Selling My Classic Triumph/british/bike Stuff!

[grandpaul]

I've been selling off my collection the last few years, and really hit a big upswing this year, I've sold 18 of the 36 bikes I started the year with.

Since I no longer have any project bikes, and all my nice bikes won't be needing anything for the far forseeable future, I no longer have the need for such a large lot of spare parts.

As far as Triumph, I have a pre-unit engine project, 3 pre-unit transmissions, several cases for unit big twins, and TONS of various engine, chassis & body parts, mostly for big twins. I also have a 500 rolling chassis, but it's been chopped/raked. There is a nice stash of several thousand dollars worth (retail) of bagged & tagged new bits (almost all small/tiny stuff). Bunch of Amal concentric & monobloc carbs, and several Smiths meters.

I have a complete Kenny Dreer / Baisley VR880 Norton Commando engine project that's worth several grand, includes VR reinforced transmission case & "big bearing" tranny cradle. Also have a complete retrofit fairing & bodywork kit for a John Player Norton worth several grand (heck, just the original JPN extended gas tank is worth several grand). Plus, a bunch of Norton engine & miscellaneous Norton parts including several swingarms (can fabricate a monoshock swingarm with 2 of them; I'll provide fabrication plans, I've done it). I have a trick pair of CV carbs with custom manifolds set up for the VR engine, also.

There is a complete BSA A65 twin "power egg" engine that was seized, needs overhaul. Other BSA stuff includes footpegs, rear fender rails, spindles, etc. There's also a matching oil tank & sidecover for a 250/441. Not too much BSA stuff. Common to the Triumph stuff, there are carbs & meters.

As far as classic Japanese bike parts, there is very little, mostly tail lights & turn signals, also some meters. There a mixed bunch of Mikuni & Kehin carbs.

Anyway, there is 45 years of memories in there, but I'm about done with it. I stopped taking new client work earlier this year, and it's my intention to phase ALL of this stuff out over the next 2 years, apart from 5 or 6 "keeper" bikes.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, email me [email protected] or call me at (956) 231-6871 and let's talk. If the price is right, I'll deliver it to you anywhere in the CONUS (or maybe even Canada). Estimated RETAIL value is almost $40K. Good, used, serviceable parts are priced at 50% of new price. So, EASILY worth over $20K, but I'll consider less.

This forum gets first shot for a couple of days.

 

[grandpaul]

Anyone?

Bueller?

Bueller?

 

[DaveM]

It is always sad to see someone like you selling up but life does make us do different things at times.

 

[grandpaul]

Perhaps what sparked this was after the recent passing of my best friend who left behind a total nightmare of clutter for his widow and 2 orphaned kids to deal with. He collected radio controlled cars, buggies, boats, airplanes, drones and helicopters, along with engines, motors, controllers, body parts, tools, materials and all manner of STUFF, all crammed into several rooms in his house. They were actually living in a condo because he simply over-ran the entire house. I have been helping the family to extract, inventory, and sell the collection; I'm 90% done.

Also, in the last few years, I helped the surviving nephew of another late friend dispose of HIS collection of motorcycles, parts, and tools, as well as an AIRPLANE, his car, and his house. It was weeks of commuting to Houston (700+ mile round trips), and literally hundreds of hours of work. Coincidentally, it was another "stuff piled in every corner" situation. More recently, I've been helping my wife's family clear out their parent's house (over 4,000 square feet, plus garage) and liquidating all of their household goods.

I can only imagine what this task would be like in MY case!!!! The only positive aspect of MY collection as relates to it's eventual disposal, is the fact that I have EVERYTHING inventoried, categorized and priced (both cost and resale value), and my wife knows where all my files are on my laptop, data stick, and backup DVDs. Also, while it is somewhat disorganized, MOST of it is stacked on shelves in a somewhat selective manner. My BIKES are meticulously inventoried, each with it's own multi-tabbed spreadsheet with fully detailed 100-line-item physical inventory, shop log with dates and hours by task (down to the quarter-hour), and every penny spent on them logged by date, item(s), cost, and source. Overkill? Sure, why, not? There should be no issue selling any of my remaining bikes for EXACTLY what they are worth, when the time comes.

