Thread: Are we in a recession or do I just think we are?

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

I don't know what it takes to make farmers happy. I suspect they will always winge no matter how good times are. it seems to be the nature of the beast.

This year a record wheat harvest was brought in. Sheep are solid gold. Wool is good again. Cattle prices have been high for years. Sugar is so good that foreign companies are falling over each other trying to buy our mills and there is talk of expanding production. Other grains are in short supply due to demand for lot feeding and ethanol production.

For many farmers, this is the first or second non-disastrous season in the last ten years. In substantial areas of NSW , certainly the wheat crop was large, but rain during harvest meant downgraded wheat, and the prices are not all that crash-hot when translated into A$. Costs (fuel, fertiliser, labour, machinery, rates, power) continue to rise a lot faster than prices, and the staggering amount of red tape keeps increasing. Many irrigation farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin are mostly facing ruin due to water allocation cutbacks after a decade of zero water while still paying infrastructure levies. Rabbits are developing increasing resistance to calicivirus et etc. Little wonder that farmers are in general quite happy to sell out to foreign investors or mining companies (or tree changers!) - the average age of farmers is close to sixty, and few can pass it on to their sons - most sons have long since decided farming is a mug's game and moved to the city where you don't have to work from daybreak to dark seven days a week and then spend the evenings handling red tape just to pay the mortgage, with your wife commuting up to 150km a day to keep food on the table. There are exceptions, of course, mainly the ones without mortgages and on good country, but these are few and far between.

John

Originally Posted by p38arover

I've got a Yamaha XJR1300 for sale on Bikesales - it's been up since December. I've dropped the price as far as I'm willing and it hasn't moved. It's 4 years old with 11,000km and almost immaculate and it's now advertised for $6,000 less than new. I've been offered even less by a dealer but I might as well keep it. The rego and insurance for the next couple of years don't amount to anywhere near what the loss would be by taking the offer. I don't need to sell it, I just have a problem justifying retention as I don't ride a lot. I only put on 1,000km last year.

Ron, these following comments may not be applicable in your case where you are trying to sell a modern bike. However, in my experience as a vehicle dealer years ago, a 4 y.o. vehicle should be below 60% of purchase price unless it is a very special item. Mass produced bikes that are not special low production models or versions have very high depreciation rates.


As you know I sell special tools to the motor and machinery hobbies. I keep an eye on asking prices in Just Cars, Just Bikes, and Restored Cars. Far too many people are advertising their treasure at ridiculous prices. They will never achieve them. The advertising usually runs for a few months then ceases. If you ring and ask if the machine has been sold, the common reply is that they gave up and are going to keep it. "I am not going to let someone steal it. It owes me $xyxyxy and I intend to get my money back or keep it."
They do not understand that they have not value added the restoration cost to what in most cases is a pretty ordinary piece of mass production. The restoration cost is the cost of their hobby, and never to be seen again.

A couple of examples. A 1950 Ford Anglia for $20,000 "far less than the cost of the restoration". An Anglia? Not even a Prefect? Why bother. Rubbish then=rubbish now. $200.00 not $20,000?

A 1937 Chev advertised for $37,000. I saw this car. The restoration is a credit to the owner's skills. Restored to a standard the maker never intended or could have achieved with the technology of the time. Still, it is a cheap mass produced family car of no great technical merit, no competition history, never had a famous owner, or took part in historical events. Again, he said it cost him $25,000 to restore and he intends to get his money back. "Best of luck" says I. Four years later he has long given up hope of selling it. But, is still not going to "let some ****** steal it". This is a $7,000 to $10,000 car.