Electric Bikes - WOW! Scooters depreciate by 150% a year

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/791587387.html

I didn't click the link, but I don't think anything depreciates by >100%... it would mean the seller actually pays you if you "buy" one? :rolleyes:

Put me down for a few.

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/791587387.html

Learn math!

That's 60% depreciation, not 150%. :rolleyes:

I do not mean to sound sarcastic here, so please read nothing into this.

It's like anything you buy New, used just 1 time and it's still a Used Item. Value goes down.

Like a New Car. Even if you just buy a New Caddy and place it on a trailer and park it in your driveway and never drive it, you will have a value drop cause it came off the Dealer lot.

Tho I am not sure, that just that 1 add reflects the actual % drop, but it may be close.

Who knows may the person is strapped for cash.......New Baby on way......has to move and can't keep. In any event the bike looks priced for a quick sale.

Learn math!

That's 60% depreciation, not 150%. :rolleyes:

Okay smarty, Last August I buy an electric scooter for $2250. A year later I'm trying to sell it for $900. 900 x2 is 1800 (200%). Half of 900 is 450 (50%). Add 1800 and 450 and you get 2250.

I'm sorry, that's 250%. You learn the math bud.

If only we could think of something more trivial to argue about than arithmetic... :thumb:

for the record, when calculating appreciation or depreciation it is normal to calculate from the starting value, so 99% depreciation is a drop from $200 to $2, not from $200 to $101.

Okay smarty, Last August I buy an electric scooter for $2250. A year later I'm trying to sell it for $900. 900 x2 is 1800 (200%). Half of 900 is 450 (50%). Add 1800 and 450 and you get 2250.

I'm sorry, that's 250%. You learn the math bud.

Does not compute. Where the heck did you learn math? In the most ******** school in the world? :rolleyes:

Where did you get the 900 X 2 ? That doesn't make any sense. What does that "2" represent anyway? It's not 2 years, it's one year.

And why are you even bothering messing with "half of 900" ? It has nothing to do with the equation at all.

And why are you adding 1800 and 450? That doesn't make any sense.

Your math skills are seriously messed up.

Here's the simple math:

$900 / $2250 = 40% Thus %60 is gone (depreciated). Depreciation is 60%. Let me repeat that. $900 is 40% of $2250. $900 is the current asking price. Which means that $1350 of the original price was absorbed by depreciation. $1350 of $2250 is 60%. Again, 60% depreciation.

You can't get anything above 100% depreciated numnuts! That's impossible. 100% depreciation would mean the asking price would be $0. anything more than 100% would require the seller to pay you to take it off his hands.

I guess you've never leased a car? That "residual" value is what's left after depreciation. My $47K BMW has 60% residual after 36 months. Thus I'm only financing 40% of the value of the car, the depriciation, any the interest on that amount.

I'd have to be a total fool to sign a lease with a 250% depreciation. It doesn't make any sense at all!

Learn about percentages here -> http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-calculate-percentages

SERIOUSLY!!! Before you post another answer go through that grade 5 math tutorial and learn how percentages work! I'M NOT KIDDING! YOU NEED AN EDUCATION!!!!!

Okay smarty, Last August I buy an electric scooter for $2250. A year later I'm trying to sell it for $900. 900 x2 is 1800 (200%). Half of 900 is 450 (50%). Add 1800 and 450 and you get 2250.

I'm sorry, that's 250%. You learn the math bud.

Incorrect. You're thinking of appreciation rather than depriciation. IE: You buy the scooter for $900 and manage to resell it for the original $2250 price. In that case, you'd make 250% off the original $900.

Okay smarty...Glass house + stones = fail.

--J

Incorrect. You're thinking of appreciation rather than depriciation. IE: You buy the scooter for $900 and manage to resell it for the original $2250 price. In that case, you'd make 250% off the original $900.

And the dude who's selling it what does he get? He bought it at 2250 and a year later he's selling it at 900. He might be smart because next year they'll be worth 0 as they will require licenses and personally, I'd rather have a Vespa.

And the dude who's selling it what does he get? He bought it at 2250 and a year later he's selling it at 900. He might be smart because next year they'll be worth 0 as they will require licenses and personally, I'd rather have a Vespa.

He gets 40% ($900) of the original $2250 he paid for it and takes a 60% loss as mentioned by other people.

Edit: Around here, an electric bicycle already requires registration (you get a moped plate), insurance, and driver's license (class C).

