Advice for someone looking to get into buying/selling motorcycles for profit? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Advice for someone looking to get into buying/selling motorcycles for profit?

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NiagaraRider

Well-known member
I suppose I'll give an introduction before I get into the serious business here.

My name's Cameron, and I'm an 18 year old soon-to-be college student. Ever since I was little I've been riding dirtbikes and minibikes, driving go-karts and golf carts, and basically just loving anything with an engine that goes quick.

My father owns a machine shop in the Niagara Region, and so I grew up around cars and motorcycles and boats. Now, this isn't to say that I'd like to follow his line of work - I enjoy it as a hobby, but I don't want to do it for 8 hours a day for 25 years and grow to hate it, so I refuse to try it. However, I have done a stint of auto detailing for a car dealership here, and I do like working with vehicles in general. Recently, I had the opportunity to purchase a 1999 GS500 in TO. I was hoping it'd be my first bike on the road, but of course, being naive and young, I completely disregarded insurance. Needless to say, the bike went, but not before I put some time and money into fixing stuff that was broken on it, polishing every square inch of it that could be polished, putting new handgrips, cleaning carbs, etc. Now, I ended up selling that bike for a profit (albeit a small one), and since then I've been wondering if there was actually any viable way to do this to make some money on the side while I go to college. I'll have a garage to myself, with tools and plenty of space to work with.

My question is this - is it worth it? Scanning Kijiji and Craigslist recently, I couldn't really find anything that would earn any reasonable profit, even with me being able to talk people down 15-25% of their original asking price. I'm not expecting 20 dollars an hour by any means. It's something I enjoy doing, and as such I'd be fine with working for less than minimum wage. Just something on the side to earn enough money for me to be able to insure my own motorcycle. I know a lot of GTAM members do some work on their bikes, and some even flip bikes like I plan to do. But is it really worth it? How often do you come across a bike that you can make money on? How often do you lose money? Any general tips on what bikes to buy / what to look for when buying?

Also, apologies for anything that doesn't make sense - been sick for the past few days. If you think this is bad, you should hear me speak!

Thanks for any input, look forward to reading the responses.
 
Of course there is profit. You have to know what kind of bikes sell and be good with estimating the cost of parts. You have to be willing to travel few hours away. You have to have your own truck or trailer. Anything aside from kijiji is a waste of time. You have to sit on it 24/7 and you have to "lowball" to get absolute lowest price. You have to grow thick skin and see through people's bullcrap. You have to be able to inspect a bike quick, in a matter of minutes. I would personally suggest always bringing someone with you to do the deal as well (safety, cool head, another pair of eyes, etc).

You will not get rich but you can make few thousand a year, no problem.
Same with cars.
 
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People do this and some make a LOT of money, but my impression is the guys that make large money are exceptionally well connected in the bike (internationally) world and have been for decades,

It could be an interesting suppliment but a living wage could be a lot of work.
 
Yes, these guys will generally pick up crashed bikes from the States and Quebec and they also get parts from wholesellers. Most of them are affilliated with mechanic shops.

Someone like OP though, could easily do a handful of bikes a year without too much stress and that should pay for his insurance.
 
Go big or stay home. You can make a buck or two by being opportunistic but if you want to make a reliable income from it you have to be a full scale operation.

Opportunistic means knowing the wholesale prices on bikes and parts and grabbing the odd deal when it comes along. The downside is that the deals are not always going to be there when you need money. Also you need a dealer licence if you sell more than a few vehicles a year. Government paperwork is a b****.

As noble as it sounds, doing what I enjoy, often leads to poverty. Look ten years down the road and being responsible for a spouse and kid, rent or mortgage, food etc. You can't guarantee you can just flip a bike and make the rent.

Going big means shop space and inventory. The economics are ridiculous.

A little thought. I bought my last bike from a guy that put himself through university by rebuilding carburetors. No massive shop required and a large geographic market due to cheap shipping. I'm not sure where the carburetor market is going but you get the gist.
 
Take into consideration how much your time is worth when fixing up bikes. You may have made money by adding up the numbers, but don't forget your labour. Time is money


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Valuable learning experience?
 
