Bye bye, Small Scooter!

It finally happened.

After less than a week and a couple of casual viewings, my first Vespa, my baby LX50, is finally mine no more.

But I don't think it could have gone to a nicer home.....

Over the weekend, I had a few enquiries, one looked promising, especially after he finished his test drive and had that goofy 'I just rode a Vespa' look on his face. But that particular customer opted to go for a larger scooter.

Over the past couple of days, I have been emailing a person called Sofia who was interested in my Vespa.   She finally appeared tonight, on a motorcycle, with a friend.

She's a very nice person (OK, she's pretty as well) and had ridden an LX50 before ("It was a work Vespa." How cool is that?). She looked at it, admiringly, and then zipped off for a test drive while I talked to her friend. The friend (sorry, didn't catch his name) was a bit of a motorcycle aficionado, having a couple of his own and also owned a fairly new LX50 that he had bought for his wife (she didn't like it because it went too fast!!!). He knew lots about Vespas (more than me, actually) and seemed impressed by the shape it was in.

Sofia came back from her test drive looking, frankly, pretty pleased. I knew that smile and I thought that I would be happy to sell it to her if she enjoyed the scoot as much as I had. The friend then took it for a ride and Sofia and I talked about the scoot, including how I had driven it to Seattle, Powell River and many times to Vancouver. She seemed pretty well sold at that point....

Sofia: "So, I don't want to lowball you but is there room for negotiation?"
Me: "There's always room for negotiation."
Sofia: 'Well, what's your bottom line (or something like that)"
Me: "$1300?"
Sofia: "OK"

Not exactly the hard boiled school of negotiation for either of us, but I think we both got what we wanted. I had originally asked for $1500 so $1300 was well within range. She save a couple hundred dollars off the asking price. I probably could have pushed for the $1500 - I could tell she really liked it - but I was really pleased that someone who was going to have fun with it, got it. Everyone won, even the LX50 because it's going to be ridden regularly again!

I rode the scoot for the last time as we went from my apartment building to the local mall. It rode great, actually, and I felt a bit wistful as I zipped along. Not fast like my GTS250, but still elegantly.

We did the insurance transfer at the local London Drugs and then, as my wife met me and we had a celebratory coffee at Starbucks, I saw the two of them in the parking lot, fiddling with the new license plate and getting ready for the long ride into Vancouver.

After I coffee, I looked over to where they were in the parking lot, and they were gone.