Wilsons Sandbox

i've thought about it for a few moments, and i think it has to do with the high cost of vehicles, and the resultant low profit margin. if you sell bicycles for a living, you typically charge about 1.5-1.6 times what you paid for the bicycle. As a percentage of your cash flow, the profit is large enough that 2% doesn't make too much difference. for example, if you pay 600 bucks for a bike at wholesale and sell it for 1000, paying 2% on that 1000 is only 20 bucks, about 5% of your profit. that still leaves you 95% of your gross profit for paying mechanics, rent, etc... on a motorcycle (i'm guessing here, so anyone with actual numbers, chime in) you probably buy a bike for $4000 and sell it for $4600, or at least something along that order of magnitude (it's probably more than half that much profit, and probably less than twice that much). if you have to pay 2% on that purchase price, that's $92, which is more like 15% of your gross profit. that's a much more significant cut. for a bicycle shop, we're willing to give up 5% of our profit just to avoid the hassles of dealing with checks. i suspect that it's more difficult to get away with a bad or fraudulent check for a motorcycle due to registration and everything, so it doesn't really surprise me that they hate credit cards and are willing to take a check, or (better yet) handle financing so it's someone else's risk. fortunately, i can just go to my bank and draw a cash advance on my credit card for no fees, but realistically, why would i want to? i can just get a loan with my local credit union (my dealer does most of their financing through the same credit union i use, so they have all the paperwork there). the dealer even admits that the m/c companies financing sucks pondwater. it's almost double the credit union interest rate. anyway. just thinking out loud. mw

> -----Original Message----- > From: Barry Mcpherron [mailto:r40286@...] > Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 11:15 AM > To: TimHiles@... > Cc: DSN_klr650@egroups.com > Subject: Re: [DSN_klr650] Sleazy Kawa salesman > > > This really suprises me. I would have thought that someone > with credit > good enough to put a large purchase on a credit card and avoid all the > paperwork hassels associated with getting a loan would be worth the > investment. Besides you could move on to the next customer that much > sooner! > Never tried to buy a car on plastic though, might give > that a try next > time I'm in the car buying mode, just to see the salesman squirm > > Barry > '01XR250R > > TimHiles@... wrote: > > > It would cost them 3 to 5% to process the sale on a credit > card. When > > I sold > > cars years ago some well to do folks would work their best deal then > > whip out > > the plastic. We just said NO! > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ------ Explore the popular High-End Room - > Go To Where The Smart People Shop-uBid.com > http://click.egroups.com/1/6141/6/_/911801/_/965326614/ > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ------|e>- > > Visit the KLR650 archives at > http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=klr650 > Support Dual Sport News... dsneditor@... > Let's keep this list SPAM free! > > Visit our site at http://www.egroups.com/group/DSN_klr650 > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@egroups.com > >