Lots of new things happening in 2020, it seems like everything I’m involved with is a work in progress! Starting a new You Tube channel called Zen Rides, I’ll be featuring motorcycle rides throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Happy Holidays
I’m always unprepared for the holidays season, first Thanksgiving and then it’s Christmas! This year has been a transitional year for my business. In 2020 will be adding an online real estate site and hopefully our first motorcycle auction later this summer. Keep checking back for updates. Gotta go catch another flight home.
Soul River
It’s hard to believe I’m down to my last two fundraisers for 2019. On Sunday evening Soul River held their third annual Gala. Each year this small non profit, lead by Chad Brown and his small team has continued to expand their work with both veterans and inter city youth here in Oregon. Soul River is deeply involved on the pressing environmental issues here in Oregon, on Native American lands and in the Arctic. I encourage you to learn more about Soul River, www.soulriverinc.org.
The Redd was the perfect setting for Soul Rivers third annual gala.
Fall Fundraising
Our first fundraising auction for the fall season started with the Borland Free Clinic and their Borlandia Gala. Held in a private airplane hanger surrounded by private jets and collector cars it created the perfect setting for the 250 guests, who had just seven unique auction packages to bid on.
One of my favorites was a vintage Harley Davidson which was sold twice, bringing the the total sales price close to $10k. Great food, live music and supportive patrons made it a great event. If you would like to learn more, or support the clinic visit www.borlandclinic.org.
Sun Valley
My Labor Day weekend was spent working in Sun Valley, Idaho. I headed up to Idaho to help my old friend Mitch Silver with his 32nd annual Labor Day auction. Situated on the grounds of the Sun Valley Lodge over 125 vehicles crossed the block over the two day sale.
It had been over a decade since I had last worked this auction, it was great to see some of my old friends from the car business, and laugh about the old days when we were much younger. The weather was perfect and the crowds filled the tent on Saturday to look at and bid on a wide range of collector cars. I’m looking forward to going back next year.
This beautiful Rolls Royce sold for $54,000.
The rare supercharged Studebaker sold for $34,000.
The super sized motor home sold for $125,000.
Garden Life
This spring I decided to convert my backyard into a garden area. When I was a kid, we always had a huge garden. So instead of more shrubs I planted sunflowers, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic. All the things I like to eat and cook with. Its amazing how good food taste fresh out of the garden. This week the tomatoes are ripening and cooking with fresh garlic is a real treat too.
Dry Falls
I finally got a chance to hop on my motorcycle for a quick trip. I have missed riding my Kawasaki. But this weekend we were reunited again. I did a quick service and grabbed my backpack for a run up to Dry Falls, Washington which is about five hour northeast of Portland. Dry Falls is located in the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. The falls were created by the massive floods that engulfed eastern Washington during the last ice age. It an impressive site, and the amount of water that rolled over the area is estimated to be all the rivers in the world combined and multiplied by 10!
Dry Falls
Up through the canyon, 12,500 years ago I would be at bottom of the river, with 300 feet of water above the top of the canyon.
Selfie!
Three quick turns.
The first weekend of June, I jump back on the old Gpz for my first trip of the year. For the past three years I’ve been going back to eastern, Washington to help an old friend with his annual car show.
I always leave Portland just after dawn and head east thru the spectacular Columbia Gorge. With the Columbia river on one side of the highway, and mountains on the other its hard to keep your eyes on the road. While it nearly 400 miles you only need to make three turn on get there.
A couple hours of riding east on I84, and its a turn north on hwy 395 and thru the Tri Cities, and then a right turn and east on Hwy 26. This is probably the prettiest part of the trip as it takes you through the Palouse area of Washington State, where the majority of white wheat and brewing barley is raised on the rolling hills. Finally and another left on to highway 97 and you are there. No navigation needed.
The rusty Indian
Most of my friends are always on the outlook for old and interesting cars or motorcycles. They usually send me a text message with a couple of pics and the question, “what do you think its worth?”. When I started in the auction business, I worked as an appraiser. I’d help the auction consignors establish a value, so they could get an idea of what their car might be worth before putting them in the auction.
I thought I was pretty good at that job.
But in today’s vintage car/bike market I can’t even come to understanding the market. This 1944 Indian Chief showed up on a local tow company website for their weekly auction. It was hard to get a good look at the old Indian with the posted pictures, so I went out to look at for myself. The Indian Cheif has been neglected for the past 60 years, it was rusty and had been disassembled. It was loaded with what is referred to as patina today.
It was an ex military bike bought in 1950, and by 1953 was put away. Needing a complete restoration, I thought it was worth $5-8,000 in present condition. On Ebay you can find fully restored ones priced from $15-40,000. It sold for $14,600 rust wins again.
