This year, the auction was similar to past years, yet the selling prices seemed not as consistent as we’d seen in previous auctions. Many bikes sold for far below what we thought they would while other models set new records. It was difficult to determine what effect, if any, the poor economy had on sales prices. We did meet several people from Europe so we know the low dollar drew at least a few bargain hunters from overseas.
As reported earlier, in November many potential sellers were too late to gain an auction slot in the 2011 auction. Midamerica’s two and a half day schedule allows for about 75 bikes to be auctioned at the dinner on Thursday night, with another 200 or so machines on both Friday and Saturday full day auctions.
Bikes that don’t reach a successful reserve price at auction are sent to the “corral” where they are offered for sale at their reserve price. We estimate about 75 bikes didn’t hit reserve during the auction and were sent to the “corral”. This year, the final bike went across the block at almost 7 P.M. on Saturday night and everyone still in attendance seemed exhausted by that point.
Our unofficial estimate on Saturday night was that around 400 motorcycles were successfully sold at auction, while another 10 were sold out of the “corral”. The roughly 65 bikes still in the corral by auction’s end went home with their original owners.
As every seller realizes, the final sales price depends on whether or not there are at least two interested parties to bid their motorcycles above their reserve price. Or … if the reserve price isn’t achieved, whether they are motivated enough to drop their reserve and accept a price lower than they had hoped.
For two of the bikes we highlighted in our preview posting, there were indeed at least two very motivated bidders and the bikes selling prices reflected that.
First, Terry Clark’s excellent 1939 Tiger 100 sold for $34,000 on Saturday morning.
It was the highest price achieved for a Triumph all weekend. (This motorcycle is the sister bike to the terrific 1938 5T Speed Twin in our collection that Terry restored. You can see pictures of our 5T in the photo album.) The ’39 Tiger 100 is now in Utah with its very proud new owner who has it on display in his foyer and plans to ride it with the vintage motorcycle club in Salt Lake City this spring.
Another bike we highlighted in our preview was Leroy Turner’s beautiful 1970 BSA A65 Lightning.
The A65 was a real eye catcher and we understand several bidders noticed it on our website and attended the auction intent to bid on it. The A65 went across the block on Friday afternoon and the bidding was spirited to say the least. In the end, the bike sold for $14,000 (plus commission of 7%, of course) which was easily a new record for a ’70 Lightning as far as we can determine.
Our 1962 TR6SS sold for $10,400 which was a fair price for both us and the buyer.
That machine is currently in transit to Pennsylvania where we understand it will be put on display awaiting better weather where it will be seen tooling around the PA countryside.
Our 1965 T120C sold for a rather disappointing $7600. Although ours was a very nice machine, TT bikes tend to be impractical for many people and perhaps that was the reason for such a low price. In any case, it has moved on to a new home and we have a bit more space for new additions to our collection.
There were other notable Triumph sales including a 1973 X-75 Hurricane which sold for $25,000 and a beautiful 1957 Triumph TR6 from Rod Wheeler which sold for $20,000 to our friend Mike Johnson.
Other motorcycle sales of note were a 1950 Vincent Black Shadow for $85,000, a 1934 Harley Davidson CAC race bike for $165,000 and a 1934 Crocker Racer which was purchased by Dana Mecam (of auto auction fame) for $140,000.
By far, the star of the show was a 1939 Brough Superior SS 100 which sold for $240,000 plus commission!
Midamerica has posted all of the sales for the auction online so if you are interested in seeing exactly what each bike sold for at Las Vegas, copy and paste the following link.
http://www.midamericaauctions.com/showauction.asp?ID=161
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