RGS Spitfire Scrambler rolling chassis on EBay USA

[Sluggo]

The RGS just closed out with 46 bids, and sales price of $12,322.00 USD.  Assuming the bids were not shills and assuming the high bidder actually pays the seller. (These days with eBay, many deals dont go thru).
But that is a remarkable price for many reasons.  A) The seller failed to fully capitalize on what he had by never properly ID'ing the actual model B) Failed to get it verified by the BSAOC which would have helped C) came across to me IMHO as a garage sale flipper who got lucky without fully aware of what he had.
Despite all that, to any sane rational person, that is a very large sum of money for an obscure vintage bike needing a full restoration/rebuild.
On the other hand,, based on a wide range of factors this bike could potentially be seen up for sale again in a year or 2 for much larger sums of money.
maybe RichardL wants to revisit his comments on value and worth of a bike?.
Might be worthwhile copy and pasting/saving pictures assuming the bike is legit and it appears to be legit and the voice of commerce and free market seem to agree.

[RichardL]

Maybe I'm yet again missing something, but the rolling chassis of some of non-description seems to have sold for 2/3 the cost of the bike shown at the link (below), which has some degree of pedigree and is pretty nice, I think.

http://www.rmsothebys.com/ve17/villa-erba/lots/1962-bsa-a10-rocket-gold-star-scrambler/1702722

So, when it comes to spending crazy money, just because others have gone insane doesn't mean I should, even if I had that kind of money to spend, which I don't.

Sluggo, I hope I'm not p*ssing you off with this, as I would still, someday, love to visit.

Richard L.

[kiwipom]

hi guys, RichardL that bike is surely a great looking example and worth every cent, cheers

[Sluggo]

Oh I am not advocating one way or another, just an observation about crazy stuff for sale!  Heck I spend a lot of time tracking prices of what bikes sell for but some is just baffling. A65s unit twins have seemed to be rather lackluster for sales for some time now.  BSA unit singles go up and down like a yo-yo, so these RGS bikes are just interesting when people value them that high.

But I would agree, that Sothebys bike is stunning, and it would seem smart money to buy a completed one compared to restoring one of these others.   But, cant always predict what will happen at a auction. 

[Klaus]

For an original and rare Scrambler with all papers or history this price is as low. I still remember twelve years ago the pound was 1.50 Euro the Goldstars was pricing start was about 10.000 pounds for a nearly complete bike. But there also a lot of fakes with B 31 or B33 frames implanting facked engines. So a history is a must for those bikes, otherwise you spend a lot of money in faked bikes.
I was a lucky guy to catch my original Goldstar as untouched bike with 17500 miles at the clock for 8,500 Euros at this time.
Having lot of happy and troublefree miles with the Goldy.  All specialists would tell me I had to stripp down the engine, and they would do for me
Nope, never touch a running system.

Great looking bike, and with this Scramblers we can have a lot of fun.

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
Comparison of the stripped scrambler and the road going ebay bike is debatable 
The scrambler has a twin carb head fitted, and an air filter type that I do not recognise
Its really not a practical bike to use in its current state?
Where as the ebay bike looks like the basis of an easy restoration,
Maybe as said it will be stored as is and offered for resale at a time in the future
I have seen many bikes which appear time and again for auction as the years roll by, and they have not been used between sales
Perceived "collectable" bikes are now a investment commodity 

A while ago a USA based forum member threw all sorts of questions on various bikes purporting to be RGS's for sale at me
He eventually bought a bike in the UK,
One restored bike in USA was advertised at 31k$ but the seller upped this to 37k$ when he got the dating papers 
There was an East coast USA import RGS for sale locally to me recently (1963) it had a twin carb head and STD gearbox
The engine was swopped from another RGS a long time ago (maybe dealer as both RGS's went to the same dealer)
It appeared to have Gold Star mudguards and seat?
At the time I thought incorrect? but since then I saw an other East coast 63 RGS as found with the same equipment fitted,
From this, it looks as though BSA varied the spec or sent out bikes different to catalog or accepted standards??

A scrambler rebuilt to UK spec is currently for sale in UK for £22k, which is neither fish nor fowl 

John

[jachenbach]

Last fall, I realized I'd probably never finish my RGS scrambler and put it on Ebay. Figured the money would finance other projects and was hoping to get about $2500. Rolling chassis with engine(no numbers), tranny, and seat. Got $7500, which bought me a Velocette Venom that was partially disassembled. About $300 in parts and the Velo is up and running.