Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas

Madnorton said:
There could well have been Black S types, a relative has one and they obtained it as a NOVA import with 6,000 miles on it. There are no other colours evident on the side cover or tank to say it has been resprayed. Also, the factory records has the colour left blank.
Be careful with auctions as the 'provenance' on top priced bikes rarely matches the records when we check, some auction houses are worse than others. An S type went through Stafford a few years back and the only thing that could have been S type was the VIN plate, the rest did not match up at all. A recent Norton F1, never used on the road but refurbished in 2013, a MK3 ES Unregistered and sold by in 1975 that did not leave number 2 works until February 1976.
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That is all useful insight in the collector bike market. So many times, these vehicles are not what they appear to be. Last year there was a big debate over the authenticity of a Kawasaki 750 that went for very high bid, but then there was a question with the serial numbers and so forth. As to the 20 or even $30,000 Kaw H2, I know every day when I ride mine I devaluate it. The good news is I have a realistic expectation of what it's really worth. The value to me is the banshee wail of a 2- stroke on the boil.
My little world involves motorcycles that I intend to ride, not flipped for a profit, or not as part of my retirement portfolio. Simply little distractions… Certainly I won't be bidding at these auctions. I have considered attending before, but I'm pretty sure it would be just a crual reminder as to the little bitty checks that I write.🤣
 
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Also, realistic value is part of my decision making process all throughout ownership of all my rolling stock.
Expensive "jewelry" that adds no performance or longevity function will not be found on my bike.
Just my frugal roots that can't be over ridden.
 
Here are some of the Norton auctions and results. Some surprises there. The 650SS and the '55 ES2 were well bought I thought. Commando's all over the place. P11's solid around the $10K mark. Only one 961 lot made $11.5k. One Electra made $2.7K and and another made double that.

www.mecum.com

Las Vegas Motorcycles 2026 - Mecum Auctions

Mecum Auctions will showcase a stunning collection of 2,000 motorcycles at the South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV on January 27-31, 2026.
www.mecum.com www.mecum.com
 
I thought the prices for Commandos were especially low this year. The 2 nicely restored Mk3's sold for $11,550 and $12,650--that's the hammer price plus the 10% buyer's fee. The sellers pay a $500 consignment fee and another 6% commission if sold "no reserve" (10% for "reserve"), so that's only $9,370 and $10,310 to them (plus the cost to ship the bike to Las Vegas that can run another $800). A friend of mine sold a beautiful Mk3 with them a few years ago for $28,500!
 
HouTexNorton said:
I thought the prices for Commandos were especially low this year. The 2 nicely restored Mk3's sold for $11,550 and $12,650--that's the hammer price plus the 10% buyer's fee. The sellers pay a $500 consignment fee and another 6% commission if sold "no reserve" (10% for "reserve"), so that's only $9,370 and $10,310 to them (plus the cost to ship the bike to Las Vegas that can run another $800). A friend of mine sold a beautiful Mk3 with them a few years ago for $28,500!
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So the buyers paid $12650 and $13915.

No doubt in life - hire a middleman and put less in your pocket! In this case, the middleman makes real money the seller makes less than they should and the buyer pays more than they should!
 
marshg246 said:
So the buyers paid $12650 and $13915.

No doubt in life - hire a middleman and put less in your pocket! In this case, the middleman makes real money the seller makes less than they should and the buyer pays more than they should!
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Such is life when you have play money.
 
marshg246 said:
So the buyers paid $12650 and $13915.

No doubt in life - hire a middleman and put less in your pocket! In this case, the middleman makes real money the seller makes less than they should and the buyer pays more than they should!
Click to expand...
The buyers paid $11,550 and $12,560, the hammer price plus 10% as shown on the Mecum website. Those are pretty good deals, but it's the sellers that really get screwed.
 
Realistically, there are various "motorcycle values"...

-Direct seller to buyer, in person (Newspaper ad, craigslist. FB ,marketplace)
-Similar to above, but involving cross-country shipping (some level of trust involved)
-e-bay (nominal fee) deals that include buyer and seller protections
-Forum and other online F/S posts with or without guarantees
-Live private / estate auctions
-Live public auctions
-High-end (Mecum, etc) public auctions
-High-end (online - B.A.T., etc) auctions

I believe that the EXACT SAME BIKE, presented for sale in each of those DIFFERENT formats,
would fetch WILDLY different prices on any given day.

It's all pretty screwy, but IN MY OPINION, only B.A.T. & Mecum are fetching "top dollar" consistently.
BOTH of those exhibited / are exhibiting A SOMEWHAT DEPRESSED MARKET at present,
consistent with the rest of the marketplace (top to bottom)
 
If you want to sell your bike now you need coverage ie you need to have a wide audience. Ebay will get you that as will BAT or similar. You will pay for this. But the question really is: do you want to SELL your bike?
You can sell quickly if you have a realistic price and a wide audience. But you will have to accept the sell price
will be a lot less than you probably want.
Facts of life in the current world.
 
grandpaul said:
Realistically, there are various "motorcycle values"...

