Thoughts on Copake Auction

[Freqman1]

I was at an antique motorcycle show this past weekend so I didn't even do any live bidding. I had left some bids on Hi-Bid and won the early Cadillac headlight. I just took a look at the prices realized and overall it looked like bargain day at Copake. While there weren't any real exceptional Ordinarys (high wheelers) the ones that were there were going cheap. I think only broke $3k. Not my cup of tea but I thought the Elgin Gull would do better than $3k.

The original paint '37 Zep Barto got for $550 was a smoking bargain on my book. Again, no exceptional road bikes but even the better ones went cheap I thought. There were some outliers such as the green and white B6 that brought $2200. I was really surprised the '38 Paramount only did $2k--I thought this would easily be double that. Then there was a gaudy Elgin Four Star with all kinds of wrong on it getting $550?

For the most part the deco tricycles performed well with a few of them over $1k. Even the repo Sky King brought $400! A $50 trike in my book. Listed as a '49 Luxury Liner and looking a little tired but all there only went for $375--I see at least double that in parts which would be a shame. Some of the early to teens safeties, or parts thereof, seemed to do ok while others such as the seemingly complete '19 IJ truss bike languished at $350.

Overall it looked to me like ephemera and literature was on teh downside as well and there were a lot of bargains to be had. The early car parts were almost given away in many cases and I'm sure these will be flipped for decent profit. Besides the Bronco the star of this show to me was the bell display which wound up at $7250---anyone here get that prize?

While the prices seemed to be down across the board ther just didn't seem to be that many pieces that had the sizzle to draw the good money. Still a lot of solid stuff went out the door cheap in my book. I'd be interested to hear what the participants in this auction have to say. V/r Shawn

 

[Kickstand3]

I got busy at work but that US . Royal sign for $80
What a bargain item 1056 I believe

 

[pedal4416]

@Freqman1 here is the thread where they are discussing the auction issues. In my past experience the cell service is sh@$ there so I am not surprised the internet auction wasn't working. The whole town is powered by a goat on a wheel!
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/october-2022-copake-auction-and-swap.213749/page-4#post-1481295

 

[SirMike1983]

There were some interesting items, but not a lot that interested me. The Sunbeam for $375 was not a bad deal. $1,100 for the Herse doesn't seem bad either. It was an attractive road bike. The add-on fees probably temper that somewhat. There seemed to be quite a bit to choose from by way of pre-1933 type bikes.
I agree that some of the road bikes went for buyer-friendly prices.

I think the economy has soured to a degree, daily goods have inflated, and many buyers are holding back. It's hard to get buyers to spend on bikes if a period of stag-flation is a real possibility.

 

[Rusthound]

I posted on another Copake thread. I have a friend who works at a decent sized auction house, he said the last three sale prices are down. I got lucky with my e bids last night my computer and hardware are steam driven so I don't normally get my bid to take. So I normally leave a bids via Hi-bid and see how I do. Last night I got a bid in with 2 seconds left was high bid. A year ago another collector posted a small one off hand made car for $1000 nice car, nice piece of garage art. I looked at it made an offer he didn't take he sold it a few weeks later. I bought it last night for $285.00 plus fees and tax.
I sold a couple of my really good pieces in the Spring (1948 Eliason motorized toboggan had an Indian V twin Motor) and was having second thoughts, but I'm thinking maybe was the right thing to do.