Time to sell a few of my NOS spares?

[Oddjob]

I've been thinking for a while now that when the price of shell bearings starts to go around £30 a shell I'll cash in and sell all of mine, got a notification from Ebay today for some Green mains shells, clicked on it and £30 a shell, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225871638903?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20230811123856%26meid%3Dc37c6d64c5b545538eee2f04885b6193%26pid%3D101770%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D225871638903%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2%26brand%3DHonda&_trksid=p4375194.c101770.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3Ada87e42d18b0a4f1b4f2e03bffffb3f4%7Cpageci%3A6fd1a06e-84da-11ee-8eeb-cef2485e3528%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage for shells I might add that are still available from DS for around £17. Even DS is starting to struggle finding shells these days, no blacks, no yellows, browns are special order but a few greens by the look of it.

I have a bucket load of black main shells, a fair few yellows and some browns and greens although as my engine takes browns and greens I doubt I'll sell those just yet until I work out of I need them or not.

I also have quite a few conrod shells as well, probably around £4500 in total at £30 a shell.

Should I wait and cash in later or sell now?

[taysidedragon]

Stop hogging them all. Share the love! 😍

[Rozabikes Tim]

You could put them in SOHC crackers for all members. Better than a shite puzzle..

[Orcade-Ian]

Ken,
A few of us have been discussing what might happen to our hobby in the future - will any young 'uns want our bikes in the future?  Could this be like 'pass the parcel' or 'musical chairs' when the music stops - we (or the folks that inherit this stuff)) could be left with it all.
Surely the same goes with spares - hang on to what you might need and sell the rest - buy some Premium bonds with the cash!

Ian

[AshimotoK0]

Not sure where you get your £30/shell from Ken. I sold you some yellows on here at £12 each and I thought I was pushing my luck at that price.

Maybe it's something with 500 shells 'cos the 400 and 750 ones are fairly cheap from Yamiya. I just wish Yamiya would start selling 500 parts.

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[AshimotoK0]

Ken,
A few of us have been discussing what might happen to our hobby in the future - will any young 'uns want our bikes in the future?  Could this be like 'pass the parcel' or 'musical chairs' when the music stops - we (or the folks that inherit this stuff)) could be left with it all.
Surely the same goes with spares - hang on to what you might need and sell the rest - buy some Premium bonds with the cash!

Ian

Ben Powell on here is in his late 20's .. he was a colleague until he moved on to pastures new recently.. He came round on his totally restored CB350K3 (all done by him with advice from me and others on here ... even the paint, with a bit of help from hid dad). The bike is absolutely superb and runs great. Plus he is now a walking talking Honda classic bike nut now. So there is still a glimmer of hope for young 'uns joining us.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Ken,
A few of us have been discussing what might happen to our hobby in the future - will any young 'uns want our bikes in the future?  Could this be like 'pass the parcel' or 'musical chairs' when the music stops - we (or the folks that inherit this stuff)) could be left with it all.
Surely the same goes with spares - hang on to what you might need and sell the rest - buy some Premium bonds with the cash!

Ian

I suspect with the age of electrification it might be like Steam Engines everyone in 20 years will want to ride on one.👍👍👍

[Orcade-Ian]

I agree Ash that there are SOME young ones like Ben who are very interested but looking round at our own Vintage Club here and having visited many shows all over Britain, they appear to be in a minority.  I agree with Ted too but that might not soak up the sheer volume of machinery the present enthusiasts have.

Ian

[Laverda Dave]

Ken,
A few of us have been discussing what might happen to our hobby in the future - will any young 'uns want our bikes in the future?  Could this be like 'pass the parcel' or 'musical chairs' when the music stops - we (or the folks that inherit this stuff)) could be left with it all.
Surely the same goes with spares - hang on to what you might need and sell the rest - buy some Premium bonds with the cash!

Ian

This subject has been discussed a lot in the classic bike press although it centres more around 50’s & 60’s Brit iron. Despite the original riders of these bikes now being in their 80’s and beyond these bikes still have a healthy market. With regards to our bikes of the 70’s & 80’s the market is still strong and the younger generations are buying them. The real problem is attracting the younger generation into bikes in the first place, successive governments have done their very best to discourage new riders making passing a test very complicated and then restricting new riders to limited horsepower bikes (maybe a good thing for our limited power bikes). Strange how a 17 year old can pass a car test in a 1 litre car one day and then buy a powerful Audi or RS the next and cause havoc.

