Middle-aged gentlemen have probably almost all used private sales at some point, haven’t they?
In a way, private sales could be called the predecessor to Yahoo Auctions.
Back then, in an era when personal information had no monetary value, it was a wonderful time when names, addresses, cell phone numbers, and home phone numbers were published in magazines.
Parts BG even had photos of people’s faces on them… it was truly fearless.
Now to the main point…
By exposing all personal information, I think it made it harder for people to commit fraud or sell low-quality items and do bad things.
I myself have obtained vehicles and parts through private sales and have never had a painful experience. On the contrary, the quality was so good and the prices so reasonable that I sometimes wondered if it was really okay.
As time went on, ADSL became available at reasonable prices and became common, internet communication became convenient and fast, and I think things changed dramatically with the birth of Yahoo Auctions.
With private sales, the basic rule was fixed pricing. Basically, everyone started from a love of motorcycles, so prices were extremely reasonable. I really appreciate it even now (;∀;)
What has changed in recent years is that a thing called “market price” has emerged and become established for all matters.
With the sharing of information, transactions occur within the market price range, and nothing seems to fall outside it.
In other words, there are duds, but the impression is that good finds are rare. We’ve also stopped hunting for hidden gems.
Rare parts have already gone where they were meant to go, so it may be difficult to obtain them in various ways.
However, it’s also true that we rarely see people who really want to do custom work with a focus on parts.
In today’s world where modern parts are easy to obtain, highly precise, and can be bolt-on installed, the mainstream of customization, I sometimes think the only way to stand out from others is the color of the bodywork.
In a good way, I’ve recently been calling it custom mannerism on my own (‘;’)