On the run.
The second week in May is always a busy for me. We start off on Tuesday with one of my long time clients, the Fly Fisher Club of Oregon, with their annual foundation auction. We will be raising money again this year for the continued protection of native fish and stream reclamation projects here in the state of Oregon.
On Saturday we will be working the Blosser Center, they help both children and adults who are dealing with Dyslexia. In between that I’ll be doing weekly car auction here in Portland and then heading down to Las Vegas to finish out my week.
Time to wait.
Time has a way of making you forget how much work it took to take a photograph with a traditional film camera. A couple months ago I dug out my old 35mm cameras out of the storage closet.
I was surprised after I had done some basic maintenance they both still worked. Well, at least the shutters still functioned. So I ordered a couple new batteries a roll of black and white and color film.
My oldest camera I received as gift from my parents when I graduated from High School in 1980, and the other one when I got out of college. I discovered Blue Moon Camera, here in Portland they specialize in vintage cameras and developing. I unloaded the film, drove to the store, dropped it off and waited. It took a week to get my negative back, and to too my surprise out of the all pictures I took there were a half a dozen good ones. It was worth the wait.
Friends
Last year while strolling through the Portland airport a familiar face got my eye. It was an old friend of mine from thirty years ago, I hadn’t seen Randy since the late eighties. We both thought we looked pretty good for couple of guys in our late 50’s. Yeah, our hair was gray, and we were both a little thicker. But we eased back into our conversations of what we had been up to all those years. We laughed about all the fun time we shared together back in our 20s. He was headed back to Spokane and me to California. We both agreed to try to meet up if I got back to Spokane in the summer. A quick handshake and a hug and we both went our separate ways. A moment in time opened up and it closed just as quickly. I never made made back to Spokane.
It came in a text message from another old friend that Randy had died following a surgery. A smile and a beer in his hand is how I’ll always remember him. Bye, old friend.
The auctions are heating up.
We’re having a crazy winter here in the Pacific Northwest with snow and freezing temps every other day. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather as spring approaches.
While it may be cold outside, the first group of our fundraisers in 2019 have been especially strong.
The new trend has been to reduce the number of auction items. Back in the good old days, it was common to have 40-60 packages in the live auction. In 2019 it seems 10-20 items or even less seems to be the sweet spot. The audiences seem to appreciate an auction which lasts about an hour. Everyone in the room is raising their bid cards trying to chase those fewer items, and prices on the most desirable packages are bringing a premium.
Remember, supporting your favorite nonprofit or school does make a difference. If you can’t donate time throw some cash their way it all helps.
2019 is starting off with a Bang!
Tonight we start our fundraising season for 2019. It’s my first Monday evening auction we’ll see how it goes, I think we’re going to crush it! Along with our new fundraising clients in 2019 we will be going forward with a couple new partners, stay tuned for our formal announcement later in the month.
I had a Thursday off and went to Las Vegas for the Bonhams motorcycle auction this year. Prices were up on all makes and models of bikes. Interest in vintage motorcycles is strong right now not just here in USA but worldwide. I’ve included a couple of my favorites.
2019 is going to be an exciting year for us and we look forward to meeting you at our next event.
Holy grail of motorcycles the Vincent’s.
The King of Cool, Steve McQueen’s Triumph sold for $175,000.
Timing is everything.
This past weekend I joined a gathering of Porsche enthusiasts known as P.O.G or the Porsche Outlaw Group. I had heard, through social media Magnus Walker would be in appearance at the event. If you don’t know who Magnus is, he was the star of a documentary film titled Urban Outlaw, it featured his personal collection of Porsches and beautiful scenes of him blasting throughout downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding hills in his vintage 911. The film touched perfectly on the emotional connections of of us who’ve ever owned or driven a Porsche, especially the early 911’s.
I headed down to the OMSI parking lot on my old GPZ to check it out. It was a perfect November morning. Meaning it wasn't raining!
Lots of cool cars showed up for the event. There was an excellent representation of new, vintage and modified Porsches on display. A couple days later a friend noticed a picture a photographer had taken at the show on his Instagram feed. Guess who made it into the shot? It was perfectly timed.
After I saw the photograph it got me thinking about timing. Like being in the right place at the right time. When I look back on where I am today, a lot of it was just timing and luck. Just like the picture.
Perfect timing. Photo credit@ryansova
Magnus Walker
A gathering of Porsches
End of Summer
Did it feel like the summer just blew by? It did to me! I spent Labor day weekend at the Portland Grand Prix. The Indycars returned back to Portland after their last race here in 2007.
