Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas

Atlas Commando

Atlas Commando

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There's a Mecum auction on right now (Thursday through Saturday) that may be of interest to folks here. What I find the most interesting is the actual sales prices. You can go to mecum.com and set up an account. Once you have that, if you poke around a bit you can select this particular auction and then select 'Results'. You can filter on Norton (or lots of other interesting makes). If I recall correctly there are over 300 Nortons there and most of them show the price they exchanged hands for. Several things were of interest to me:
-Insane pricing on some bikes I wouldn't give $100 for, such as Kawasaki 2 stroke triple road bikes
-Even crazier prices on minibikes.... wow
-Older dirt bikes... I can't.
-The spread of prices across very similar looking models. There must be huge variability in the quality of the restoration. $27k for a Commando without Amals, versus ones that looked more correct for $7k. And yet, here are actually people who bid through the web. For me I would have to be there and personally inspect anything before I bid on it.
-A lot of the bikes look super polished and glossy. It's like they sprayed them with Mop 'n Glo

Anyway, there are plenty of interesting BSA's, Triumphs, American, Italian, and Japanese bikes, most getting bought up by people with deep pockets. Fwiw the Harley guys on another forum were commenting that the pricing looked soft.
 
Thanks for posting that. These classic motorcycles are pieces of art and the link is full of great pictures, bidding or nought
 
Page 1 .... 1928 Brough Superior SS 100 , also included is a short video of it running . Absolutely gorgeous .
 
yeah, pretty wild results. A few MK3 commando's that went for double what they're worth, and a few Goldstars that were given away for less than $8k

7R There's a lot of good stuff on today's auction. Hoping everyone logs off, or leaves the auction by the time this comes across the block.
Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas
 
Mecum’s website says live broadcast on Motortrend tv Friday - 3pm - 8pm EST .
Nope - didn’t happen . What’s up with that ? Probably screwup by Comcast . No surprise there.
 
Thanks for the link. Mecum wants my DNA to do anything on their site.
 
Yes, some nice looking DBD34s went for 6 and 7 k. Those were 25k not long ago.
 
In my opinion, the "markets" are doing UTTERLY STUPID stuff, depending on which people have more play money than brains and want "a bike like one that (whoever) rode in (whatever movie)", or whatever some hipster told them is the latest "must have" man-cave decoration bike. So, there is no "reasoning" behind what these high end auctions fetch for any given bike on any given day. All that matters is WHO showed up to bid on WHICH bikes that day, and whether or not there were more than two bidders on any particular bike.

DO NOT USE THESE AUCTIONS as a reputable analysis of any particular model bike's worth!

100% original?
"Almost perfect"
"High end restoration"
"Nice clean example"
"One owner"

NONE OF IT MATTERS. obviously customized bikes are passing as "perfect original condition", and worse.

I can't blame the auctioneers, 10% of more, is MORE. They could care less.
 
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grandpaul said:
In my opinion, the "markets" are doing UTTERY STUPID stuff, depending on which people have more play money than brains and want "a bike like one that (whoever) rode in (whatever movie)", or whatever some hipster told them is the latest "must have" man-cave decoration bike. So, there is no "reasoning" behind what these high end auctions fetch for any given bike on any given day. All that matters is WHO showed up to bid on WHICH bikes that day, and whether or not there were more than two bidders on any particular bike.

DO NOT USE THESE AUCTIONS as a reputable analysis of any particular model bike's worth!

100% original?
"Almost perfect"
"High end restoration"
"Nice clean example"
"One owner"

NONE OF IT MATTERS. obviously customized bikes are passing as "perfect original condition", and worse.

I can't blame the auctioneers, 10% of more, is MORE. They could care less.
Click to expand...
10% is less than a lot of UK auctions!
 
I don't know how things are in the US, but back here in the UK, trying to sell a bike in January is a fool's errand!
 
Maybe it's just me - but having followed the Mecum Vegas auction for years, I have a feeling that to a degree the pricing is a fad. Once a generation that appreciates machines they grew up with and are well-heeled enough to indulge and drive up prices is gone, the next generation might toss'em in the trash.

There's also evidence that several of the rarer machines go up for auction over and over, meaning speculation for profit - no more no less. Too many of the machines are "flipped" by non-enthusiasts just to make a profit off wealthy "collectors". Which bumps most enthusiasts out of the market.

It's also a popularity contest. People who know little or nothing, recognize the brand names and react with their wallets to the ooo's and ahh's of those who do know something. The insane part is when a relatively common machine goes for three times what it has historically, because of some pretty tentative "provenance". (Case in point the "Greenie" 1938 Knucklehead, which sold for over $120,000 because the owner allegedly 'proved' it was a factory custom before anyone realized Harley did such a thing during the Depression.) Of course, that has driven the price of all Knuckleheads sky high. Most people who own a Knuck these days couldn't afford to buy it back if they had to...crazy!

Other VERY worthy machines go unnoticed or are very underbid because they are not a known entity. (One example from a couple of years back was the Goodman HDS1200. One of 20 handmade British café racers in the Velocette tradition with a Harley-Davidson 1200cc Sportster engine, which sold for only $9350.)

The prices of more common, fundamentally ordinary stuff, like British Twins, tend to match inflation. A Commando at roughly $1,400 in 1972 = $10,448.77 in 2024. Unless some particular "features" (CNW rebuilds?) affect the value of a specific example.

So, there's really little or no logic involved in these auctions, but they are entertaining.
 
Kip said:
Maybe it's just me - but having followed the Mecum Vegas auction for years,
...
So, there's really little or no logic involved in these auctions, but they are entertaining.
Click to expand...
You make several good points, but it only takes two "gotta have it" bidders at the same auction, both with more play money than common sense, to throw ANY possible logic or reasoning straight out the window.
 
grandpaul said:
You make several good points, but it only takes two "gotta have it" bidders at the same auction, both with more play money than common sense, to throw ANY possible logic or reasoning straight out the window.
Click to expand...
This subject has been discussed for ages. The value of something is what ever the buyer is willing to pay at the time of sale. Grandpaul’s point about it only takes two bidders case in point .
I might add another factor in an auction situation- ego .
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much “ play money” a bidder or bidders has/ have . Some just can’t stand to lose the bidding .
You see it all the time - the auctioneer’s assistants stroking the bidders to fuel the fire .
 
That is why Barrett Jackson used a very luscious Blonde as a bidding assistant.
You could see her working all of these fat old rich guys. In that moment thought they could impress her with how they could outbid the other fat old rich guys in the room.
I can imagine there must be some serious Buyers Remorse after those auctions.
I remember an interview of one fat old rich guy who had just broken the World record price for a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, something over a million for a really ugly but rare car. The Barret Jackson interviewer/pimp excitedly asked, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE SET A NEW WORLD RECORD !!!???
The buyer was slumped in his seat , looking very depressed and obviously feeling instant Buyers Remorse.
" How do you think it feels? I just paid more than anyone else in the world has been willing to pay for this car."

Glen
 
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