Several years ago I sold a couple of bicycles through Kijiji and both were successful sales with no safety or security issues. Well now I’m selling another one and I cannot remember what I did the previous time when potential buyers would take them out for a test ride, in terms of preventing a theft.
There’s a very good chance that a buyer would show up in a car and I could ask for his car keys during a test ride. Do any of you have any other suggestions or recommendations? What if a prospective buyer comes by bus? Do I ask him for a credit card, as a private citizen?
I’ve never sold a bicycle to someone I didn’t know, but I have sold a few motorcycles.
Here’s what you do, if you must offer them a chance to test ride the bike – you offer a 15-minute warranty. That is, you take their money, you give them the bike, and you tell them that they have the option to return it within 15 minutes for a full refund.
Also, you shouldn’t have anything to do with credit cards. Or checks, certified or otherwise. Cash is what you should take, and only cash.
Of course, with a motorcycle, that brought up all kinds of insurance issues, but I would at least ask to hold their license along with the money. But it should work for you.
The 15-minute warrantee and similar methods does however mean you have to fully negotiate the price before the test drive/ride. Which is often impractical.
For a bicycle I’d just keep his/her driver’s license. Unless this is a $10,000 bicycle, nobody is gonna come pre-equipped with fake ID planning to steal your bike.
Not necessarily. You say something like “full asking price in cash for test rides, you crash it you buy it” but they can still dicker once they bring the bike back.
Unless there are now titles for bicycles (and, given the insane prices of some of them, that might be a good idea), demand a security deposit.
Car or cash - if car, demand the title - if somebody wants to steal your bike he isn’t going to leave his car - and, as long as he has the title, he can PROVE it is his car. Can you PROVE it is (was) your bike?
All of these “hold his license” ignores one simple thing - you have his license. He wants it back. What is the cop going to say?
Don’t even think of credit card unless you are a licensed merchant with a credit card processing agreement.
Another vote for cash (NEVER, EVER USE PAYPAL) in hand - bring full price. Return the bike in same condition, and we discuss final price. Ding it, and I decide final price.
That sentence is so wildly ambiguous I can’t make sense of it. But I think you’re suggesting the cops will automatically side with the crook, not the seller. BS, IMO.
When I as seller call the cops to report my bike was stolen and I have the identity and address of the thief things go pretty smoothly. Certainly the bad guy will have some alternate story. But I have an ad on craigslist for the bike, and I have his DL. How else did I get it? Maybe his story is that he paid for it and I refused to return the license. So how come I’ve still got his car sitting at my house? In all it doesn’t much matter what cockamamie story he comes up with, it won’t match enough of the facts on the ground to be plausible.
The other thing is that holding the DL is mostly about deterrence, not about follow-up after an actual theft. IOW, keeping the marginally honest people honest. There’s no way to safely sell anything to a professional crook unless you’ve got a cop standing there and a video camera running the whole time.
I’ve actually sold a recumbent bike on eBay (and asked for payment in advance with Paypal). There are disadvantages to this approach- eBay and PayPal commissions total about 12%. Also, eBay bidders seem to be a bit confused about “local pickup only” - the winning bidder on one of my other auctions hoped that I’d “mail” a dozen kitchen cabinets to Georgia. Even so, I’d recommend eBay as an option.
What better way for the owner to have confidence that the test-driver isn’t going to go around riding it like a fool and an idiot than make it rather uncomfortable for said driver to attract the attention of the police?
I’ve sold two bicycles using Craig’s List. In neither case did I ask for anything before they did a test ride. One bike sold for $500 and the other for $150. I did bring one of my other bikes and rode along during the test rides.
Some local police departments are actually encouraging deals like this to take place in their parking lots in view of their cameras. I would think that would discourage most would-be thieves.
Not that there’s anything wrong with cash, but what are the issues with PayPal? How easy it for a buyer to reverse a transaction once you confirm that you’ve received the money?
But when it was my motorcycle, it was my call. I wasn’t letting someone take off on a $10,000 motorcycle, registered and insured in my name, without giving me $10,000 in cash and letting me hold their license.
Nobody ever balked, and I sold, if I remember right, three bikes that way.
Afterthought: Of course, in these days of smartphones, you could just take a picture of the license, and the buyer, too. That actually isn’t a bad idea.
I care (at least when we’re talking about motorcycles, not bicycles) because the bike is still registered, titled and insured in my name. There are likely to be liability repercussions if the prospective buyer does anything really stupid.
Even in the incredibly unlikely scenario that you not only get pulled over, but pulled over by a total dick cop who won’t let you go a few blocks to retrieve your license, a “no proof of license” ticket is usually pretty cheap. If you’re so risk-averse that you aren’t willing to risk it, you’re probably not going to be test riding a motorcycle in the first place!