Thinking of Selling The GS

[RedShift]

To all, thanks for the entertainment.    Although I don't think spending money with little to none coming in is the wisest move (unless you're a country), everybody's situation is different.  "If it feels right, go for it" I always say.

On the original question, I'd guess your "Blue '04 GS500 with 2500 miles on it" would fetch between $3500-3900.  You should get more money for it if you sell it in the spring, but your "Toy" will be more proportionally expensive as well.  Probably best if you buy your toy now and sell your GS500 in April, just when a warm sunny day calls all riders to throw a leg over.

Good luck...

[geekonabike]

There are a couple of good lessons to learn from this whole thread.

1.  Don't give too much information.  

To cut to the chase, you could have just asked what the bike should fetch and leave it at that.  This is a friendly enough forum that many of us indulge in a little "'thinking out loud," but words can rub people the wrong way out of context.  

Then again even if you didn't tell us so much, someone would chime in with "why would you want to sell it?"  Sometimes ya gotta be terse, like "I've been looking at other bikes for some time and my curiosity is getting to me," and live with the inevitable replies and ignore them, or weigh them and decide if you want to ignore them.  Better yet, try "I just want to know what my options are."  Easy to say in hindsight.

2.  We gotta keep from jumping to conclusions based upon someone's thinking out loud.  

Re-reading the original post, your thinking is understandable.  Not the wisest reasoning, but understandable.  Let me play the psychologist.  You had a good job, were paying for the GS and insurance (more than a lot of 18-year-olds aspire to), and you got more ambitious and had your mind set on getting some more cool toys.  The capitalist in me salutes you.  In fact it sounded like you felt you could buy some things that could keep you happy for a long time, and be settled in those departments.  Then you lost your job, and your ambitions were halved.  But remember, ESPECIALLY at your age, in this society you're not considered a fully mature adult until you either (a) are out on your own, or if you go to college, until you (b) graduate college.  And it is worth the wait on (b).  You don't need all the trappings of maturity when you go to college.  You are in essence sacrificing instant gratification for something better down the road.  The ones who ultimately get the most respect at college are the ones putting themselves through, driving crappy cars (or no cars), barely scraping by, and taking their college studies very seriously.  The next ones are those who just take their college studies very seriously.

If you doubt what I said about when people think you're mature, consider this.  Even as a graduate student a month from getting a PhD, suppose I had been murdered in my sleep.  The headline would have read "Purdue Student Murdered in His Sleep."  If I were an 18-year-old high school dropout working at the local Venetian Blind factory and murdered in the same bed, the headline would have been "Lafayette Man Murdered in His Sleep."

That said, I admit I lived off of my parents when I was in college.  They paid my tuition, room and board, lent me a car fully insured ('82 Econoline van they got tired of driving kids around in, then an '82 Escort, this was in the late '80's), and I got an extra maybe $60 per month my last couple years after rent, but I also had to pay phone and gas and feed myself.  But you know what?  They also read my report cards, and I worked harder for them than I would have for myself.  That's just me.  I hope to do the same for my kids.  If I wanted extra cash, I waited agonizingly for my bi-weekly paycheck, usually about $40 at $3.35/hour for math lab tutoring or grading papers.  I also did some work at McDonald's, which was far more lucrative due to the hours, and some work in a lab torturing rats.  In my next six years, in grad school I thought I was wealthy on about $12K per year as a TA (early 1990's), with just my insurance (car and health) paid by my folks.  Which brings me to another point, roughly approximate to what someone else wrote:

(3) It's a lot easier to make it through the lean years if you lived them when you were young.  Another reason to NOT worry about the really great toys in College, but concentrate on your job, which is to study.  The lean lifestyle is a natural consequence, and it is healthy.  It has SO many benefits for you later in life, in terms of outlook, work ethic (working McDonald's helps there too!), and intellectual capability.  You also learn to live in a 10X15 room, or a dumpy apartment.  And what little you really need to survive.

The biggest mistakes young people first starting out make, IMO, are buying cars or houses that are too expensive.  A $300 car payment can loom really large in a monthly budget, and more expensive cars are more expensive to insure and maintain to boot!  Ditto a $700+ mortgage on a house.  Live a level or two below what you can afford in a good month, and you'll be OK in the lean months.  Don't ask me how I know how true this last paragraph is.

Well, the thread inspired the preacher in me too.  Good luck whatever you decide.

--Mike D.