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Ducati collectors

bigpoppa

bigpoppa

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A while ago I saw a beautiful ducati 999 for a VERY attractive price, it seemed like it was clean, original and in good working order, but I passed having just bought the SDR

and now that ducati is moving away from the traditional monster style, got me thinking maybe I made a mistake? Maybe I should have just bought it and stuck it in the garage?

Wonder if some of these ducs will be collectors items and a decent investment down the line, or maybe just a cool AF vanity bike that you can occasionally drive around sparingly like jay leno and baby in the meanwhile
 
Like Bitzz has said. Unless it's An old 70s bevel drive or equivalent, it won't be a money maker. There are lots of 916/96/98's around. People bought them because they are drop dead gorgeous and after a ride said get me off this ******* thing. Parked!
 
Wingboy said:
Like Bitzz has said. Unless it's An old 70s bevel drive or equivalent, it won't be a money maker. There are lots of 916/96/98's around. People bought them because they are drop dead gorgeous and after a ride said get me off this ******* thing. Parked!
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I know enough to know I don't know enough to make money "investing" in vehicles. I will defer to others. Bitzz presented what seemed to be a good argument. One of my Dad's friend bought a new Cadillac Allante and garaged it immediately as an investment. They would have been better with Bre-X. At least you don't need to pay for a heated garage for 20 years before you realize all of your money is gone with stocks. They "invested" the equivalent of 120K, paid thousands per year to store it and 30 years later it might be worth 15K. Ouch.

On a slightly related note, is the muffin still in active service? Obviously you sold it but I wasn't sure if you kept track of it.
 
I’m not really the collector type but...
In my view there is only two models I would buy to collect, or I should say just look to at. A 916 or Desmosedici would look cool parked in the house.

As a investment I’ll take a index fund forget the bikes or cars.

Now I did sell my 2009 Monster 1100 2 weeks ago in less then 24 hours. So people still seem into slightly older Ducati’s.
 
GreyGhost said:
I know enough to know I don't know enough to make money "investing" in vehicles. I will defer to others. Bitzz presented what seemed to be a good argument. One of my Dad's friend bought a new Cadillac Allante and garaged it immediately as an investment. They would have been better with Bre-X. At least you don't need to pay for a heated garage for 20 years before you realize all of your money is gone with stocks. They "invested" the equivalent of 120K, paid thousands per year to store it and 30 years later it might be worth 15K. Ouch.

On a slightly related note, is the muffin still in active service? Obviously you sold it but I wasn't sure if you kept track of it.
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My sil has an 85 Olds Cutlass supreme brougham with low milage. No rust and never winter driven. He has been keeping it up on blocks thinking it will be awesome someday. The only awesome will be the cost to get it on the road.
I sold the Muffin to Francis McDermott who kept it for a summer and he sold it to Ewan Brown.Ewan was having trouble with it hooking up in soar events.I don't think Fran or Ewan ever did any valve checks and last i heard it was fouling the vertical plug with oil.
Ewans Yamaha spit him off badly at GB and his shoulder is bad. I miss that bike.
 
blackcamaro said:
I’m not really the collector type but...
In my view there is only two models I would buy to collect, or I should say just look to at. A 916 or Desmosedici would look cool parked in the house.

As a investment I’ll take a index fund forget the bikes or cars.

Now I did sell my 2009 Monster 1100 2 weeks ago in less then 24 hours. So people still seem into slightly older Ducati’s.
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There is a series of yt videos of a guy getting a desmo back on the road after an long damp storage. The resto cost more than the bike was worth. A head gasket is over $300 and the heads have to come off to check and shim.
I remember the first Desmo in Canada coming to a docc trackday. Owner was a retired heart surgeon. You had to own "r" model in order purchase the desmo for $93k, so he had one of those loaded up too. The desmo arrived at the track with 0 on the odometer. It sounds like a pile of crap warming up because clearances are set so loose. After a couple of laps he was doing 1:30s consistently.
 
A friend just sold a 1973 Ducati 750GT after storing it for over 30 years. he got good money for it, but would have done better investing.
He also has a '67 Corvette that's been valued at $135K so what do I know.
 
