d. H.
AUCTION PACE WAY TOO FAST ON THE NO RESERVE BIKES
Sold two motorcycles (no reserve) in the January 2022 Vegas auction. f153 (mustang estimate $15k - $29k) & f117.1 (harley fxr estimate $20k - $30k). I found out months later that mecum lost the title to the harley. They called me and wanted me to jump through a bunch of hoops getting them a new title. I said "after you sold my bike/s for such a low price, not a chance!". They then gave the harley buyer my contact info and he badgered me for months about getting him a title. Mecum had my title. It's their responsibility. Mecum does not take adequate time to get bids for the bikes listed with no reserve... they push them through with as little effort and time spent selling as possible. One rotation on the turn table and that's it! The mustang was pushed on the block, introduced and then they hammered it SOLD just 40 seconds later! It sold for a disappointing $9k which was well below the $15k-$29k estimate. 40 seconds is all the time mecum gave to selling that bike. In total they made almost $3k for 40 seconds of "work". The fxr harley f117.1 hammered sold in about a minute for $14k, well below its $20k-$30k estimate. I get it, you have 1750 motorcycles consigned and you NEED to get them all across the block in the 4-5 day auction. You don't want to spend 10 hours a day selling them. I think 6 hour days were average for this 5 day auction. 300-350 bikes sold in 6 hours. That's about a minute or less per bike. Mecum needs to either have less motorcycles OR make the auction longer. It's not fair to no reserve sellers to get shafted like this. To protect the customer, the contract should be amended to add "A reasonable amount of time will be spent auctioning this motorcycle or car". This was a bucket list item of mine and I was sadly disappointed in the sale price of my 2 bikes. Frank and Dana were very nice though. EDIT TO RESPOND TO MECUM: Your business model at the motorcycle auctions (where you have to get almost 2000 motorcycles across the block in 4 days) is to run them across as fast as possible. You line them up on the stage fender to fender. The bikes are so close to each other that most bidders have no idea what motorcycle is even up for auction. You make a few hundred less in fees for each bike sold but the sellers lose thousands. You end up making MORE money because you sell more motorcycles in the auction. Just stuff the auction as full of motorcycles as you can and then run them across the block as fast as you can. Mecum is the only financial winner at the motorcycle auctions. Not cool. The ONLY time you took a few extra seconds to get more bids on a motorcycle is when it had a reserve. Why? Because you make no money if you can't sell a no reserve bike. The Vegas 2023 motorcycle auction was the same length (4 days) as the 2020, 2021, 2022 auctions that all had 1750 bikes. YOU ADDED 250 MORE MOTORCYCLES IN 2023! GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY. You can't devote enough time to fairly sell 1750 bikes in 4 days so what do you do? You add 250 MORE bikes to the 2023 auction! WOW MECUM? I would NEVER put another motorcycle in your auction. You all should be ashamed of how fast you run all the no reserve bikes across the block.
Response from Mecum AuctionsMay 4, 2023
Hello- Thank you for the feedback. Our business model is such that, the more money we realize for our sellers, the more money we make. That said, our goal is to bring top dollar for every motorcycle that crosses our auction block. More time on the block does not necessarily equate to more bids coming in. Our highly-skilled auctioneer team understands this, and works to realize market value. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any of this further. Mecum Auctions
