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how to sell a used scooter, part I

Published by Crystal October 4th, 2006 in scooters.

Ilene

Meet Ilene. If you’ve been a regular girlbike reader, you’ve already met her, and seen a lot of her, although not as much lately. She’s the 2003 ET2 that I bought after my Honda Metropolitan II was totalled. You’ve seen her with various windshields and with lower seats, with and without chrome, with box cases and soft cases. You’ve seen her almost stolen, and you’ve seen me fix her fuel tap.

I’ve stubbornly kept my ET2 for nearly a year longer than I really needed to, because I had the ulterior motive (or rather, secret wish) for my bf to suddenly embrace scooters as much as I have. He hasn’t. I also just love the darn thing so much that the thought of parting with her makes me feel guilty.

So as a result, my beloved Vespa ET2, Ilene, has done a lot of sitting around this past year. Off and on I’ve told people that I’m thinking of putting her up for sale, but I always hesitate when they ask me “How much do you want for her?”

What a silly question, right? If I put on my cut-throat salesperson hat (ha ha), I want as much as I can get. She’s in great condition and has been lovingly cared for. She has a brand new battery, and I keep her spiffy, clean, and polished. If I put on my I want good people to have good scooters hat, I think that if the right person came along who loved scooters and would take care of her and ride her all the time, I’d be more than willing to give them a good deal. After all, that’s how I got her. And she deserves to be on the road.

But where do I even start figuring out what to ask? I’m trying to be realistic. The current Kelly Blue Book value of a 2003 Vespa ET2 is a respectable $2,280, but real-world prices are often different (aka lower) than the Kelly Blue Book. I’ve added a bunch of upgrades - Malossi 70cc kit and a Sito exhaust to start with. That’s over $500 of stuff before labor costs, but some buyers don’t base purchases on these kinds of extras. Even more obvious accessories like cases and chrome will make a seller more money if they are sold separately.

Generally I check on eBay to see what items are going for, but there hasn’t been an ET2 for sale up there for quite awhile. (Doesn’t that make the price go up because it’s now “rare” and “hard to find”?)

She’s always had super-scooter powers, going over 50 mph stock, unlike others that tend to hang in the 40-something range. The upgrades help her get there faster.

Of course, I can’t put a dollar value on what she’s meant to me. She’s named after a friend who is my driving guardian angel, and has been therapeutic since even before I got her. She helped me grow my business, helped me learn more about titling scooters than I should ever have to know. She’s helped me to write more about scooters in the past two years than I had about bicycles in the previous 10.