In my previous articles (here, here and here), I’ve shared my advice for buying new electric scooters online. But what about buying used scooters? Buying secondhand can be a great way to save money, but it comes with a new set of risks. From spotting warning signs of a lemon to avoiding common scams, this article will provide you with some tips and tricks to get a great deal when buying used scooters.
Buying Used Scooters – Places to Look
Local Marketplaces: There are numerous online marketplaces where you can find great deals on used scooters, such as Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or KSL (if you live in Utah). I personally use Facebook Marketplace the most, since I can easily set my search radius to 25 or 50 miles, depending on how far I’m willing to travel. Facebook Marketplace also typically has a wide selection of people trying to get rid of old electric scooters.
Ebay: I’ve also had some success buying used scooters through eBay, but I’m only comfortable doing so because of the purchase protection. In one instance, I had to return a scooter because its condition wasn’t accurately described in the listing, and I received a full refund without any hassle.
Discount Warehouses: Discount warehouses often sell returned items, display models, or factory overstock, which are usually in near-new condition and sold at about 50% of retail price. I frequently visit one in my area called Warehouse B and have found many scooters in next-to-new condition at deep discounts.
Yard Sales: Yard sales can also be great places to pick up used scooters for dirt cheap—if you’re lucky enough to find them. The downside, however, is that it’s hard to rely on this option since there’s no way to know whether a scooter will be available until you show up.
Buying Used Scooters – Places to Avoid
Pawn Shops: In my experience, based on numerous visits, scooters sold at pawn shops are overpriced relative to their condition. I have visited numerous pawn shops, and never found a scooter worth purchasing at their sticker price. I would also recommend against selling a scooter to a pawn shop, as they typically will give you a price far below the scooter’s true value.
I once bought a Wolf Warrior X Pro on Facebook Marketplace for $1100 (it retailed for around $1800 at Voro Motors at the time). I rode it for a year and then sold it in decent condition (minus the headlight which had come off) for $900. Two years later, I spotted the same scooter in a pawn shop window for $1350. I went in to check it out, but it was in rough shape—no rear brake, a barely working front brake, a cracked fender, and covered in dirt. A week later, the scooter was gone. When I asked the owner, he said it sold for the full price of $1350, even though it was probably only worth around $600 in that condition.
Used Pallets: While pallets are a great way to get extremely cheap scooters, only consider buying pallets if you meet these three criteria: you are excellent at repairing scooters, you have a LOT of garage or storage space, and you are perfectly willing to throw away at least half of the scooters in the pallet if the defects are unidentifiable or the repairs would cost more than the scooter’s resale value. You also should have a lot of experience with selling used scooters, and a large network of potential contacts to draw on to help you sell them.
Facebook Marketplace “ships to you”: DON’T buy a used scooter (or any scooter) that “ships to you” on Facebook Marketplace. These are often scams, and Facebook’s purchase protection is much less robust than that of Amazon or Ebay.
Know Your Repair Abilities
The more comfortable you are with fixing scooters, the more deals you’ll be able to find. Often, sellers are desperate to unload their scooters because of minor issues like a flat tire that they can’t (or don’t want to) fix.
Tires: I’ve picked up several scooters for pennies on the dollar, pumped up the tires, added slime, and ended up with scooters in perfect working condition that I later sold for near-retail value. Slime won’t fix all tube issues, however, and installing new inner tubes is also a very useful skill.
Other Common Repairs: Besides tires, the next most common repairs to get familiar with are mechanical brake adjustments, hydraulic brake bleeds, and swapping out the throttle, controller, and charging port. While it may take a bit of trial and error to learn, once you’ve mastered these basic repairs, you’ll be able to fix the majority of ‘broken’ scooters being sold for 10-20% of their retail value.
Flipping Broken Scooters: Recently, I found someone on Facebook Marketplace selling a Wolf Warrior 11 in a small town about two hours away (another tip: be willing to drive for a good deal!). The Warrior 11 retails for $2600 new, but he had it listed for $700 due to several issues—a wobbly stem, a flat and completely worn-out rear tire, bent handlebars, and hydraulic brakes that either needed to be bled or replaced. I drove to his house, thoroughly examined the scooter, and offered him $600, which he accepted.
I then took it to a bike shop and bought a new handlebar for $40, ordered a fresh set of tires on Amazon, used a brake bleed kit to fix the brakes, tightened every screw around the stem to resolve the flexing issue, and gave the scooter a good cleaning with compressed air and a rag. Less than a week later, I sold it for $1600—still a sizable discount compared to its new price, but a great deal considering the condition I was able to restore.
Conclusion
The best advice I can offer for buying used scooters comes down to the concept of ‘margin of safety.’ At the end of the day, if the price is low enough, you might as well just buy the scooter. There is a principle in Warren Buffet-style stock investing called the “margin of safety” – even if a particular company doesn’t have strong sales growth or healthy profits – if the stock price is cheap enough, it’s pretty hard to lose by buying in. The same applies to used scooters – if you’re uncertain whether a scooter will require 30 minutes and $30 in repairs or 5 hours and $200 – if it’s a $2600 scooter being sold for $600, either way, you’ve landed a great deal.
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