 

[grandpaul]

Maybe I forgot to mention that my PARTS inventory is as meticulously detailed as my BIKE inventory?

Well, it is!

 

[shanered6]

well it's not nice to think about one's demise ...... but it needs to be out in the open and sorted long before you move on , then your loved one's left behind dont have a big mess to sort out at the same time as mourning your passing .

 

[Rocky]

I'm not a hoarder, but I seemed to have collected a lot of "stuff" over the past 5-60 years and am making an attempt to whittle it down.

 

[grandpaul]

... but it needs to be out in the open and sorted long before you move on , then your loved one's left behind dont have a big mess to sort out at the same time as mourning your passing .

Yep, I've sold the "harder" part of my bike collection, the rest is easy (all titled and most running).

There is no way I'm leaving this garage full of parts for my wife and kids to have to mess with.

 

[Greyfell]

GP, I know you were analytical and organized because you were trying to run a business (and it's your nature), and businesses run best when organized. I can only imagine how that makes someone feel, on the other side of the deal, when they buy a business or have to liquidate a business and assets. It will make their job immensely easier!!!

 

[DaveM]

Paul you sure seem to have all your stuff sorted out nicely and it is staggering just how much stuff you can collect without even trying. Last year I sorted out my shed and had one of those skips and I filled it up three times and some of the stuff I had no idea why I even thought it was a good idea to keep. I also did this with my study the one time and ended up finding bags of old floppy disks some of them had never even been opened. Once again looking at the computer parts I had kept some of the stuff was so outdated it could have been placed in a museum

 

[grandpaul]

...looking at the computer parts I had kept some of the stuff was so outdated it could have been placed in a museum.

I had 2 computer businesses over 20 years, and collected everything from (3) Compaq "suitcase" portables to an original IBM PC, 286, 386, 486 and Pentium computers, original Toshiba 1200 laptop, original IBM ThinkPad, a giant 5MB hard disc, several sets of 64K chips, 128K chips, 256K chips, and 1MB chips, one each bare CPU chip of each class from 8088-4 to P5, 12" green screen monitor, 12" EGA monitor, 12" VGA monitor, 1200 baud modem, 2400, 9600, original PC mouse, limited edition Logitech clear mouse, several of each various PC boards (video cards, memory expansion cards, modems, sound boards, etc), original 9-pin dot matrix Epson, original HP laserjet printer, original HP color inkjet printer, and MANY other 1st edition hardware bits, not mention huge boxes full of original era-popular software programs complete with original 5-1/4" floppies. I even had an original copy of VisiCalc, the first commercially available spreadsheet program that Louts copied, that Microsoft copied (Excel), as well as an original copy of WordPerfect 1.0 and Dac-Easy accounting, the first popular PC accounting software. I think I dumped 4/5 of it, still have 1 of the Compaq suitcases and the Toshiba laptop, and a couple of floppies that I can still read with an old PC that I kept. I got close to opening a "PC museum", but it would have been a waste of time and money THEN, perhaps not now...

 

[harper6t]

I just got to this post, but I understand where you are coming from, it is difficult when a collection has to be sold off after a person shuffles off and it makes sense to trim down what you have while you are still physically able. I haven't reached that point where I can part with much in my collection and my son seems more attached to some parts of it than I am, so it may be his to sort out one day. However, we live in an area that is undergoing major development and will have to sell it or move it in the next few years as we will have to move on once our place is rezoned for residential. The thought of moving twenty plus bikes and several tons of parts plus all the tools and equipment collected over the years really sends a shiver down my spine and I am at this stage still in denial.

 

[grandpaul]

Thankfully, I'm in good health and can still handle almost all of the work. I just lifted a completed Triumph unit twin off the bench and lowered it to the waiting hand dolly. While I didn't hurt my back THIS time, I believe that is the last engine I will ever lift alone, and one of the few remaining ones I will ever HAVE to lift or move. I have a BSA power Egg A65, a TR6SS lump (top end is off, and tranny separate, so much easier), and all the parts to build a VR880 Norton Commando lump (also component construction like a pre-unit), and NO MORE.