Low Price on 2001 Royal XLII

[dale farley]

I can't believe this 2001 Royale, one owner with 85K miles sold for $185K. This is surprising even when considering the economy. I kept hoping to see it had been on fire or had a blown engine but not so. Someone must have been desperate to sell. Does anyone know anything about this bus that isn't explained in the ad?

http://offer.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/...m=220436074663

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That sure looked like a nice coach. The generator showed some hours on it so it indicates they spent some time dry camping or they ran it while driving to use the AC units. Other than that nothing seemed noteworthy.

It does show this to be a buyer's market. Unfortunately for anyone selling a coach this low price impacts the selling prices of all other coaches because buyers will see this as a benchmark.

[dale farley]

Jon,

That's exactly what I am thinking about the benchmark. Of course, I am always a little skeptical when the seller uses the private auction and doesn't show who the buyer is.

I hope we see this one back on the market for a more reasonable price. I doubt that there are many of us that would sell our 1997-2000 model for that price. I wouldn't.

[truk4u]

Cheap sales on e-bay are not always what they appear!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Truk is right.

You cannot smell a coach that has been smoked in for its whole life, and no matter how good the photos they will never show the small signs of abuse. We don't know if it had an accident history. It might have a low price because it has had a fire and the repairs were of poor quality. We actually will not know without seeing the coach.

But that doesn't matter. People in the market will see a coach being sold for that price and their mind considers all coaches on the market worth what that one brought. The impact is far reaching. It not only affects the selling price of coaches but it affects how existing coaches are maintained.

An owner that decides to sspend some Lewbucks to upgrade an interior for example either will not do it or will do it as cheaply as possible if their coach is perceived as being worth little or nothing. If a coach has a market value of $300,000 which that one did prior to the sale, the owner might be more than happy to spend $30,000 redoing the interior. But when it is perceived to be worth less than $200,000 by a wide margin that owner will be wasting money to put that amount in a coach worth so little. So instead the coach ends up looking a little shabby. And the people who make money refurbishing coaches lose even more business.

It also impacts new coach sales. Anyone thinking of trading for a new coach realizes it makes no sense to buy one when the value lost over time is so enormous.

We don't know the whole story here except that the value of every coach in the market just went down even more.

[flyu2there]

Have a glance at the inventory at Desert West. Asking 250 for a 2002 XLII 45 Country Coach, 2000 Vantare XLV at 189, 1998 Marathon H3 for 175 and so on. His plastic coaches are even worse.....2007 43 foot Dutch Star with 8000 miles for 159..............yikes! Do not know how much "wiggle room" there is in any of these but I would bet that there is some....just don't show up with a trade

Looks like those of us in the TBC have been granted Life Membership!

John

[phorner]

I guess if there's any good news at all, it's that there is still a relatively small supply of bus conversions in existence.

Hopefully, all the "bargains" will be snapped up by those savvy enough to buy them and that will lead to a shortage of supply when the inevitable demand returns, although that is likely to be several years.

Not many new busses being converted today (if any) that aren't already sold, so hopefully that will also tip the balance of supply and demand somewhat in the favor of sellers, someday down the road.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it

Helps me sleep at night.......

[dale farley]

Some of the buses at Desert West appear to be great buys. Others have 500K miles. Not an encouraging site any way we look at;;;;;;unless you are in the market for a bus.

Just helps me realize I need to make any additions to mine that I want to with the thought of keeping it for the long haul.

[Darrell McCarley]

The 01 Royale is back on ebay at 279K by the same seller.

[GDeen]

I guess if there's any good news at all, it's that there is still a relatively small supply of bus conversions in existence.

Hopefully, all the "bargains" will be snapped up by those savvy enough to buy them and that will lead to a shortage of supply when the inevitable demand returns, although that is likely to be several years.

Not many new busses being converted today (if any) that aren't already sold, so hopefully that will also tip the balance of supply and demand somewhat in the favor of sellers, someday down the road.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it

Helps me sleep at night.......

I think you are correct Paul in a lot of ways. There were quite a number of buses on the market from late last year through March or so that are gone now. Lots of folks on the hunt pulled the trigger (me included) and within a couple of months the available inventory of pre-owned coaches dropped quite a bit. Marathon Dallas moved a dozen or more very quickly that had been around. Look at all the "sold" labels on RVonline listings (sorry Jim).

Obviously that doesn't address the complete supply/demand picture, but the overhang of current inventory has been significantly reduced. It seems to me at some point the prices should firm up unless there are lots more coming in.