Depreciation lesson...

[tireater]

Saw an add for a 5 year old Bourget hardtail chopper...paid $47k...Sell for $17k...3k on bike...
Described as a Vegas bike...whatever that is...? $6k per year to ride 600 miles... plus gas, ins. and maint...

[CraigArizona85248]

A couple sayings come to mind... "There's a sucker born every minute."  and "A fool and his money are soon parted."  LOL

[JohnnyM]

I don't have any interest at $17K.  He will have to find that special buyer.

[EZGlider]

LOL, you should see the resale values (or lack of) of some really high priced cars.  Some of the real exotics get driven less than that pseudo-chopper and drop like rocks from their 100K+ prices. 

The people who buy them, for the most part, are all about exclusivity or one upsmanship.  They can usually afford it and as the Congress has shown us recently, they afford alot of it on OUR DIMES! :angry

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[Kansas]

That chopper may be right next to owning stock in it's ability to shed value at an alarming rate.   

[Flat Dog]

No different than many houses as well these days.

Paid $500k, selling for $150k, 1 year old...

[tdkkart]

 So that means that based on age at $6000/year my '01 Ultra is worth a negative $30,000.

Not a bad deal though, cuz since riding is worth about $10/mile I've already gotten about $350,000 worth of riding out of it.

See, I've still made money, I'm $320,000 ahead of the game using Wall Street accounting............

[shovelmonster76]

I got about 12000 bucks in my Shovel and would not sell for anything, so I guess theres no depreciation cause  it's priceless to me. I think I'd have to sell the kids first.LOL

[DGlide04]

Funny how when times get really tight like now, how many "investments" aren't worth crap.  A $40,000 bike 2 years ago selling for less than half of the original price, good luck on that one bud.  If the value is that low and it probably is, it'll be hard getting financing.  For $17,000.00 financed and a bit of downpayment cash, you can get almost any new Harley that you want.  Even in these crappy times, I don't think the market for Harleys had tanked over 50%.

I asked my financial guy about the 35% my retirement account dropped this year and his response was "you're ahead of the game, the market dropped over 45%"  Gee, thanks for the words of encouragement.   

[redrokit8]

Remember, there is only depreciation realized if you sell.
In the case of a motorcycle, if you keep it long enough and get your miles out of it, then the depreciation is the "cost of entertainment". Simple.
Now if we're talking houses or stocks, that's usually not entertainment but real loses. Hopefully you can hang on to see some equity come back. ( hopefully).

[Phu Cat]

Photo John, Where's this house?  Hope to retire soon.

PC