[Rozabikes Tim]

When you look at youtube loads of these bikes being worked on by younger types BUT very often the basis of cafe racer, bobber etc....

[Oddjob]

Not sure where you get your £30/shell from Ken. I sold you some yellows on here at £12 each and I thought I was pushing my luck at that price.

Maybe it's something with 500 shells 'cos the 400 and 750 ones are fairly cheap from Yamiya. I just wish Yamiya would start selling 500 parts.

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Ash, I didn't make the price up. I said WHEN they started to command about £30 a shell I'll consider selling them. It's supply and demand, so lets give you a good example, 750 points cover, a year or so ago they were selling for between £50-60 each, can you find one now at that price?, does Yamiya sell them for that price? the going price for one is over £200 a pop, look at the price CMS are listing them for, 389 euros but at the moment reduced to 199.50 euros or £209 in our money. DS price £285.14. So if I had a stock of those and I'd paid say £30 each for them 10 years ago would you say they were still worth £30 each? or the market price, if I sold them at £200 in P&P each would that be a ripoff or would people thank me for selling them cheaper than they can buy them?

After looking at the Yamiya site BTW, no they don't, they have sold out of genuine 750 points covers, however they do copies, would you fit a copy on yours? would anyone fit a copy on a 750K0? and by copy I mean it doesn't have the Honda sign on it, Honda won't allow them to make them like the original, so you can get either a Wing on or SOHC but not Honda. So what are 750 points covers worth now? If you had a shitload of them would you sell them now or hang on even longer as they can only go up in price as they get scarcer and scarcer.

As for Yamiya prices, watch them as their stock levels drop, when they can no longer find 400 shells and 750 shells will they sell the last ones for the same price or will they do what DS does and suddenly inflate the price to what they think they can charge.

I found my shells from all over the world, USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France to name just what I can remember, I've been buying them for years, they are an investment so to speak. I've got stocks of other parts I think will suddenly go through the roof price wise, I tend only to do the 500 though, I do have some parts from other bikes but not many.

I started to collect all sorts of parts many years ago, with a view to restoring the bike I'm currently restoring, around 2010 I suddenly decided that I'd never get round to it so started to sell them all, tanks, seats, exhausts all went, now I wish I'd saved them. If I listed all the parts by part numbers on paper I'd have at least 6 A4 sheets of typed letters and numbers in very small font. And even then I suspect I'd have less than you. If I listed all my second hand parts I'd need a publisher to print it 

What I did fail to mention is that some of these shells cost me more than £20 each, what with import duties and P&P from abroad. Some even went missing in the post, so even at £30 a shell I'm not making a great deal on some of them, I bought them because I thought I'd better get them whilst they were available rather than wish I had some years later when they weren't. What with the money I've got tied up in these parts and the interest I could have probably made if I'd just left it in a bank I might even be making a slight loss in the long run.

[Oddjob]

You could put them in SOHC crackers for all members. Better than a shite puzzle..

So long as I could charge £30 a cracker Tim I'm up for that 

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Another factor when looking at the used bike market is how the cost of a new bike has become cheaper compared to wages for folk in their teens or early twenties.
In my early days as a biker a decent new bike was around the £700 pound mark - I was only earning £12=15 a week less deductions in 1967!
My used bike ownership back in the 1966-1970 era started at £35 the dearest was £90.
I suspect the era of so called  born again bikers led to the drop in used bike prices as they could afford new so youngsters could then buy a decent 3/4 year old bike at bargain prices.
Not many youngster can find the cash for a £4-6k plus used old Honda when they can buy new on finance.

[Sesman]

I guess we will learn the value of shells based on availability and demand. I’ll soon be in a position to investigate cost and availability both in Asia and America.

[AshimotoK0]

I guess we will learn the value of shells based on availability and demand. I’ll soon be in a position to investigate cost and availability both in Asia and America.

Is it true that 426 shells fit the 500 Ken? ... if so these don't look a bad price.


https://predatormotorsport.co.uk/crankshaft-shell-bearings-honda/