TK4 said:
A friend just sold a 1973 Ducati 750GT after storing it for over 30 years. he got good money for it, but would have done better investing.
He also has a '67 Corvette that's been valued at $135K so what do I know.
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Its strange that classic cars seem to appreciate better than bikes
 
Wingboy said:
There is a series of yt videos of a guy getting a desmo back on the road after an long damp storage. The resto cost more than the bike was worth. A head gasket is over $300 and the heads have to come off to check and shim.
I remember the first Desmo in Canada coming to a docc trackday. Owner was a retired heart surgeon. You had to own "r" model in order purchase the desmo for $93k, so he had one of those loaded up too. The desmo arrived at the track with 0 on the odometer. It sounds like a pile of crap warming up because clearances are set so loose. After a couple of laps he was doing 1:30s consistently.
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I remember that day. I was lucky enough to be behind him for a few laps, taking in the glorious sound of the exhaust!
 
PIck the right one and your fine, GT1000 was hard to get off the dealers floor, a decade later they have doubled in price. Bevel anything = good money, round case and your ok. Clean 916 is the 911 of motorbikes, never a bad choice.
But like every other motor product don't fall victim to Ducati anything will go up in value. The market is always and very fickle.
 
OP I know what you mean about the 999 as I too think they are one of the prettiest Ducs ever made. We may have even been looking at the same 999 as I really wanted one just to display as art in our home but the wife nixed that idea with a new baby in the house (she's worried about kiddo getting injured with bike controls poking out which is a fair concern). Maybe one day later in the future. I don't believe the 999 will appreciate though as a collector.
 
Jay Leno is the only guy I heard of that collects expensive motorcycles, & he probably already has one.
 
Most Ducs do look good on a wall.
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bigpoppa said:
Wonder if some of these ducs will be collectors items and a decent investment down the line, or maybe just a cool AF vanity bike that you can occasionally drive around sparingly like jay leno and baby in the meanwhile
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Collector value is a funny thing. I am of an age where sports trading cards became a big thing in the late '80s and early '90s. So we all went out and bought complete sets of cards (still have my first run O-Pee-Chee Premier hockey cards set somewhere), convinced we only had to wait a few years for the riches to come pouring in. Of course, what we failed to account for was that all of us hoarding cards in our parents' attics meant that there was no scarcity and therefore no value. I'm pretty sure mine are still worth less than I paid for them...

I think for bikes, you'll more likely end up with, at best, something that slightly outstrips inflation, which makes little sense from a financial standpoint, but works if you enjoy owning the bike enough to justify the operating costs. For every green frame Ducati selling for $175k, there hundreds of bog standard bikes of equivalent age selling for less than $30k. Add up maintenance and storage costs of a motorcycle for 30-40 years to keep it mint...

If you got an extremely limited edition model
that is tied to something people remember, maybe you'd have something in 30-40 years.

Having bought a crap RC51 recently, apparently some used parts have skyrocketed in price lately. Mostly either the bits everyone tore off when they bought them new, like uncut undertails with fenders and stock turn signals, or the bits that get broken or damaged over time, like fairings. The implication, I suppose, is that a bunch of people are trying to make their old runners into museum pieces. I don't think the RC51, despite the great race pedigree (two of three WSBK seasons were all-time classics), will ever be rare enough to be worth a lot. They just made too many of them. Mint RC30's though...
 
The collector market is "almost" impossible to predict , the Sport Classic 1000 is the best example, dealers had trouble moving them, now its a hot ticket.

For a couple years I attended the Vintage bike Auctions in Vegas every January. It was pretty fascinating to see what sold and didnt sell and preconceived notions of what things should be worth.
I sat next to a fellow from NY that was there to buy a Vincent for a men's wear store static display , he passed on several very nice bikes that said HRD on the gas tank, that was Vincents designation before the big Vincent script went on the tank. He had to have a bike that said " Vincent "
I get it. $128,000 US later, so did he.
 
crankcall said:
The collector market is "almost" impossible to predict , the Sport Classic 1000 is the best example, dealers had trouble moving them, now its a hot ticket.
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The Sport Classic is a really interesting example. It was ahead of its time (just a wee bit too early for the cafe racer craze that followed shortly after), it was relatively expensive, and the press it got at launch was absolutely obsessed with how uncomfortable they are. As long as you could walk into a dealership and buy one, hardly anyone did. As soon as they were discontinued, that insane bit of our collective lizard brains that associates scarcity with value kicked into overdrive.

A friend has one, and it turns out the journalists were right: it looks amazing, but is an absolute torture rack. The miles go on his Monster 1200 (with drag bars, though - you have to suffer for your art), while the trips to the cafe are on the Sport Classic...
 
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