Mecum Motorcycle Auction Las Vegas today Tuesday January 22 thru Saturday January 26,2019

#1
Mecum Las Vegas motorcycle auction starts today January 22, 2019 thru Saturday January 26,2019. Over 1700 bikes for sale. Many interesting lots from private collections. Including Japanese and European motocross bikes from the late 1960s and 1970s which many of us grew into.

Of course there are the traditional Vincent Black Shadows, Indians and "Strap tank" Harleys . And let us not forget the obligatory grossly overpriced Honda Z50s and Trail 70s which some of us apparently never grew out of.

See Mecum website for broadcast and webcast details.
 
#2
Besides OldMiniBikes, I also belong to groups for old Hodaka motorcycles and old Yamaha Enduros. I believe there will be some breathtaking results for each brand in Las Vegas. Heck, on the Bring A Trailer auction last week a '69 Yamaha 175cc Enduro sold for more than $8,000.
 
#3
Besides OldMiniBikes, I also belong to groups for old Hodaka motorcycles and old Yamaha Enduros. I believe there will be some breathtaking results for each brand in Las Vegas. Heck, on the Bring A Trailer auction last week a '69 Yamaha 175cc Enduro sold for more than $8,000.
I don't know what your membership of a motorcycle group on the internet has to do with the price of corn in Kansas, but if you look at the auction mentioned in the OP, it is vastly larger than a usual Mecum auction, and contains infinitely more rare offerings.

There are several vintage flat trackers for instance, and several one-in-existence bikes. I was thinking just the opposite- that due to the level of bikes being offered, the more mundane bikes will bring something lower than the ridiculous prices. $8K ($8250) was a fluke price, and three times the going rate of any of the CT1's. To put it in perspective, that final bid was on par with auction prices of H2's- of which this current auction has several.

Yesterday at the auction in the OP, a 1968 DT1 (Dual Sport 250) went for $2200, 71 SL 350 (I need this) for $1320, 76 Wombat $880, and a 66 Simplex Sportsman for $1760.

I follow some of these bikes, having a nostalgic interest in them. I rode both a CT1 125 and 175 virtually brand new, when the neighbor brothers next door went out and bought them with the money they made putting up hay. I was ten or eleven, though not a member of an internet motorcycle group.

BAT Bike
$1000 1970 CT 175
A Restored CT175
 
#4
...I follow some of these bikes, having a nostalgic interest in them. I rode both a CT1 125 and 175 virtually brand new, when the neighbor brothers next door went out and bought them with the money they made putting up hay. I was ten or eleven, though not a member of an internet motorcycle group...
Good for you. And I had a brand new 1971 Yamaha AT1-C 125cc Enduro when I was 14 years old so we're almost like brothers. I'll tell ya, brother, don't be such a grouch.
 
#5
Good for you. And I had a brand new 1971 Yamaha AT1-C 125cc Enduro when I was 14 years old so we're almost like brothers. I'll tell ya, brother, don't be such a grouch.
I'm not grouchy Tom. The original post was about an auction. If you find an $8K sell for a $3K bike "breathtaking," you're on the different end of the spectrum than I am. I didn't grasp that reference, nor the relevance of belonging to a Hodaka group with respect to a Mecum auction. Sorry for mentioning it.

I took the time out to post relevant information on not only that bike genre, but yesterday's sales prices on bikes I thought you'd be interested in.

Cool that someone bought you a new motorcycle in 1971.
 
#6
And continuing my "grouchy" harangue, here are a couple of highlights from day two of the Vegas motorcycle lots that might interest my fellow mini bike hobbyists.

69 Hodaka Ace $2200, 71 Super Rat $8800
69 H1 $8800, 73 H2 $12K
67 BSA 441 Victor $4125
69 Indian Mini- up to $5750, still bidding.
71 SL 70's $4400 (A couple of them and a couple more in the $6K range!)
Z50's anywhere from $3 to $6K then a 69 that went for $9350
My 79CR250 Elsinore (wish I'd kept it, I only paid $900 for it in 1981) $6325
72 Rupp RMT 80 $990 (what?)
75 Rupp RMX 125 $5500
73 RD350 $4400 (Blue, pristine Tom)
78 M5B (Italia Jet) $9350

I didnt come close to listing the sell prices of the eleven pages of lots! There were some surprisingly cheap buys, and some surprisingly expensive buys. Lots of vintage MX bikes, Rickman, Bultaco, etc. went for reasonable money, IMO. I didn't list the exotics, or the vintage Harley or European bikes. Every time I look at the Vegas list, (just up the road from me) I think, "I'll save money for the next one, and snag one of those cheap bikes." Then I buy two or three mini bikes, and send a box of stuff to the chrome shop, so I end up sitting here with my hand on my pud thinking, "I could have had that Victor 441!" (My friend had one in Oregon in the 70's, and it took three of us taking turns to kick start it in to action, at which point that bike did it's level best to kill us) :)

And yes, that was a 69 Honda Mini Trail that went for $9350. The definition of more money than sense.
 
#7
Well...my estimates for overpriced z50s were greatly underestimated.. lot number S135..two 1986 Christmas special z50s in a crate. .$51,150... yes Fifty one THOUSAND one hundred fifty dollars!!

Maybe it was the silver garland wrapping the crate that made the difference??
 
#10
Guess I'm getting too old. Seems that people just have a lot of extra money to pay that kind of money for some of these bikes that are not that rare. Did you see the Crocker? I had to go when it went past 500K but at least it was a rare bike.
 
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