Part A
I was contacted a few days ago by the widow of an acquaintance to advise on the sale of her late husband's collection of motorcycles and spares. At least six of them fall into the "valuable" category. I haven't yet seen the collection, but I expect from having known the guy that most of the bikes will be complete and well restored. I'm overcommitted the next couple of weeks so I won't be able to look at anything until then but, in the mean time, I'm looking for suggestions on how to approach this.
Anyway, for this exercise assume your widow has gotten over losing you and now wants to sell your collection for as much as possible. If despite the assumption that you're no longer alive (and also assuming you like her) how would you advise her to proceed? Consign the best of the bikes to one of the big auctions (e.g. Stafford or Las Vegas)? The auctioneer will take 15%, and it will cost a lot to transport the bikes there (and back again if they don't meet reserve), so this would take a chunk out of your widow's inheritance. Put an ad in 'MPH"? Fine for the Vincents, but there are other valuable machines as well and so such an ad wouldn't reach the widest number of potential buyers. As for the parts, should she try to get someone to help her group them into "reasonable" lots in order to sell them at the auction too? Trickling things out over eBay might maximize the eventual total return, but the widow might not want to put the necessary time into doing that (plus, eBay takes a hefty fee).
Again, the question is, how would you advise the widow to proceed in order to maximize the total revenue generated with a "reasonable" amount of effort on her part and on the part of people advising her?
Part B
Prompted by the above, Part B is, what steps should we take now to help minimize such a problem for our families later (hopefully, much, much later)? Since we know our stuff best we could start selling it off now to generate maximum profit. But then we wouldn't have any bikes left(!), so that's not a reasonable option.
You probably know what's in your garage far better than your wife does, so you know the brace of Black Shadow carbs and 5" speedometer are worth more than $50. However, even if she has an inkling that they are valuable, she doesn't even know you have them because they are hiding in the bottom of some dusty box marked "sandpaper" You know that a frame number of +1900 means your Vincent is a "matching numbers" bike, but she may be deceived by someone who says "Oh, look, the frame number doesn't match the engine number so it's worth a lot less." Even more so for, say, a Gold Star where the numbers don't bear any relationship to each other at all, and she doesn't know you have a certificate filed away from the Owners Club saying it left the factory with those numbers.
Again, the question is, what reasonable steps should we take now to maximize the inheritance for our families later?
I was contacted a few days ago by the widow of an acquaintance to advise on the sale of her late husband's collection of motorcycles and spares. At least six of them fall into the "valuable" category. I haven't yet seen the collection, but I expect from having known the guy that most of the bikes will be complete and well restored. I'm overcommitted the next couple of weeks so I won't be able to look at anything until then but, in the mean time, I'm looking for suggestions on how to approach this.
Anyway, for this exercise assume your widow has gotten over losing you and now wants to sell your collection for as much as possible. If despite the assumption that you're no longer alive (and also assuming you like her) how would you advise her to proceed? Consign the best of the bikes to one of the big auctions (e.g. Stafford or Las Vegas)? The auctioneer will take 15%, and it will cost a lot to transport the bikes there (and back again if they don't meet reserve), so this would take a chunk out of your widow's inheritance. Put an ad in 'MPH"? Fine for the Vincents, but there are other valuable machines as well and so such an ad wouldn't reach the widest number of potential buyers. As for the parts, should she try to get someone to help her group them into "reasonable" lots in order to sell them at the auction too? Trickling things out over eBay might maximize the eventual total return, but the widow might not want to put the necessary time into doing that (plus, eBay takes a hefty fee).
Again, the question is, how would you advise the widow to proceed in order to maximize the total revenue generated with a "reasonable" amount of effort on her part and on the part of people advising her?
Part B
Prompted by the above, Part B is, what steps should we take now to help minimize such a problem for our families later (hopefully, much, much later)? Since we know our stuff best we could start selling it off now to generate maximum profit. But then we wouldn't have any bikes left(!), so that's not a reasonable option.
You probably know what's in your garage far better than your wife does, so you know the brace of Black Shadow carbs and 5" speedometer are worth more than $50. However, even if she has an inkling that they are valuable, she doesn't even know you have them because they are hiding in the bottom of some dusty box marked "sandpaper" You know that a frame number of +1900 means your Vincent is a "matching numbers" bike, but she may be deceived by someone who says "Oh, look, the frame number doesn't match the engine number so it's worth a lot less." Even more so for, say, a Gold Star where the numbers don't bear any relationship to each other at all, and she doesn't know you have a certificate filed away from the Owners Club saying it left the factory with those numbers.
Again, the question is, what reasonable steps should we take now to maximize the inheritance for our families later?