interest.  I too have noticed on an increase on eBay.  I keep getting outbid on parts that used to be relatively cheap, even though my max (I think) is set high.  It seems like prices have gone up a lot more in the past two months especially.

[techy5025]

I find it amusing that you can buy an entire engine in good shape for what the
airbox costs on a K0...one went for over 600 bucks a few days ago on eBay!

The problem with most parts bikes is that all the good parts are mostly gone
by the time they are declared parts bikes.

Jim

[supersport_CB400F]

You would hate to have to pay UK prices! 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-CB400-F-400-4-MOTORBIKE_W0QQitemZ230084172438QQihZ013QQcategoryZ9806QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[xtalon]

I think it's single handedly been caused by me....  ever since I bought the CB.   Why didn't someone warn me this is addictive?!?!?!   

[dusterdude]

that may be true,but where are the bikes these parts are for,ive had my bike for a little over 2 years and i never see any of these bikes on the road.

[ProTeal55]

As anything else, a part is only worth what someone wants to pay for it.
I have sold things on Ebay for 5 times what I originally listed it for, because two people got into a bidding war over it.

I do feel the prices of these bikes are gonna keep going up, with the new "thing" being retro is cool..

[BruceA cb550]

I run pods on my 550 but still have the original airbox.  Don't really want to get rid of it but for $600 I can have it in the mail today.

[Geeto67]

ebay can be really funny soemtimes. I have been tracking sandcast gauges for a while now and here is what I noticed. Individually they were selling for $300 average with another $120-$150 for that top tree. But recently two gauges (albeit the tach was broken) with the top clamp sold for $300 total. It all depends on the need. In the 1990s you couldn't give SOHC hondas away now they are worth more than some late model used bikes.


And BTW retro has always been a part of pop culture. In the 1950s collecting 1920s and 30s cars and motorcycles were big, in the 1960s it was 1940's style hot rods based on 30's cars, in the 1970s 50's nostalga had started to kick in, in the 1980s the muscle car boom began to hit and brit bikes were popular again, in the 1990s 1970's culture made a comeback, and it is bleeding into the 2000s.

[eldar]

There are 2 reasons our prices are going up.

1: They are becoming more scarce. As I have said before, parts will dry up no matter how well they are designed.

2: people are tired of the cruiser crap. They want something different.

[BobbyR]

It may also be that are bikes so many bike have been stripped for a quick buck rather than being restored the numbers are falling and of course the prices will come up. In the past two seasons, my bike has been getting more attention. Especially from sport bike guys. HD owners are in some other World.

[736cc]

Buy a new latest-and-the-greatest (sport or cruiser) Jap bike for $8,000-12,000 and in 1 year its a has-been and you'd be lucky to get half that. Sorry, thats not for me.
Buy a classic SOHC CB750, put some time and money into restoring it, you own a great rider, take pride in it, put it in bike shows, garner complements everywhere it goes, and its almost always worth more than you got in it. Plus you get to mess around with an icon. CB750's will NEVER be over-rated.

Ebay a double-edged sword; good parts prices are sometimes up but if your selling thats obviously not a bad thing. Bargains are always to be had if you dig. Think outside the box when searching.
You know, only 8 years ago or so, before internet got popular the only way to get parts was thru magazines, many phone calls to junkyards, mail-order funds, things bought sight-unseen w/o pictures and process took months.

[techy5025]

Someone could probably make some money...even considering the cost of
the dies, etc....to make a really good copy of the K0 guage cases with plastic
lenses and the guage faces...not stick on appliques...real replacement faces in
the correct color.

And don't try to "improve" them...just make them identical. Most of the time
the internals are fine, but the cases are cosmetically bad.

Jim

[736cc]

Dude in Japan is making the plastic K0 gauge shells; $250 a pair.

