It's a tough decision. Break down a complete and running BIG RED for parts or sell it as a whole ATC. For a recent 1984 Honda BIG RED 200ES I got mechanically set the decision will be to break it down for parts. This is mostly due to my location. I have found selling a complete unrestored BIG RED in the 1982 -1984 year range to be much more difficult than selling a 1985-1987 BIG RED. Perspective buyers are willing to travel more for the newer BIG REDS. The county I live in has fewer people than most suburbs of the nearby big cities (which are about 100 miles away). Many of the perspective buyers come from the city and are hesitant to drive 2 hours here and two hours back for a fair priced BIG RED. In my experience both methods have their difficulties. Selling the whole vehicle has tire kickers and lowball offers. Also the offers you get to trade for _____ even though you say no trades. Well you fill in the blank for trades I have gotten offers for all sorts of stuff. The trades are typically nothing I want. Don't get me wrong I meet a lot of great people selling stuff but it tends to take awhile and I need to refresh ads regularly. The selling for parts route on Ebay is good for me but it takes work too. This means breaking everything down, taking pictures, bagging it up, and listing. When the parts sell it is then packaging, getting the postage ready, and then shipping. For me the money tends to be more in parts. I understand this because most of the BIG REDS that I have bought have a least a few broken or missing parts and some of the parts just can't be repaired. Hand brake levers, air filters, and battery hold downs are some missing I can think of right off the bat. I will typically get everything functional on the BIG RED before I break it down for parts. This way I know the parts are ready to install. I honestly do not like parting out a running BIG RED. I feel like I am destroying it and there will be one less BIG RED out there but I am hoping the parts sold will get many more BIG REDS running and working in return.