I have never done this, but it seems the profit comes from keeping costs low. Don't spend money or time on mods. Fix, get it running, clean it up & maximize any potential profit. Do not get personal with the bike. Good luck. My $0.02
 
You are well located for importing from US. Get beaters (not too beat) up here, get working and looking ok, sell.
 
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klr_guy said:
Spring isn't the time to be looking for bargains. Be active in the fall/winter and you could maybe make some coin for a Daytona beach spring break trip.
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+1.

I realize I am thinking small, but I've seen CBR125s for instance posted for ~$1000 in fall, which could easily sell in spring for $1500-$1800 without any additional work other than picking up, registering, storing (which still adds up quick).

Also seen a Street Triple in winter for $6000, now the cheapest on Kijiji is $8000..

If I was 18, mechanically able, didn't have much better things to do, I'd give it a shot. Any experience is experience.
 
Ugur Dinch said:
+1.

I realize I am thinking small, but I've seen CBR125s for instance posted for ~$1000 in fall, which could easily sell in spring for $1500-$1800 without any additional work other than picking up, registering, storing (which still adds up quick).

Also seen a Street Triple in winter for $6000, now the cheapest on Kijiji is $8000..

If I was 18, mechanically able, didn't have much better things to do, I'd give it a shot. Any experience is experience.
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Storing is no issue. Plenty of storage where I am with my parents right now, and I'm moving into a townhouse for college. It's a decent sized garage, and if I gave each motorcycle a nice amount of area in it, I could probably store 8 in it. The only issue is I don't want to get screwed over for being a dealer without having a license, etc. so I'll have to look into that. A truck could be handled, I think, or even a car with a trailer.
 
It all depends on if you can obtain a consistent supply of decent bikes for fix-up and reselling.

Try dropping a line to R1Timmay. He used to have a line on the supply side of things.
 
To the people being snide, I asked for useful input, which you seem fairly incapable of giving. I'd appreciate it if you refrained from wasting your own time as well as others by making a post just to be a troll.

To the people actually helping, thanks. I'm considering all of my options, and I don't see this as some ridiculous get-rich-quick scheme. Like i said, I only need about 2 grand a year off of doing this, and have 4 months every summer that I can do it for, as well as days off / reading week / etc. I'm going into Sales and Marketing, so it would be good experience for me to get into buying and selling, but it's not something I plan on raising a family on. I was thinking it might be best to buy cheap bikes from Ottawa area, bring them back here and fix them / sell them, as bikes seem to go for a fair bit cheaper over there. Anyways, just throwing ideas out there, I have seen posts of some of the members here doing similar things for a buck or two on the side, so I figured I'd ask their two cents.
 
NiagaraRider said:
To the people being snide, I asked for useful input, which you seem fairly incapable of giving. I'd appreciate it if you refrained from wasting your own time as well as others by making a post just to be a troll.

To the people actually helping, thanks. I'm considering all of my options, and I don't see this as some ridiculous get-rich-quick scheme. Like i said, I only need about 2 grand a year off of doing this, and have 4 months every summer that I can do it for, as well as days off / reading week / etc. I'm going into Sales and Marketing, so it would be good experience for me to get into buying and selling, but it's not something I plan on raising a family on. I was thinking it might be best to buy cheap bikes from Ottawa area, bring them back here and fix them / sell them, as bikes seem to go for a fair bit cheaper over there. Anyways, just throwing ideas out there, I have seen posts of some of the members here doing similar things for a buck or two on the side, so I figured I'd ask their two cents.
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FWIW, Buying low selling high is not something you can do on your terms (i.e. 4 months every summer etc.). Motorcycles tend to also be overpriced during the summer (Gee, i wonder why).

From someone who started off in sales & Marketing - you need to know 2 things: 1) English 2) Pounding the phones. The rest comes to you naturally provided you know #1 and can do #2.


If you really want to flip bikes, I suggest you look at bicycles instead as 1) there is a big market for higher end bicycles 2) no tax liabilities (fly under the radar) 3) low up-keep costs if you need to sit on them for a while.
 
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