Kelley Blue Book(KBB) pricing...

dereksbicycles

dereksbicycles

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How reliable are those prices? Are they accurate? I see ad all the times on craigslist. You see, a vehicle may be worth $2300 in fair condition. $2700 in good condtion. $3200 in excellent condition. That is according to KBB pricing.

Now you may see that the seller claims that the vehicle is $2300 in fair condtion according to KBB. You can have the vehicle for $1500. $800 below KBB!!! What a deal!!?? Is that how you are supposed to sell a vehicle?

See, I may see that a vehicle is priced at $1500, but someone else is selling a similar vehicle for $1200. That means the $800 below KBB may not look as golden as it may look.

I would think that maybe 95% of the vehicles sells below KBB value so getting a vehicle below KBB is not such a great deal. It is what the market dictate and what someone would pay. Not some KBB stuffs.

A lot of you know more about vehicle than I do. I am sure you can guess which 5% or so vehicles may sell at or even above KBB prices.

So, I would love to hear about KBB from other people.
 
Those values are really used as a trade in starting points for dealers. You are going to get more or less close to that price on trade.

They don't really apply to private sale. Although, I believe the web site does state street value or at least did at one point.
 
If you are thinking of buying a used car be sure to have it checked out first.
A lot of cars got flooded out in the last hurricane and the cars are flooding the market and being sold as in excellent shape and they have molds and hidden damages . I this on the news, it was to warn people about buying a used car. The cars are being shipped all over the place. I think you would need to see the car yourself and decide what shape the body is in. Do you have an auto mechanic you can trust or I am not sure if you're an auto mechanic .
 
If your car needs major repairs, KBB is good way to determine if it is worth fix it or not.

For example, you have a yugo, and KBB said it is worth 350 dollars and that yugo with lousy transmission fell apart. The cost to replace it is about 2,500 dollars. Not worth to replace tranny... Why? Supposed an idiot decided go ahead like my ex roommate did, on replacing the tranny, paid $2,500 for that replacement. Three months later, an idiot got in middle of three cars collision. So an idiot filed claim for the damage because it is somebody else's fault, guess what will happen? That idiot WILL lose that lousy Yugo and receive only 350 dollars. Insurance company don't give damn if idiot had replaced tranny 3 months ago or years ago, they focus on KBB period. Sure an idiot like my ex roommate argued with insurance adjuster, showing reciept of major repairs 3 months ago, insurance said "Too bad! we don't follow that path, we follow what KBB said". Yeah, my ex roommate told me he regret and wish had listen to me in the first place.

KBB is valuable book when it comes to selling and buying vehicles AND to insurance industries too.
 
No, KBB don't do that, CarFax does that. KBB is just focus on values, while Carfax tells you exact what happened to that particular vehicle (Like credit report)

whatdidyousay! said:
If you are thinking of buying a used car be sure to have it checked out first.
A lot of cars got flooded out in the last hurricane and the cars are flooding the market and being sold as in excellent shape and they have molds and hidden damages . I this on the news, it was to warn people about buying a used car. The cars are being shipped all over the place. I think you would need to see the car yourself and decide what shape the body is in. Do you have an auto mechanic you can trust or I am not sure if you're an auto mechanic .
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diehardbiker said:
No, KBB don't do that, CarFax does that. KBB is just focus on values, while Carfax tells you exact what happened to that particular vehicle (Like credit report)
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I did not say KBB did that . I was saying if the OP was thinking of buying a used car to be careful of flood damages cars. !
 
Yeah, I do hope to buy an used mini van soon. THank you very much for the tips. I'm not a mechanic. I wish I was. I do know people that can fix problems for cheap if needed.
 
Yeah what diehardbiker said, the KBB is really for insurance companies. But on craigslist or at dealerships the price is really down to how motivated the seller is to get rid of it and how bad the potential buyer wants it.

An extreme example of this is when Ferrari released the F40 years ago they were selling them for about 400 grand but some speculators would buy the car only to flip it selling for a million dollars or more. Yes it's DOUBLE the retail value but this is Ferrari and there are buyers who want that car bad enough to pay the insane price. It's not the official KBB price but nothing is set in stone.
 
do you sell bikes in your local only? not to send them out to shipping correct? just curious.

what kind of road bikes are supposed to be? i had no idea. LOL
 
Frisky Feline said:
do you sell bikes in your local only? not to send them out to shipping correct? just curious.

what kind of road bikes are supposed to be? i had no idea. LOL
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I sell most of them locally. I don't ship them any more. Not worth my time. I do take a lot of road trips and I often sell my bikes to people when I go on road trips.

Road bikes are something with curved handle bars. Some good example would be Trek 400, Trek 420, Raleigh Grand Prix. You can find pictures and see what they look like. They are road bikes.
 
there are 2 different versions. the public version and a dealer version of the KBB and NADA guide. the prices are overinflated in the public guide to allow dealers to get more for their vehicles. The dealer version of the guides are pretty accurate. Your bank or credit union will have copies of the dealer versions if you want to look up the "real" value
 
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