Wait, this is all about one private craigslist posting. If the seller simply posted a higher price, this entire depreciation theory gets tossed out the window. Maybe he just wants a quick sale.

I do not mean to sound sarcastic here, so please read nothing into this.

It's like anything you buy New, used just 1 time and it's still a Used Item. Value goes down.

Like a New Car. Even if you just buy a New Caddy and place it on a trailer and park it in your driveway and never drive it, you will have a value drop cause it came off the Dealer lot.

Tho I am not sure, that just that 1 add reflects the actual % drop, but it may be close.

Who knows may the person is strapped for cash.......New Baby on way......has to move and can't keep. In any event the bike looks priced for a quick sale.


I wonder what other sad misfortune overlook this other guy (http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/797749187.html)? Is it possible that people find that these scooters are topo slow and too heavy and they don't feel as 'cool' as they though they would?

I can't speak for the person, I was just guessing. The price set, seems to me like it's a needed sale.
That said, it is drawing in to the end of the bike season, people will not be looking as much now for a bike of any kind till near the end of the winter.

I have my 2008 Motorino XPh and love it to death. I have not found it to be slow, unless the battery is getting low and I am asking it to climb one of the bigger hills here in Guelph.

Does not compute. Where the heck did you learn math? In the most ******** school in the world? :rolleyes:

Where did you get the 900 X 2 ? That doesn't make any sense. What does that "2" represent anyway? It's not 2 years, it's one year.

And why are you even bothering messing with "half of 900" ? It has nothing to do with the equation at all.

And why are you adding 1800 and 450? That doesn't make any sense.

Your math skills are seriously messed up.

Here's the simple math:

$900 / $2250 = 40% Thus %60 is gone (depreciated). Depreciation is 60%. Let me repeat that. $900 is 40% of $2250. $900 is the current asking price. Which means that $1350 of the original price was absorbed by depreciation. $1350 of $2250 is 60%. Again, 60% depreciation.

You can't get anything above 100% depreciated numnuts! That's impossible. 100% depreciation would mean the asking price would be $0. anything more than 100% would require the seller to pay you to take it off his hands.

I guess you've never leased a car? That "residual" value is what's left after depreciation. My $47K BMW has 60% residual after 36 months. Thus I'm only financing 40% of the value of the car, the depriciation, any the interest on that amount.

I'd have to be a total fool to sign a lease with a 250% depreciation. It doesn't make any sense at all!

Learn about percentages here -> http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-calculate-percentages

SERIOUSLY!!! Before you post another answer go through that grade 5 math tutorial and learn how percentages work! I'M NOT KIDDING! YOU NEED AN EDUCATION!!!!!


I reported this post to our moderator, because it was an attack on a forum member. To this date it has not been changed and I have not received any word on what actions the moderator plans. It is my firm belief that it is the responsibility of the forum moderator to either ask the poster to edit the post or simply take it off. This has happened to me in the past for much less. Why is it that this forum moderator chooses to treat some members more equally than others?

How about you learn math before YOU go attacking others?

Or did you forget post #6 in this thread?

To quote somebody:


Glass house + stones = fail.

--J

Actually the OP is right.

I bought one of those things and it depreciated 200 per cent by the time I sold it. So I end up paying the guy over $2000 just to buy it. But I came out ahead because if I kept waiting it was only going to keep costing me more to sell it.

Perhaps I can simplify things. If I buy something for $100 and it ends up being worth nothing, it has depreciated in value 100%. It can't depreciate more than that.

When people are wrong, they can be helped by gently showing their error.

When people are wrong, they shouldn't be throwing stones around in a glass house.

http://www.reallifephotos.org/wp-content/photos/2008_05/wrong.jpg

OK, here's some math, Electrogreen

900/2250=0.4, or 40% residual value at this point. If you want to claim a 250% depreciation, what would have to happen is you would have to pay someone $4450.00 to take it off your hands. What you've done is taken multiple data points, in this case, 3 and added them cumulatively, and that isn't how it's done. You forgot to divide by the number of datapoints.

Assume a $900 drop in value the first year, and your residual value is $1350, or 60% residual, with a 40% depreciation.