-Direct seller to buyer, in person (Newspaper ad, craigslist. FB ,marketplace)
-Similar to above, but involving cross-country shipping (some level of trust involved)
-e-bay (nominal fee) deals that include buyer and seller protections
-Forum and other online F/S posts with or without guarantees
-Live private / estate auctions
-Live public auctions
-High-end (Mecum, etc) public auctions
-High-end (online - B.A.T., etc) auctions

I believe that the EXACT SAME BIKE, presented for sale in each of those DIFFERENT formats,
would fetch WILDLY different prices on any given day.

It's all pretty screwy, but IN MY OPINION, only B.A.T. & Mecum are fetching "top dollar" consistently.
BOTH of those exhibited / are exhibiting A SOMEWHAT DEPRESSED MARKET at present,
consistent with the rest of the marketplace (top to bottom)
Click to expand...

BAT has had a lot of legal issues over the last several years and guys I know who have used them in the past have moved on. People who were busted for making
false bids with no intention of following through were allowed to continue to bid on stuff...Also, I've been told that it takes some time to get a vehicle on their site
for sale.....I can't confirm any of this personally, as I would never buy anything via an auction........

I have a lot of money into my personal toys, but I didn't build them thinking about a resale value..they will be sold for whatever can be had or given away when the time comes by a close friend who will be handling my estate. I do keep meticulous records on my builds, complete photo albums as well as any and all documentation like parts receipts, etc.....Last year I sold one of my M3's and the buyer was blown away by the detail in the 2 binder set of pics and records. There is a lot of value in doing this, especially if you are thinking of eventual resale value of a vehicle...I do it "just because", even with my client race car builds.
 
74 Cafe' said:
... I do keep meticulous records on my builds, complete photo albums as well as any and all documentation like parts receipts, etc.....Last year I sold one of my M3's and the buyer was blown away by the detail in the 2 binder set of pics and records. There is a lot of value in doing this, especially if you are thinking of eventual resale value of a vehicle...I do it "just because", even with my client race car builds.
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I have records going back to 1989 (my first self-built PC), and every bike since has had a digital record going back to the late 70s transcribed from my scrawls, broken down to shop time to the nearest 1/4 hour, and expense to the penny. I also have anywhere from 5 to 500+ photos (including scanned old style "hard" photos) per project (restorations and custom builds from 100-500 each, the JPN being 520), plus every scrap of records from hand-scrawled Bills of Sale, to AutoCAD drawings, to parts receipts, to latest registration, all scanned and filed in each bike's digital folder.

ALL OF THIS will be thrown out within a week of my death, I'm pretty sure.

But, it's "all there"...
 
Anxious to see what the George Beale RC 174 replica brings tonight - IIRC he made 8 or so at $ 250 k each. A 1949 ES 2 similar to my 1950 brought something over 8 k so that buyer did well and a 1990 Honda GB 500 something over $ 9 k so slightly more than I paid for mine some years back .
Edit - RC 174 sold $ 330,000
 
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Hope you guys don't mind a short travelogue. On a joint whim, I took off 6AM on Friday with my son for the 4 hr drive to the Mecum auction. Did a quick stop at Zzyzx, having passed by countless times. Worth the 30-minute diversion. Then the show. Walked the floor for hours. So many Brit bikes, I was amazed at how many Matchless. Met a guy who bought a 'De Luxe' 59 Dominator from Baxter Cycle. Turns out he lives in a nearby canyon that I ride a lot. I sat in on a little bit of the auction, but for me, walking the floor was the best. That amplified hyperbolic auctioneering babble annoys me to no end.

Saturday, we drove out to Hoover Dam, had a great breakfast in Boulder City, and walked the bridge and dam. Definitely got my steps in, and enjoyed every minute of the quick trip. The weather was glorious.

I enjoyed seeing the H-D 'Silent Gray Fellow', pic below of my son next to it, and one taken 111 years ago of his great-grandfather astride one (with his great-grandmother - they married many years later, haha).

A fellow local Laverda owner I recently met bought this 750SFC for $65K. Gulp. He declined my offer to ride it back to LA.

Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas


Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas


Mecum Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas
 
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The price listed on the Mecum website includes the buyers premium. So the 1948 Model 30 hammer price was 14k, then the buyers premium brings it to $15.4k, thats listed as the sale price.

I thought there was a lot of good deal, and a lot of things did a lot better than I expected. I attended 3 days and it honestly depended on who was in the room. The Thursday British vintage/Racing stuff all did really well. The same bikes on Friday did less. Everything getting big money on Friday was Japanese stuff, and dirt bikes.

Was cool to attend and see an auction like that first hand.
 
I just had this conversation with my son Fri. He has a 71 Triumph and I have a 74 Commando 850 we are rebuilding. The cost of parts has risen considerably at a time when the value of a completed bike has dropped considerably. While the intent has never been to "make" money on these, the ROI still gives you pause.
 
Atlas Commando said:
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.
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Some bidders read something somewhere, and think they're getting sold gold, but actually spending stupid money on polished turds.
 

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