Originally Posted by
frantik
... the point was that a potential buyer might not have the cash when they ask to test ride, so you need to be ready for this eventuality if you always request cash up front to test ride
It doesn't seem like rocket science to tell the potential buyer in advance what kind of collateral you're going to want before they test ride it. Presumably you have to be in contact with them to tell them stuff like where to meet, what time to meet etc, so why not tell them what collateral they'll have to bring if they want to ride it?
i'm not sure how much good taking a picture of the bike with the test rider will do.. it seems like it would be useful if your bike is actually stolen.. but I'd focus on things which prevent the bike from being stolen in the first place
Hence collateral is better than a picture.
i agree a set of keys without seeing the actual car isn't really worth much. but if the car is right there, the license plate and other documentation will be a lot better source of leads and the person would have to be an idiot to leave it behind (unless it too was stolen)
Even if you see the car and it's parked right outside your house and you're holding the keys it doesn't stop someone else with a spare set of keys coming by to pick up the car. Then that someone else could claim they lent the car to a friend but the friend has done a runner. So if anything you're worse off than you are with a picture - at least a picture might be used to ID someone.