History

How Did RideSafely.com Start

In the late 1990s I got into motorcycle racing and decided to get my own bike for a racetrack. This was the first time that a friend of mine introduced me to the salvage auction. He suggested that I buy a salvage bike and install all the necessary accessories for the racetrack. He has been rebuilding and reselling salvage cars as a side business and guided me through the process. It was surprisingly easy, convenient and cheap.

I was riding this salvage bike for half a year until I crashed it. The crash was insignificant, but I was ready for a new bike so I decided to sell the old one. This was when I realized the full potential of the salvage vehicles: by being listed for three days on Ebay auction my bike was already making more than it took me to buy it and to repair it all together. I made over $1,000 in profit. I thought of all the other cars I’ve ever bought and sold: never have I sold a used and salvage vehicle for more than what I paid for it till this case with the salvage motorcycle. I had a true light bulb moment that triggered me to take the action.

Together with my partners, we started listing and collecting pre-bids for salvage motorcycles coming from the salvage auctions before it became an actual sale in the Philadelphia area. The demand was phenomenal and business was growing fast. We expanded our operations to the entire Northeastern region from North Carolina to Maine and instead of selling motorcycles on Ebay, we created our own site – RideSafely.com

Soon the auction house that we used as our source sent us a “Cease and Desist” letter, stating that we are infringing on the copyrighted materials. This letter started a chain of events, which gave us an opportunity to become the first official reseller of the auction inventory. Part of the deal was offering all auction inventory and not only power sports such as motorcycles and ATVs.

Within two years RideSafely.com operation expanded from selling salvage motorcycles from a single car garage in my house to 11 locations domestically covering the entire continental US as well as Canada, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Guatemala. Within few more years RideSafely.com has made it to the list of the top 500 fastest growing companies in America and top 100 in Philadelphia and Dubai.

While the business was doing very well, we realized that we have a much greater mission. We could be the eye opener company. We could show people the limitless opportunities, which we were not aware of until my friend exposed me to them. We could introduce people to the salvage auction and help them make their own business of it. Just like my friend, we could make a difference. Ridesafely.com could be that friend!

Wasn’t it putting us at risk of creating competitors, you ask? No! We changed the purpose of our company. Now we do not just buy cars, repairing them and resell. We actually created a company that offers the opportunity to our clients; we – the friend, which bridges to the salvage auction that used to be available to the licensed dealers only. Since we changed the direction of our business, we earned trust and loyalty of over 790,000 clients and the number keeps growing! We do not just introduce people to the concept but we educate our customers. We prepare them for the purchase, so that they make wise decisions and return to us again and again. This is one of the core values of our company: we are happy, when you are happy.

Max Repik, Co-Founder | Chairman