MOPED ARMY

Happy mopeders I'm all for.

Profiting off of my hobbies? Hell no.

YMMV.

This site is a resource, people use it as they see fit, sure there is a social aspect for some, but for others it's a place to buy parts or get information, or buy or sell a bike, it's not strictly for the "gangs". The way I see it no one gets screwed if they don't pay what is perceived by some as a ridiculous price, but what if someone here is just browsing, see's a bike priced above what the "experts" perceive as a fair price, but wants it and has no issue with the price? What is the problem if that sale is made? You have amassed 30 odd bikes, they can't be that rare? I have been riding these since '83, I don't know how old you are but I bet that's longer than you have been alive, not a big deal in and of itself, but I have seen the prices on these for a looong time now, and only recently have they gone over a grand for even regular models like a Maxi or a Hobbit. They have gone from just quirky to honest to god vintage articles, and things in that category go up in price. It's just the way it is, I got priced out of air-cooled VW's for the same reason, sucks, but for what they want for one anymore they are just not worth it to daily, new stuff is just soo much better. There is a very limited market for cantankerous gas powered bikes, and it will continue to shrink as electric comes into it's own, that's why I'm trying, granted without much luck to pare down. :) It just seems to me that you are displaying a prejudice towards people with some money? You say that you are not the boss of anyone, but the way you write you come off as though you are. Not everyone feels the same way about these bikes or the "lifestyle" many don't know, or even care that there is a "lifestyle" this does not make them out to screw people over. Maybe you find one of these in your garage, and maybe just maybe you know enough about small engines to get it running and cleaned up, (used to be a much more common skill than it is today) now you have this thing, but have no interest in riding it for daily use, and decide to sell it, you do some googling, see prices all over the board, pick a number, but you notice MA comes up often, so you log in thinking here is where people who want these are, you post your bike, either it sells or it doesn't, if not you lower the price or list it elsewhere, or just stuff it back in the garage. In no way is there any malicious intent here, just going where there seem to be a lot of people who know about/maybe want one of these things?

Ha! Lost the bet, lol, I suck at gambling. Anyway, prices are all over in MN, but decent bikes, clean survivors with minor updates like tires etc. run close to a grand, but many lower priced ones as well, I have gotten several for free, and yes sold them at a profit, not crazy high, but in the 6-800 dollar range, never once felt bad about it, nor did I feel I was taking advantage of anyone, hell a new Honda scooter is like 2,700 give or take and the newer 50cc ones are not only 4 stroke, but have to plate as a MC due to higher top speeds, so that keeps many off of them. You say you need more young punks etc in the hobby, ideally yes, but are young people into gas powered stuff? Lets say they are, most of them prob own a phone that cost close to or over a grand, so they are used to higher prices, and once electrics get more pervasive and better my guess is they will be more into those. Maybe you don't mean to, but you come off really angry about what people ask for an item that belongs to them? I admire you for selling to people who need help, your aversion to proffit escapes me. Right or wrong, love it or hate it, everything, and I mean everything in this country revolves around the almighty dollar. You have a skill, nothing wrong with profiting from it.

I guess you are fortunate to be able to do so. I split it up, I have given away my last dollar, taken in homeless people, repaired cars for neighbors who can't afford a shop, drive elderly neighbors to appointments or to shop in the winter, I live in a much lower income complex than what I can afford, to save money, and because I like the people here better. But I also look out for #1, I don't expect anyone else to. I ask nothing of the world but for a chance to put what skills I have to use to create my life, I guess we all approach that in a different way. I have lived in the same place for 20 yrs now, when I got here, I did not have dime one, I'm much better off now, and while life is more complicated, it is also more comfortable, and comfort becomes an important thing as you get older, plus if you amass resource's you can do more for more people if that is your thing, making money does not make all people who do evil.

You can choose to look at your job as "wage slavery" and if you do the numbers out it looks like that, but you have the CHANCE to earn a living, there are a ton of people making their way to this country, facing ungodly hardships to get in on this "wage slavery". Count your blessings, while not perfect by a LONG shot, the United States offers far more opportunity than many other countries.

Ok fine, where did you come from? Was it better there? If so, why come here, or were you brought by your parents? I'm just trying to figure out how you think is all, not really mad, I'm not changing myself nor do I expect you to, just curious.

So, it's a balance, no matter where you are, but you did not come from some third world disaster area either... I guess that's all I was trying to get across, not everyone thinks the same, and they don't suck for that.

I think in general there’s some good discussion here about differences of opinion, and different ways to view buying and selling.

