Ask The Editors: What’s Up With the Used Scene These Days
Your local classifieds section looking a little slim? You aren’t alone.
We’re noticing similar patterns all over as well and while we can’t be positive the cause, our suspicions point us toward the abnormality of late in being able to buy new. Several of the dealers we contacted across various brands have told us they literally have no inventory on the sales floor. None.
We asked why this was and they explained it’s a perfect storm of factors – the pandemic has had them operating on reduced hours and skeleton crews for over a year, the factories themselves as well, and shipping companies and distributing hubs have been dealing with the same shortages. As if all of this weren’t enough, a global chip shortage is wreaking havoc on the production of all electronics. (To read more about our coverage on that, click here).
So how does one correlate with the other you ask? When riders can’t upgrade to new equipment, they are forced into holding onto their current ride until things settle down. Dealers say they are desperate for trade-ins but lack the new inventory to trade them in toward. Some we’ve talked to have been placing ads to buy used machines outright to fix up and resell.
We too hope that things continue to stabilize and that the industry starts getting back on track.
As for our lack of recommending a weekly used machine on SprocketList, the publishing game isn’t immune to cutbacks and slow-downs as a result of these unstable times as well. We’re looking to get back into full swing this fall, however, so bear with us just a little bit longer.
