Sorry for the "newb" questions as of late. I'm about a week or two from pulling the trigger and I've got some last minute jitters.

Long story short, I've sort of got an "in" at the National Powersports Auction in San Diego- a friend of a friend who knows a guy type thing. I hear a lot of good things, but does anyone have experience buying in this manner? It's supposed to be for dealers only but again, I know a guy...It sounds like basically, the day before the auction, you do a walk around, pick the bikes you want to bid on, set your max price and give your list to a buyer. The buyer bids for you the following day and then you find out what bike you won. I keep hearing a lot of talk about "wholesale" prices.

The questions are these: Does anyone know what the "wholesale" price is on a Harley or how much dealers make off of markup? Is it only a difference of like $1000 or do you think i could roll out of there with a 2008 Street Bob for $5000 or something. Has anyone bought like this before? Do you think this is hand's down the way to go or would I be better off searching Craigslist and the forums for used bikes?

 

I used to put bikes we couldn't sell, or just didn't want to put our name to in the auctions....all the repo and crash disposal's end up there too.

Bottom line, if you really know what you are looking at you could take a risk but the difference between a well-haggled private buy and dealers wholesale isn't very much...if anything and you get no come-back and bugger all time to assess the bike.

I am also suspicious of these buyers...their job is to increase their commission...OK, I'm an old cynic but you did ask!

 

Thanks for the reply Spanners. Anyone else?

 

Wouldn't hurt to go look. Find what you want and give them your max price. I'm sure you will be able to tell what kind of shape its in. May get a great deal

 

Don't let greed get the better of you. Why shop from among the dogs that wound up needing to go to auction? It is a buyers market, and you can find sensational deals from private sellers on clean, low-mileage cream-puffs, if you are willing to perform your due diligence.

 

Go look dude. Not every bike gets traded to Harley dealers. People have them repo'd and trade them in on cars also.

 

That's the risk. If I could just go look and leave I'd be up for it, but it's pretty much money at the door, look around, pick your favorites and let the bidder take it from there. Of course I could set my max price pretty low and just see what happens, but it's still like $200 for bidder fees so I'd prefer to ride away with something and not just throw $200 away. I'm hitting the Harley dealer today to test ride a couple of other bikes so I wonder if they'd have any insight, though i doubt they'd willingly tell me to go buy from someone else.

 

I have a buddy that's been looking for an '06 creampuff e-glide. So far no luck.

 

Just saw a 07 Street Bob on yakaz.com for 7000. Apes, pipes etc on it.

 

I just picked up an 08 for 8g's, extended warrenty, and a good deal of extras already payed for. My experience with auctions has been limited to just checking out cars on the lot. My brother is a dealer and when I go home I often check out what is in the sea of cars the have available. I don't know if its the same way but the keys should be available and you should be able to give it a good shake down. I have never heard of having to front money. Everyone has auctions fees, but to my knowledge theese are paid at the end of the auction not at the beggining. But this might be the deal that your friend of a friend got. As for screaming deals I know for a fact that my brother is happy to turn cars for a profit of $500 and up after all the fees are paid on your average cars and 1g and up on lux cars. Bikes I have no clue as he doesn't deal with them (maybe for a good reason). I do know though in any deal you make you get what you pay for, you might get somebody's babied repo or you might get a lemon. Every bike or car I have bought without riding/driving first has always had some problems.