One thing I find odd though is that people keep acting like being able to post a “ad” without the ability to reply will somehow stop people from commenting on it. If someone wants to discuss, they would just make a separate thread and point to the thing that they are discussing. We see this all the time where people make posts about a moped for sale on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

I also think it’s a misunderstanding of market dynamics to believe that not allowing discussion will all of a sudden increase the price that people are willing to pay for a moped. People can, and will, compare one offer to others and the long history of posts on this website makes that possible.

In general, the point of this website is to foster more discussion and information sharing, not less. I do plan to add some additional capabilities that will help everyone with buying and selling, but the focus on information sharing and discussion is likely to remain because that’s been the goal of this website for 25 years.

One thing that I would love to see emerge is a crowdsourced record of what people have paid for mopeds, organized by region. There is obviously some significant regional differences in price and it could help set expectations for people. A new page on the wiki would be perfect for this.

With all due respect, Simon, that is a shitlib response to this problem. I think all the literate folks see the real problem here, people using their identity and the strength of in-grouping to mask their intentions to control a market for personal gain, whilst simultaneously hoarding the very mopeds that would cause the market to “regulate”. (I would posit that it regulates itself by what people will pay, as the more astute folks who understand economics here agree) The hoarding, however, is already doing the regulating of said market into what it is now. You can NOT determine current market value by making a registry of prices paid in the past because they are just that, in the past. The current market is determined by available options, quality of said options, and money people are willing to spend to join this ever saddening cult. (Or hobby, as I wish it would have remained)

This really isn’t complicated, but it’s made so by people dressing up poor and culture vulturing.

If you have more than a couple mopeds personally, and you’re bitching about prices, YOU are the problem.

The buy sell should not scare a reasonable parent away from mopeds because of the overall tone of the discussion. Maybe there needs to be a straight buy sell descriptive section and a second section with a "are you 21 plus lock ". I swear if I had a 14 yo kid who wants a moped and I was concerned on his direction, I doubt I would tolerate the antics , the cursing, the rehab comments that are ubiquitously proffered. It's a moped not a lifestyle. That needs to be separated. We are killing ourselves. We have marginalized our already marginalized existence. It ain't going to be that hard to outlaw 2 strokes on roads with the idea that they are usually used by recovering ex meth addicts who lost their abilities to afford a Harley. Try to look at the horizon comrades. It ain't pretty. Whether ya want to believe in climate change or not we are.playing into legal banishment. Please take the accelerator off your mouth.

So that's two votes for restricting the types of posts, information, and language on the Buy/Sell page in order to allow "the invisible hand" of the "true market value" to flourish? And presumably we're scaring away the younger generation of teens who grew up on the internet, with unfettered access to Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, PornHub, and see this forum as a laughably archaic boomer retirement home? Am I reading that right?

Overstimulated and over reactive posters . Cw was booted for similar issues and he is way more knowledgeable than most. This has become a systemic problem requiring a reset. No ody wants to curtail free speech....wait...YES WE DO.

Says the guy who's literally complaining about speech because it might offend some hypothetical super conservative church dad? HERE?

Oh, the irony.

As the OP I am posting a final update on the disposition of the1982 Murray Puch.

A couple group pictures of Bill (Murray) and Winnie (the Puch) before they are are separated.

Bill (Murray) pretty much as I brought him home.

I was going to detail him out like I did to Winnie (the Puch) but he'll be leaving the shop tomorrow to never return.

After a pretty thorough examination there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the odometer reading of 1.4 miles is correct.

Whether it was indeed the last Murray Puch that came off the assembly line I have not (at this point) been able to verify that and as it's new owners will be picking it up tomorrow I have no intention of pursuing that.

I have a friend who has a friend who was a former Murray executive. I was given his contact information and we had a a fairly lengthy phone conversation and exchanged a number of texts.

I sent him some pictures of the bike as well as of the VIN and manufacturer's stickers.

A few days later the president of the Lawrenceburg Historical Society asked me to sell it to them for their museum.

So tomorrow afternoon the Lawrenceburg Historical Society's President and Vice President (who worked 43 years at Murray) will be picking it up to transport it to the Society's museum.

I'm confident that I could have easily sold it for more than the $750 I paid for it. (That's also what I sold it to the museum for.)

Murray Ohio had been a big part of Lawrenceburg history for fifty years or so and the Murray Puch would mean much more to the residents of that community than it ever would to me.

I enjoy an occasional back roads ride on Winnie, however, after owning scores of high performance motorcycles (both street and track) the idea of acquiring a number of mopeds has absolutely no appeal to me.

Cheers to all!

H K

Nice! Awesome ending to a cool story