Modern Vespa

I met a woman who has a friend in Bali that wants to offload his collection

I'm not keen on the conditions of all these bikes, but would this be worth pursing?

Is there a market if I chose to take this project on and repair what I can to sell off?

As the old saying goes - "why buy one Asian bodge when you can buy 30."

Or to be more frank, I don't understand how you could possibly consider something as uncertain and risky as this without a whole lot more specific information than you have shared here.

So you are in New York and the scoots are in Bali, right? You'll have to pay for shipping, import taxes, sales tax, etc... Then possibly try to get titles, which is not going to be easy or cheap no matter where you live. All this and you will buying a pig in a poke - this is - you don't know what you are getting. Are you planning to fly to Bali, inspect them, get all the proper paperwork in line, pay all the local fees? Honestly, I would suggest you have no part in it.

It's about $10k just for shipping to get a container from Indonesia to New York right now. Add in the cost of the bikes, plus all the stuff Tierney listed out, plus the cost of parts to get each of them roadworthy, and you're probably looking at (best case) over $1,500-02,000 per bike...so you can sell them for maybe $2k each, depending on what they look like.

And that cost basis assumes you have someone trustworthy on the Indonesian end to handle that side of the logistics.

This episode of "why doesn't everyone do that thing" has been brought to you by the the word "math" and they symbol "$"

^^^^^ Pffft. Ha!!

OMG, I haven't laughed that hard in quite awhile. Great stuff!

Sell'em all on BaT. 30 scooters x $10k each = $300,000 worth of suckers.

Yeah, all you have to do is find 30 suckers with 10gs floating around loose in their back pocket that want a shiny, shiny scoot.

If these numbers are right, this looks pretty sweet.

Agreed! Although this woman tells me she would handle all the importation. That I highly doubt, but my big question is what is the market for these vintage bikes? What do they fetch?

It depends on the bikes and your personal ethics.

Scooter-Center just did something like this at the end of 2023, importing a couple containers of unrestored bikes from Pakistan to Germany. They sold them for the equivalent of $800-1,200 per bike.

If they're all shiny and pretty and bodged up, you can possibly drip them out on BaT and other auction sites and net a grand or so per-bike and just hope you can unload them all before your reputation catches up with you and you're banned from additional listings.

Of course, if you think you're going that route, I hope you're getting scammed by the seller because it's what you deserve.

There is no container-load vintage collection anywhere in Bali.

These are likely DanMotors machines if it's not just a scam. Built w/ mostly local Indonesian made parts, but I think with motors from Italy on the earlier ones. I found a '72 Super150 in good condition that was imported from there in 2007 and was sold by the original owner but it may not be typical. More here: PT Danmotors Super-T & more

There is a huge Vespa community in Indonesia including serious collectors of decent bikes. It's possible that your new friend knows such a person. Your next step of you're still interested is to request several close up photos and post them here.



If they are as clapped out as these at the start of the linked thread, I'd take a hard pass on 30 of them. If they are unrestored but not just junk, I think this estimate sounds about right, so you might gross 30K but I'll bet expenses and your time & hassle trying to flip 30 of them would be worth considerably more than that.

A few more notes on the SC import. They lost money on the bikes, despite selling them with nothing but import paperwork (no titles, etc.), but they were doing it betting that they'd make it up on rebuild parts and chatter within the German scooter community. They also gave each buyer a 10% discount FOR LIFE on all future SC purchases.

One buyer flat-out said that while he was happy to get the project, he'd be money ahead because of the discount if he threw the scooter in the canal.

Since I was curious, I did a little digging and US customs duties for individuals (rather than commercial import) add up to like $1,000-$1,200 per bike, plus all the costs of getting them from A to B.

If you don't mind disclosing, how much are you being asked to pay, on average, per-bike?

Even if the bikes were free, the math already doesn't really add up. Which would also explain why we don't seem to see that many fresh bodges any more, but rather older ones with yellowed whitewalls and bubbly paint.

(For the record, the more I think about it, the more I think this is a scam rather than just a money-losing proposition. If folks are curious, I'll lay it out in an additional post)

I'll leave the debate about whether it's a scam or not aside for the moment. Absolutely no way to know without knowing the people and bikes involved.

So, all that aside… I've had a few opportunities over the years to do "stuff" of one sort or another in bulk. Most I've passed on; a few I've done; some turned out OK but nothing's made me rich. But one thing I've learned from all of it is that, if you need to ask around to figure out the fundamentals, you probably should pass.

In this case, you'd need to be either a shipping and import expert, or a scooter restoration and selling expert, or preferably both. If you're neither of those things, the potential for disaster seems higher than the likelihood of a good outcome… and even a mildly good outcome would require a LOT of money, storage space, work, and time.

Just one geezer's opinion, and worth every penny you paid for it.

There is something to be said for an in-person trip to Bali to inspect the goods, though. I'd love that trip.

Nope.

If the deal is legit, it's not actually necessary. If it's a scam, this is a great way to get extorted, kidnapped, and possibly even killed.

So someone you dont really know, has offered you this amazing deal and is happy to do a lot of the legwork themselves. Why aren't they buying them?

I think you are now unlikely to risk the expenses you'd be paying just to get them to you. But my curiosity is very itchy! I'd love to hear more of the back story on this proposition and the mysterious lady who I assume knows you have Vespas. The price as mentioned, and photos would be most welcome and could help judge this situation - straight up scam or broken down junk or improbable collector stash???

Just to qualm everyone's curiousity and reorient this conversation to at least what i was trying to get out of it.

1. this woman is a neighbor and I've done work on her Vespa, she spent a great deal of time in Bali and befriend this man with the collection. She's not trying to scam me

2. evidentally she said she would handle all the logistics of importation! Now thats yet to be seen and I doubt she'll feel that way when she starts looking into it

3. right now im at step -1 which is for her to have this guy send me pictures of these bikes before anything happens. Outside that i'm just curious what the going rate for some vintage bikes are these days

This could get interesting.

Thanks for all that, I get your interest and you're wise to ask about them here before any dealing.

Incidentally I only gave $500 for mine with the motor in pieces, I think nobody else wanted to take a chance on a possibly risky Indonesian bike.

And now I'm looking forward to seeing those pics!

Most people will run from any Indonesian or South East Asian scooter. I think you are on a hiding to nothing here.

. Sadly true. To me selling shiny dangerous turds on Bat would go against my conscience. That money would feel dirty to me.

Calculate the cost of getting the bikes to you, plus the cost of the bikes. Take this number and divide it by two, this will be the amount you will loose if you do everything wrong. So, if the amount of fun you have doning this is less than your loss do not do it, if the ammoung of fun you will have is more than this figure go for it.

This if a rough formula. Results may varrey, and, others will have imput as to what the proportions of loss and fun may be.

Listen to the uninverse, it will tell you if the mix of loss and fun is right for you or not.

I've got a P150S, brought less motor & i added one so I can use it for VespaCrosse.... cost (& worth) $150 cash!

Dear Mr 43-Posts-few years-here,
I'll just leave this (locked) post here...

Would YOU buy a bodge off ME?