One of the biggest surprises – and announcements – from Mayor Tom Henry’s State of the City address had little to do with city government at all.
AUBURN – Astride a hand-built Munch motorcycle on a wooden pallet carried by a propane-powered forklift, Jarred Ruhl gripped the motorcyle’s handles.
“All right, where are we going?” Jeremy Harris, the fork truck’s driver, asked Ruhl as he guided the load to the canopy near the blue ring at Kruse International on Monday.
The Munch – which required such transport because lot drivers couldn’t shift the gears into neutral and roll it to the ring – was part of an estate collection of about 40 items that included rare motorcycles sold Monday at the 39th annual Auburn Collector Car Auction & Show.
The auction, in its sixth day, had a sparse audience in comparison with earlier days. Outside the bidding arena around noon, few customers braved the rain for the food at the vendor booths.
The largest crowd was around the blue ring where the David Manthey Estate Collection sold.
Though the first motorcycle in the collection – a 1940 English motorbike – sold for just $800, winning bids on subsequent items from the collection quickly rose into four and five figures.
The liveliest bidding pitted Larry Newberry of Knoxville, Tenn., against Fred Gitts of Tallahassee, Fla.
One bid Gitts won was on a 1932 BSA three-wheeler after Newberry made a hand-washing motion when bidding reached about $14,000.
When the Munch motorcycles in the collection were rolled across the ring, auctioneers debated on how to pronounce the name.
As one motorcycle took center stage, the auctioneer said, “These have become a status symbol to have one of these bikes,” before one buyer questioned whether the bike was a Munch.
After discussions, the auctioneer determined the motorcycle was a 1967 Munch and the winning bid of $85,000 met applause.
Bidding on another 1967 Munch was interrupted around $38,000 by the auctioneer, who questioned whether a title or bill of sale would accompany the motorcycle, leaving some bidders grumbling.
But the sale continued as the rain came down harder, and the ’67 brought a winning bid of $39,000.
The top seller was a 1976 Munch Titan, which sold for $187,000, according to Kelly Ellert, director of public relations for Kruse International.
The auction will continue today with mostly reruns – cars that didn’t sell the first time in the ring, Ellert said.
