Kinda new here.
I owned and operated an independent Scooter shop back in the '80's when scooters were all the rage.
I had been working in a major Honda dealership and when I saw how they treated new scooter owners, I figured "Why not?' and struck off on my own.
I can't say I ever made any real money, but it was fun, even with the long hours. The biggest problem I had was the fact that the bulk of my customers were college kids and didn't have any money.
Any money I made was mostly from buying and selling them as the school year dictated their demand. Did a lot of dumpster diving for parts scooters/nopeds at the end of the semesters.
At their least expensive, Iowa Sprees were $299.
It seemed to me at the time, that Honda's vision was all these college kids would move up to an Elite 250 upon graduation, but it didn't work that way. They went out and bought a BMW car or something like it.
Buy the time the early '90's rolled around, the prices had gone up to the point that the craze had all but faded.
Eventually, I sold all my stock of new and used parts to a couple of guys in Mexico and moved on.
Kind of wish I had hung on to the posters though. I had them all, Atom Ant, Grace Jones and my fav., Devo.
Of course I rode scooters all those years. I had my pick of most of them, but prefered '85/'86 Aero 50's and the same years Elite 150 deluxes.
And yes, even back then I had to prop open the headlite covers
