Randolph Palmer The market for antique motorcycles continues to extend, with fees and volume growing year-over-year. As a result, Mecum Auction, Inc. Set a file for motorcycle and road art sales at their January 2019 Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction on the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center’s Priefert Pavilion. Mecum claims that their event, held annually for the past 28 years, is now the sector’s largest public bike sale. This year, it naturally accrued a worldwide solid of manufacturers, from the familiar American brands to difficult-to-understand European marques and beyond.
Over 1,340 motorcycles were sold on the auction block for the duration of the January 22 – 26 occasion, gathering a total of $26.3 million in sales (additionally together with road artwork income), an increase of 87 percent over the 2018 occasion. Over 91 percent of the motorcycles presented on the market acquired prevailing bids. Sales have been stimulated with a 238-motorcycle grouping from Sweden’s MC Collection, a private collection based in Stockholm. The collection was changed based on Christer R. Christensson and evolved with bike historian Ove Johansson to help illustrate the history of the bike from 1894 to the present. The MC Collection is moving this year, and the new venue, the 1645 Baroque Palace Tido Castle, could have much less show space — for this reason, the sale of surplus motorcycles. Christensson and Guy Fithen’s 2016 book, World’s Best Motorcycles (Wilkinson Publishing), profiles 18 ancient and large bikes from the MC Collection.
The pinnacle dealer on the auction this year turned into the MC Collection. A 1939 Crocker Big Tank was bought for $704,000 – a ways above the pre-public sale estimate of $500,000. Crocker became a brief-lived (1932 – 1942) American motorbike emblem based in Los Angeles, famed for manufacturing single-cylinder speedway motorcycles and V-twin cruisers with big-displacement, high-output engines. Total production for the symbol is predicted at 200 bikes, of which sixty-eight are recognized today. The $704,000 sale fee represents the record for a Crocker at public sale.
