[radiorental]

Here's a youtuber picking over the auction. You'll get to see the outside of the repurposed Walmart 'national museum', auction process and some really unique bikes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnX7hkZzLQ0

I get the feeling bikes in the last 5 years have turned into investment vehicles (pun intended) like rare bottles of wine and art. Often by people who have no personal interest in the chosen market, just a place to park money (again with the puns)

[hengheng]

Always weird to me what goes up in value, and what does not.

1968 Porsche, low-end model? 300k. Dakar winning motorcycle? 15k.

Steel Rolex with scratches? 30k. Early digital quartz watches? 300.

Personally I am waiting for a few things to blow up. Palm Treo and Blackberry phones, Nokia fashion phones (think 7260), and weird Sony cameras (dsc-f828). Immensely hard to predict, but fun nonetheless.

[owlninja]

I was blown away to hear the other day that some VHS tapes are going for a high price!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/09/15/vhs-tapes-cl...

[mtmail]

"is selling for", "is currently being sold for". The journalist should've looked at actual past sales. All links I clicked are still unsold.

https://www.ebay.com/str/wunderbid lists many VHS tapes for $1000s. But when I look into the past sales I see any price over $1000 is crossed through (best price accepted, not the asking price). Still some VHS went for $300-$600.

[tivert]

> I was blown away to hear the other day that some VHS tapes are going for a high price!

Apparently old video game things are going nuts, too. My brother says our family's beat-up copy of Earthbound is worth $300. The old Virtual Boy my other brother picked up for $30 could probably be sold for more than $500 (because it's still in it's original beat-up box). Apparently an old tube TV we have in such demand by video game collectors that the model is hard to find now.

The moral of the story: check eBay when you're getting rid of your old junk.

[mbg721]

That really surprises me given how poorly they seem to store, at least in my experience.

[fergie]

To be fair though- that guy definitely has a genuine interest in bikes, and the prices are way lower than for classic cars.

[radiorental]

All true, there was a few comments from other parties in that video where they noted a significant number of bikes were going for 2-3 times expected. Either there's a bubble in the rare bike market or an influx of money looking for somewhere to park.

[fergie]

Buying a new bike today feels a bit like buying a Land Rover Defender in 2016. Or even a Seiko 5 today. Yes, its a new product, but its the technology of yesteryear. Its interesting to see the number of ~400cc 4-stroke "standard" bikes coming onto the market. They look and feel like bikes from the 50s. But it seems like in a couple of years utilitarian bikes will start to move towards electric drivetrains and consequently Surron-like designs.

Its almost like we are in a 2-5 year window where you can still buy these museum pieces new from the dealership.

[Velofellow]

Maybe they look like bikes circa 1950, but new standard bikes that look the part certainly do not ride like bikes from the 50's. Reliability across the board is dramatically better. ABS / associated rider aids, better tires (not just for motorcycles), suspension tuning, emissions technology, better engine output per displacement from high compression, better electronics. The list goes on.

I'll take one old, one new please!

Side note- Surron really needs to work on differentiating themselves away from the EBike scene, if I'm to take them seriously. I pretty much only see kids of affluent families destroying mixed use trails on Surrons or people forgoing any sort of judgement hoping between sidewalk, pavement, drainage ditches. "Mid-Drive Electric Bike you can ride anywhere" is an irresponsible sales pitch. I've not ridden one personally, but they seem roughly equivalent to a 125CC two stroke dirt bike. No Pedals? not a bike.

[natmaka]

Electric bikes will catch up, it will be quick. The value of some ICE bikes will then skyrocket, as the usual nostalgia picks up: we remember those old bikes as 'full of character', even if quite objectively these 'character' element were mere defects.

[I_Am_Nous]

"Remember when bikes used to vibrate the bolts loose constantly? Ah good times..."

[gtyras2mrs]

I've heard similar things said about the new Royal Enfield motorcycles here in India.

The redesigned J-series engines on their new motorcycles are smoother and I've heard some people wax nostalgic about the old thumpers and say that the new ones "lack character". I've even heard people speak fondly of the the UCE engines (introduced in the early 2000s) which were hated for a similar "lack of character" when they replaced the older engines (which were originally designed back in the 50s I think).

[natmaka]

This! I don't know those bikes but here is my hypothesis: older engines required more experience to be fully exploited, as they had 'holes', that it to say revving ranges or global state leading to unsatisfying performance (mainly due to tire, frame, brakes and carburetor's limits/defects): one had to learn, by practicing, how to avoid/circumvent such problems.

They also are accustomed to the effects of sub-optimal or economical designs, the main example being vibrations, and learnt to like them. "If it doesn't vibrate hard, stinks, pours oil, yells... it is cannot be a true bike!"

Modern bikes (especially electric) are way less quirks-plagued, more 'linear', easy to exploit and their performances (at equivalent 'cost', inflation-adjusted) are way better on all accounts (grip, brakes, flexibility/driveability, acceleration, max speed, reliability...).