Thinking about commando prices , what’s your opinion ?

74ok said:

"They want a Vincent or a Norton and that's that."

Crystal clear in your mind & that's that. Meanwhile, here's some reality.

"I’ve been approached by Harley and Japanese bike owners while on my Norton before, and nearly all of them say they never heard of Norton. Only a few of the 65+ year old guys know what a Norton is."

The above even given Brand new Nortons were on the market in the last decade.

As far a comparing Norton Vs Vincent values, Norton might as well be irrelevant.

The next new Norton...

Scott, did you ever make your cross country trip? I'm thinking about getting a bike I can do miles on. My daughter is moving to San Fran in a few months and have always wanted to do a cross country trip on non-interstate roads

www.accessnorton.com

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Jackman said:

I just bought my first Commando paid a lot , commando price will drop for sure

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worntorn said:

I recently sold a Vincent so I hope I'm still somewhat reality based with my thoughts on the old Brit bike market.
As it happened the buyer sold 3 Commandos to raise funds for the Vincent, so there is some Commando/Vincent correlation/ relevance there. One of the Commandos was an original MK3 with about 200 miles on the odometer. That one bought over 20k US.
Each time my buyer sold a bike, he let me know. It took awhile, about ten months to sell the three machines. The most expensive one went immediately. The other two were 73 850s that had been restored to show quality. They actually looked a lot nicer than the original low miles bike, but did not bring as much money. Still, he said they went for 14k US each.
All of those buyers wanted really nice Commandos, they weren't cross shopping for high specifcation used or new modern bikes.
It all seemed very much like the real world, at least as real as some comments in a parking lot . For me the main thing was the cheque turned out to be real, it went through without a problem.

Glen

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Dan1950 said:

With my paltry GM pension combined with SS my income is about $15 an hour. I put in a lot of 7 day weeks at GM.

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grandpaul said:

I was self-employed for the better parts of 40 years, so 7-day work weeks were the norm, not the exception.

Never worked for big enough companies, or for long enough, to have any kind of pension.

That's just the way that one worked.

As meager as the income was, restoring old bikes was possibly my favorite job (although construction management paid REALLY well, and I could have stuck with that company and really gone places). Sometimes it's not about the money.

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74ok said:

You're prob one of the last ones, or at least with a presence on the net.

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grandpaul said:

I doubt it.

I do know that there was nobody else I ever saw since way back when text-based GEnie gave way to Delphi with it's more viable graphical / photo capable online forum, that posted regular / daily updates to ongoing projects with photos, so that anyone (including clients) could virtually "go back to the shop" and look in on their project from long distance.

As many people here know, I was a "warts and all" guy. I posted hundreds of pix of EVERY project, start to finish. Sure, I was criticized for my mistakes, that's how you learn and grow.

I encouraged Jerry (here) to add the "Member's Projects" section, just as I did Morgan on BritBike.Com, after already instituting them on TriumphTalk & TriumphRat where I moderate the classics sections of both. To this day, I have NEVER seen another shop post continuous regular photo updates with narrative about ongoing projects, except the ones that get picked up by major outlets for publicity. Even then, those programs never fully document the nitty-gritty stuff or mistakes/accidents, unless they sensationalize it for dramatic effect.

Back to the topic at hand - For many years I annotated auction results from Mecum, Woods, Bonhams, and other regional auctions, as well as regularly scanning e-bay for "Completed Sales" to keep up with trends in the market. Admittedly, I was mostly interested in Triumphs until about 2006 when I started getting into Nortons. I also review the "For Sale" sections of over a dozen forums/groups, as well as fecebook marketplace, to keep tabs on prices (including BSA big twins)

Anyway, I'm usually in the ball park when guessing the final sale price on "Look At This" postings of new listings from BAT, E-Bay and others.

Maybe that's not exactly on topic, but it's related.

The value of currency in various countries, at various times, can significantly affect Norton Commando sale prices.

Also, you just NEVER KNOW when someone (or two people) just "must" have a particular bike, at a particular point in time, and a bidding war can skew the numbers.

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City Garage said:

Norton prices have always been depressed compared to Triumph because someone at some point decided Triumph was cooler maybe.

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74ok said:

Well i mentioned it because i'm not aware of anyone else who did or does it your way.

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grandpaul said:

Maybe regionally, but not generally. I have always found like-for-like Nortons to be listed for, and sell for more, than Triumphs. There are no 750 Triumphs going for the same money as Commandos except really nice TSSs, early & late Tridents, maybe. Not even close, really...

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City Garage said:

That's like saying a BSA is a good value . My point was more there are many 650 going for more. Look at the pre-1970 bikes, rather consistent on what they are getting comparatively. The later oil in the frame bikes aren't as popular which drives the early bikes up. Again Triumph more than Norton. Regionally of course because shipping is expensive along with auction fees etc.

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74ok said:

Beezers are fab bikes & prob the easiest way in especially if handy with tools.

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City Garage said:

We like them.

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Fast Eddie said:

I imagine a scene in the not too distant future…

A bike meet outside a cafe, a Starbucks or Costa (seeing as all independent establishments will have died).

There’s a crowd of immaculately clean, wealthy, middle class, mainly male (and some who prefer not to say), they’re all dressed in very safe, very bright, electrically operated active safety gear.

They’re with their bikes, all electrically powered, semi autonomous, totally silent and odour free. They’re all very expensive machines and their owners are taking it in turns to plugs them in to the charge points.

They’re discussing the latest downloads and apps for their machines with great interest and bold claims and the odd lively debate and bit of banter.

Then they all stop and stare in bewilderment, a noise, a smell, a sight… like folks today watching a steam locomotive pass by.

It parks up. It’s still making noises as it tinks and creaks as it cools. It’s still making smells as the hot oil and fuel vapours linger. Heck, it’s even leaking a drop or two of liquid fossils on the floor.

They stare in amazement at such quaint antique features as carberators, spark plugs, exhaust pipes, plus mysterious levers and pedals connected by cables all operated by the RIDER !?!

Our hero on the liquid fossil burning relic doesn’t quite get lynched, at least not today, not by this crowd, but he, and his clothing, and his oily hands, are certainly looked at with mystery and interest, and perhaps a little pitty…

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Fast Eddie said:

I imagine a scene in the not too distant future…

A bike meet outside a cafe, a Starbucks or Costa (seeing as all independent establishments will have died).

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grandpaul said:

Maybe regionally, but not generally. I have always found like-for-like Nortons to be listed for, and sell for more, than Triumphs. There are no 750 Triumphs going for the same money as Commandos except really nice TSSs, early & late Tridents, maybe. Not even close, really...

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