Assume an additional $900 for the second year, and you get a depreciated value of $450, or 20% depreciated value. This is assuming a straight line depreciation and very broad assumptions here for simplicity. Your depreciation total is 80% cumulative if you just straight add, but that's not a correct figure since you have to average the value, so to figure the average depreciation, the formula is (X1+X2)/Y with Y being the number of datapoints, in this case, Y=2

if X1 is 0.4 and X2 is 0.8, your result is (0.4+0.8)/2=1.2/2=0.6, or an adjusted depreciation of 60% based on the 2 datapoints.

It's an easy mistake to make, you're just not accounting for multiple datapoints. The base equation you want for this particular application, though is a single datapoint equation of X/Y=R, then 1-R=D
X= sale price: $900
Y=purchase Price: $2250
R=residual percentage of value
D=Depreciation

Your result is 900/2250=0.4, and then 1-0.4=60% Depreciation, which yields an identical result to the compound formula, so the math checks.

It's just basic Algebra. ;)

Say What?

I'm into humanities, so the math means little to me. My point is that those little electric scooters are not bikes, and within a year or so have no real value, but some retailers keep selling them anyway, and the buyers, as dumb as they are, don't seem to realize that once the SLA batteries are done, no one wants them, not even a scrap dealer.

So whether it's not possible for something to be worth less than a 100% of it's original price or not, the sucker that buys one of these will sure feel it in his/her pocketbook. Fighting about the actual percentage just blurs the facts that these things cost big time and have no value.

Yep, I'm Humanities student, myself, Psych/Sociology/Philosophy. I was only addressing the innaccuracy of your math, though, and trying to do so nicely. ;) Fact is, regardless of what you buy new, you walk ut the door, or roll off the lot, you just took a 50% depreciation hit on it. This applies to an E Scooter, E-Bike, Gas-Bike, Moped, Motor Scooter, or even a HumVee (Especially a HumVee, actually, given current gas prices. :p)

Look, if someone wants to buy an E Scooter, hey, it's their money, true? If they spend it on an E Scooter, who are you or I to judge? Personally, I'd rather spend it on a High Zoot road bike.


Say What?

I'm into humanities, so the math means little to me. My point is that those little electric scooters are not bikes, and within a year or so have no real value, but some retailers keep selling them anyway, and the buyers, as dumb as they are, don't seem to realize that once the SLA batteries are done, no one wants them, not even a scrap dealer.

So whether it's not possible for something to be worth less than a 100% of it's original price or not, the sucker that buys one of these will sure feel it in his/her pocketbook. Fighting about the actual percentage just blurs the facts that these things cost big time and have no value.

Say What?

I'm into humanities, so the math means little to me.

So why were you trying to argue about your math being right and Mine (and Tom's) being wrong?

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/816731131.html

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/816731131.html

So how much did that depreciate from the time it was purchased new??;)

So how much did that depreciate from the time it was purchased new??;)

100%... duh!

:D

My head hurts.

Mine doesn't. I still want to see if "someone" figured out the math on this one. :D

Mine doesn't. I still want to see if "someone" figured out the math on this one. :D

It's that crazy new math.

Edit: Around here, an electric bicycle already requires registration (you get a moped plate), insurance, and driver's license (class C).

That's a bit brutal. In Michigan a Class C license is required for a CDL Commercial Drivers License of commercial vehicles weighing up to 26,000 pounds. How governing bodies get away with imposing insurance & registration requirements on a ebike=bicycle is beyond me. A bit tyrannical? More intervention than we need?

electrogreen,

in the future, you could stick to fractions.......something like this " a year later, it is worth less than half it's original value"

I reported this post to our moderator, because it was an attack on a forum member. To this date it has not been changed and I have not received any word on what actions the moderator plans. It is my firm belief that it is the responsibility of the forum moderator to either ask the poster to edit the post or simply take it off. This has happened to me in the past for much less. Why is it that this forum moderator chooses to treat some members more equally than others?

Because he didn't attack you. As a matter of fact, he took the time out to educate you on how to compute percentages. I'm being completely serious....you should thank him.

I'm just curious....how old are you? You can't possibly have a worst education than I did. Look up Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, NY. That's where I went to school. I think the graduation rate was about 60%

...snip...
You can't possibly have a worst education than I did. Look up Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, NY. That's where I went to school. I think the graduation rate was about 60%
I heard the graduation rate was 250%.

That's only if the females who graduated each was carrying unborn triplets.

I started to clean this thread up but after reviewing it there is nothing here worth saving. Thread locked.
It FAILED from the get go.....