Few months ago, a friend of mine went back to Bulgaria to explore a development opportunity in his line of work and left his Super Tenere motorcycle and title with me in case he decided never to come back. Well, things worked out professionally and romantically for him, and he's never coming back. He instructed me to get a certain figure for him, and that I could keep any amount above that figure.
Would have bought it myself, except nothing about this bike spoke to me at all. So, I listed it on several different platforms including Craigslist. A lot of people responded, and I did my best to stage multiple encounters on a particular day that I actually had free time. This being Craigslist, I did everything I could to make the prospective buyers feel as comfortable as possible, and make all terms as clear as possible.
One individual who responded called me from a fairly infamous used car dealership around here. I pretty much ignored him, but he was incredibly insistent. I didn't like that he was a used car salesman, working for a car dealership to which a visit requires wiping your feet on the way out. Felt it was going to be a complete waste of time to deal with him, but business is business. On the day I would be seeing buyers, I arranged for him to come the earliest , so I could get that out of the way.
He started texting me early that morning that he was borrowing a truck from a friend so he could haul the bike back with him to South Miami. This man had no car, and likely no driver license. He revealed that he had just started working at the dealership and needed a way to get to work. I nearly cancelled with him.
At the appointed time, I rode the bike over to the shopping center where we agreed to meet. When I showed up he was just standing outside, and there was no truck matching the description he gave in the entire lot. Weird. He looks the bike over, and approved of the bike and price. We shook hands and he asked for the title. Given that I'm sitting on a motorcycle, and he has no vehicle in sight, I recommended we sit in the Starbuck's behind me and fill out the title and bill of sale. He looks at me with disgust and says, "Hey man! I don't know you!".
A little Stranger Danger is probably healthy when dealing on CL, but for real? If I'm going to rob or slaughter someone in the middle of a busy Starbuck's, an open parking lot is probably not going to dissuade me.
So he says he'd like to ride it first. OK. So you can't sit with me at a table in Starbuck's, but I'm supposed to let you ride off on my bike when you apparently have no motor vehicle in sight? Not happening. I told him the same thing I tell everyone. The same thing everyone selling a bike says. Cash on deck, and you ride. He looked at the condition of the bike again and decided he would get his truck and we would do the paperwork on his hood. Whatever. So he goes to get his truck, and after about 45 seconds, it was apparent he was not coming back.
I texted him that since he was clearly not coming back, I would be meeting my next prospective buyer. He stated that he was going to be passing. I told him that was fairly obvious since he fled without a word like a dumpster roach avoiding a falling bag of rotten food. He threatened to come back and show me who was a roach. I reminded him that he ran away like a a teenage girl who got a run in her mother's shoplifted pantyhose, and heard nothing further from him.
The next buyer texted me and told me that he was coming from Boynton Beach and was behind a serious serious accident on I95 and would be late. An examination of Waze and the I95 traffic cams on my phone revealed no such incident.
Third buyer said he was 15 minutes away and gave his exact location. By this time, I was eating some sort of organic turkey sandwich, a bottle of water that promises my purchase is going toward building wells in Ethiopia, and whatever the heck an iced Venti Macchiato is.
Third buyer shows up in Polaris Slingshot with his girlfriend. Had an easy go with him. He left me standing there with his girlfriend with the cash in my hands as he went for a really aggressive test drive, and let me keep it when he returned. We sat down and filled out the title and bill of sale, and he went on his merry way at the helm of the Tenere while his girl tailed in the Slingshot.
All in all, I spent a little more than hour at the Starbuck's. Never go to the place much, but an Iced Venti Macchiato is pretty good on a hot day.
Would have bought it myself, except nothing about this bike spoke to me at all. So, I listed it on several different platforms including Craigslist. A lot of people responded, and I did my best to stage multiple encounters on a particular day that I actually had free time. This being Craigslist, I did everything I could to make the prospective buyers feel as comfortable as possible, and make all terms as clear as possible.
One individual who responded called me from a fairly infamous used car dealership around here. I pretty much ignored him, but he was incredibly insistent. I didn't like that he was a used car salesman, working for a car dealership to which a visit requires wiping your feet on the way out. Felt it was going to be a complete waste of time to deal with him, but business is business. On the day I would be seeing buyers, I arranged for him to come the earliest , so I could get that out of the way.
He started texting me early that morning that he was borrowing a truck from a friend so he could haul the bike back with him to South Miami. This man had no car, and likely no driver license. He revealed that he had just started working at the dealership and needed a way to get to work. I nearly cancelled with him.
At the appointed time, I rode the bike over to the shopping center where we agreed to meet. When I showed up he was just standing outside, and there was no truck matching the description he gave in the entire lot. Weird. He looks the bike over, and approved of the bike and price. We shook hands and he asked for the title. Given that I'm sitting on a motorcycle, and he has no vehicle in sight, I recommended we sit in the Starbuck's behind me and fill out the title and bill of sale. He looks at me with disgust and says, "Hey man! I don't know you!".
A little Stranger Danger is probably healthy when dealing on CL, but for real? If I'm going to rob or slaughter someone in the middle of a busy Starbuck's, an open parking lot is probably not going to dissuade me.
So he says he'd like to ride it first. OK. So you can't sit with me at a table in Starbuck's, but I'm supposed to let you ride off on my bike when you apparently have no motor vehicle in sight? Not happening. I told him the same thing I tell everyone. The same thing everyone selling a bike says. Cash on deck, and you ride. He looked at the condition of the bike again and decided he would get his truck and we would do the paperwork on his hood. Whatever. So he goes to get his truck, and after about 45 seconds, it was apparent he was not coming back.
I texted him that since he was clearly not coming back, I would be meeting my next prospective buyer. He stated that he was going to be passing. I told him that was fairly obvious since he fled without a word like a dumpster roach avoiding a falling bag of rotten food. He threatened to come back and show me who was a roach. I reminded him that he ran away like a a teenage girl who got a run in her mother's shoplifted pantyhose, and heard nothing further from him.
The next buyer texted me and told me that he was coming from Boynton Beach and was behind a serious serious accident on I95 and would be late. An examination of Waze and the I95 traffic cams on my phone revealed no such incident.
Third buyer said he was 15 minutes away and gave his exact location. By this time, I was eating some sort of organic turkey sandwich, a bottle of water that promises my purchase is going toward building wells in Ethiopia, and whatever the heck an iced Venti Macchiato is.
Third buyer shows up in Polaris Slingshot with his girlfriend. Had an easy go with him. He left me standing there with his girlfriend with the cash in my hands as he went for a really aggressive test drive, and let me keep it when he returned. We sat down and filled out the title and bill of sale, and he went on his merry way at the helm of the Tenere while his girl tailed in the Slingshot.
All in all, I spent a little more than hour at the Starbuck's. Never go to the place much, but an Iced Venti Macchiato is pretty good on a hot day.