[chung]

I noticed 8 years ago that people were selling CB parts at STUPID prices. I don't mean just stupid-high, I mean stupid-low too! $800 for a small KO part is ridicules but $12 for a virgin K6 wiring harness is just as bad.
I'm sure that it led to a lot of good parts and bikes, being thrown in the dumpster from the attitude that "I just got one off Egay for $12." So why bother, I just pitched a lot of stuff myself just because it wasn't perfect and I was not going to bother with trying to sell it for $4.
Now I notice that a lot more K7-K8s are being restored because that's all that's left? All the K1-6s have either been saved or robbed of their parts
I saved enough to build 2 more 750s and enough engine spares to last the rest of my life, good luck to all, buy it before it goes the way of American Muscle Cars..... "still affordable at $75,000

[ProTeal55]

buy it before it goes the way of American Muscle Cars..... "still affordable at $75,000

I agree 150% !
Musclecars and the entire hobby has got out of control.
If you watched the latest Barret - Jackson auction u know what I mean.
I was lucky enough to pickup my 55 Bel-Air a few year ago before the "craze" really hit.
Good thing is that I can always sell it for a profit, bad thing is I dont have the $$ to do what I want to it.
So - I am just gonna drive it 

[Geeto67]

Not to sound snarky but - the thing that really gets me is the amount people complain on message boards (not directed at anyone in particular) about how expensive ebay is and then when you offer a deal for parts on those message boards nobody steps up to the plate to buy. My point is the premium that is paid on ebay is there because ebay gets to a larger target market than any of these message boards can.

The best way to combat ebay prices is to use the classified sections of the message boards more.

[Raul CB750K1]

It may seem stupid, but I think some part of the drive in prices is this forum. There is more than two thousand people registered, and probably some more lurkers. This forum has spread the interest in this bike because people find here good vibes and good advice, and encouragement to put that old bike on the road. Get two people rebuilding a similar bike at the same time and looking for parts at the same time and you have a recipe for disaster.

I belong to the spanish-made Sanglas club. We are just a few guys, are in touch via the club forum and agree not to overpay for parts. There are ads for parts bikes going like 4.000 euros -for a 400 cc thumper- but only the unwary would buy them. Buyers beware. We leave the club to buy the cheap parts bikes and then we buy the parts at reasonable price: Fork ears 10 euros, headlamp 25 euros, fork rubbers -made to order- 25 euros, handlebar 10 euros etc.


My father-in-law was a shepherd before he retired. When he had lambs to sell -four times a year- he would go to the market every sunday. It's like an autojumble: sellers expose the goods and buyers lurk and ask here or there. If they want they buy. But the last four years he complained the prices of lambs had dropped, even in Christmas. I asked him why? He told me buyers had agreed not to pay more than a given amount on any lamb. Why don't you shephers agree not to sell any lamb under a given price? Because that would mean bringing the lamb back and the next sunday it will be bigger and therefore cheaper. But shepherds need buyers and buyers need shepherds. If all the shepherds don't sell a single lamb a sunday it would be catastrophic!! Restaurants wouldn't have lamb to serve and they would loose customers! Keep it a couple weeks and you will have the dealing hand. He replied that he knew the rest of the shepherds for years and they had a feeling of competition, other losses was always your gain, so there was no way to reach an agreement between the shepherds....

[toycollector10]

My son say to me the other day, "Dad, if you have an accident on that bike (K0 diecast) you are going to have a serious depressive mental episode."   

Or words to that effect...And it's probably true.     

Lord help me if I have to replace my tank, side-covers and gauges with NOS or else in similar condition.

Well, that feeling has kicked in again, here I am typing about the bike but the sun is shining, it's warm to hot out there, so I'm off over the Summit Road for coffee down at the beach.

[mick750F]

   I agree with Raul that this forum may have a part in rising prices. There is a lot more activity here than there was on the old Greenspun forums and the participants cover a wider demographic in just about every way. In a way it's like that little, out of the way place that only a few people know about. One day it gets discovered and it's never the same again. Kinda like where I live now....Combine that with how great these bikes are, how easy they are to work on, how fairly easy the parts are to come by because they made so many of them, added exposure in the media, people like Carpy getting press and the general nature of capitalism and you get prices that will make some of us sick...the buyers, and make some of us very happy...the ones who make money from it. I'm one of the sick ones...

Mike

[OldSchool_IsCool]

I also think there are a fair number of forty, fifty even sixty-somethings that want to recapture their youth by getting their hands on the bike they road when they were young.  Couple that with generous retirement settlements and/or a killing in real estate when they sell the home they raised their family in, and POOF! short supply meets high demand!

[heffay]

i think it is just dumb people afflicted with what i call the ebay disease...

example: i bought a brand new dyna S ignition for 110 shipped to my door
i watched an auction the other day for the same ignition USED... some dummy paid 150 bucks
that means they paid 40 dollars more than me and got no warranty and a part that could be as old as 30 years.