I am constantly shopping for scooters, because it’s kind of my thing. Lately I’ve been doing it with a bit more purpose, as both Birddog and SpecsGTP need scooters for IdiotFest 2020 this September. Something weird has been happening though. Every single quality scooter in the 125-150cc range is getting snapped up almost instantly.
Take this jaunty orange Zuma as an example ... yes, it’s an uncropped screenshot, and no I don’t care ;). This thing had me contemplating selling my black Zuma 125 and buying this one. $2200 is a very strong number for one of these, but I have seen a few sell in the $2000 range in the last couple weeks, and this one looks to be low mileage and minty fresh. Well, within two hours the listing was marked pending, and by the end of the day it was sold.
Later that evening I spotted this clean Elite 125, that had just had a bunch of motor work done to it. Again, $1200 is a strong ask. I routinely see these Elite 125 and 150's sell for $900-1000 after they sit for sale for $1200-1500 for weeks on end.
Well, color me wrong again, because this one was marked sold within an hour of being listed. Check the time listed in the screenshot.
I then pulled up my saved listings to see what else had sold that day. This Kymco Super 8-150 (same model as my first scooter, just in a different color) had interested me at $1000. However the description of the ad read, “Some head damage from crash, but fixable.”
When I read that, and thought, “Drrrr ... good luck dude.” I figured I’d save that and watch the price drop over the coming weeks, and maybe score it as a cheap project in a month or two.
WRONG AGAIN! Sold within nine hours.
I have never seen the market like this, not even close. It actually has me contemplating selling my Zuma 125 at a nice profit, and either buying another one for 1/2 price in the fall, or putting the money towards a proper motorcycle.
I probably won’t do it, for a couple reasons. I genuinely love both of my scooters. Every time I ride my Zuma, I think, “I can’t get rid of this, this thing is the best.” Then I ride my Hooligan, and I think the same thing. I love them both so much, and I’ve been putting plenty of miles on both of them. Also, I promised my best friend, who lives out of state, that I’d make sure he had something to ride if he comes to IdiotFest. He has put it in his calendar, but since he’s in the Army, the government can change that at a moments notice. Such is life. So the Zuma will more likely than not stay in the fleet, but I have to admit that the idea of putting my stock parts back on, selling it at a profit, and them making even more by selling the hop-up parts ... the temptation is real.
I definitely regret not buying the Riva 180 we looked at a few weeks ago in Wisconsin. Sorting that carb would be a total biatch, but for the $300 asking price, I could make a nice profit off of that thing. Oh well!
Another interesting thing, is this hot market is decidedly not happening for the big touring scooters. There are loads of 250+cc Honda Elites, Helixes and Reflexes, Yamaha Morphouses and Majesties, and Suzuki Bugmans for sale in the $1500-2500 range. Some even cheaper. They’re hardly selling at all.
I bet there will be a lot of cheap scooters for sale in the fall!