It was estimated that 40,000 race fans showed up Sunday afternoon for the big race. Having always been a Indycar fan, I opted for spending a little more money and got the pit pass too. I think being in the pits is almost more interesting than the race. You get a chance to watch mechcanics put their final touches on the car before the start of the race. The best part is hearing the cars being warmed up, and they sound awesome too.
My first trip to the race was in 1984, and in those days its was three-day-party! We would ride our motorcycles down from Spokane, and meet up with my friends parents who would drive their motorhome down from eastern Washington. Fun times. Looking forward to next years race.
The good looking guy in the black hat is me! 1984
More Miles
Work and travel never keep me from clocking more miles on my old GPZ. I jump on my bike as often as I can. A spare minute always means another mile.
I have already managed to get a couple of really good rides in this summer. Last month; I made the trip back to my hometown of Spokane to help out my old friend, Jay with his annual car show in neighboring Rosalia. He had invited me back again to be one of the judges for his annual car show. It’s a tough job when there are so many great cars! Besides the old cars, I got to visit and chat with some of my old college friends who also made the trip to Rosalia for the day.
My old 1983 GPZ ran like a top for the 800-mile round-trip. Even more surprising was how well I held up on the ride! When I rode the exact route last year, the 90-degree heat took it out of me. The much cooler temperature this year made for a much more comfortable ride.
This weekend, I did a couple of my favorite rides. First one had my heading east out of Portland onto Highway 84 towards The Dalles. From there I rode south on the 197 to Tygh Valley, then east onto Highway 216, which took me along the Deschutes River and up Shears Bridge Canyon. It’s a great twisty ride but you have to be careful because not all of the corners have guardrails. If you go off the road, it’s a hell of a long ways down to the bottom of the canyon! I continued on by connecting through Grass Valley onto Highway 97, then hooking onto Highway 84 westbound back to Portland. It’s a great 300-mile ride that I would highly recommend.
The next day, I took a quick spin to Mount Hood with a quick visit to Timberline Lodge. The road around the backside of the mountain takes you through the wineries and fruit tree farms of Hood River. It really was a perfect weekend of riding.
Did I do the speed limit?
Sherars Bridge Canyon - a fun and fast series of twists and turns
In the background is Oregon’s tallest mountain, Mount Hood
Taking a selfie break along the Columbia Gorge Highway
Okanagan Valley
Work and travel have kept me busy for the past couple of months, but the past week really was the cherry-topper! So what have I been up to?
I just returned from a five-day trip from the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. We went up for a wedding that took place right on Lake Okanagan in Lake Country. The next day, I was there to celebrate Canada Day too. Canada Day is July 1, so it was a super long weekend celebration that moved right into the Fourth of July.
The Okanagan really is an amazing place. It is the heart of BC's wine and fruit industry. It is lake and cottage country. Most of BC’s wineries and orchards surround Lake Okanagan, a spectacular 82-mile long lake.
Canadians take great pride in protecting their environment. The small towns we drove through dotted along the lake were pristine. Free of trash and graffiti, with main streets featuring well-kept storefronts, cafés, and long-time businesses. It was really refreshing to see and I am already ready and looking forward to going back for another restful vacation!
All dressed up for Sarah and Jason’s wedding in Lake Country
Property at Lock + Worth Winery and Poplar Grove Cheese overlooking Lake Okanagan
Sunset at Nichol Vineyard on the Naramata Bench
Everywhere
Remember the call I got two months ago? I said yes to a fundraising auction that was to take place in a local Portland taproom. I got the call when the original auctioneer had backed out because she did not like the group's final selection of venue.
Well, it turned out really well! It actually turned out better than any one of us could have imagined. We ended up raising nearly double the net proceeds that they had in years past. They were so pleased with the results that they rebooked us right away for their next year's event.
I'm sure glad we said yes. It was a great group and a fun auction to work and we're looking forward to doing it all again next year. It just goes to show that success can be found anywhere and everywhere, as long as you open your mind and eyes to the possibilities.
Thirty Years
Thirty years ago, I started my career in the auction business. It was the evening of May 20, 1988 in my hometown of Spokane. It's easy for me to remember because it was my 27th birthday.
I was helping out my future employer, Mitch and his buddy Stuart at a fundraising event. Before that; I had never even attended an auction, let alone worked at an auction! My job that night was to simply help spot anyone's hand that shot up in the air, then let out a "Yep!" loud enough for the auctioneer to hear. It was a lot harder than it looked. Now turn the clock ahead thirty years and I have been the auctioneer of over 400 fundraising auctions. Who would have ever imagined what that one evening would lead to? This unexpected and rewarding career is what came of that night and I feel so lucky to be a part of it after all these years.