The Market AUCTION WATCH J. Wood & Co. Goes Virtual

Story by Gary Hallobeck

Photos Courtesy J. Wood & Company

Jerry Wood has been in the motorsports auction business for decades, helping estates, enthusiasts and former shop owners liquidate massive collections of motorcycles, parts and accessories. Auctioning off just a few, individually-owned machines has proven much harder he said, until now. “We have a lot of customers with smaller collections and it’s very often good stuff, but not enough to justify doing an auction on-site,” he said from the company’s New England headquarters.

Come Saturday, April 15, J. Wood & Co. is teaming up with online auction facilitators highbid.com to offer a selection of motorcycles and memorabilia owned not by one collector, but by everyday owners from across the U.S. This will be J. Wood’s first online-only motorcycle auction and bids will be taken starting at 10 am and applied to a motorcycle in small increments until the gavel ultimately falls on the 29th. “If the top bid on a motorcycle is, say, $1,000, you can enter $5,000 and Highbid will increase your bid by small increments each time there’s another bid. This way, you’re only bidding what it takes to beat someone else,” Wood said. With each of the machines being auctioned on a no-reserve basis, some incredible bargains may surface and every item is expected to sell.

The two businesses have worked together during the past several J Wood auctions and the two-week format should prove popular with buyers, Wood said. “We have a real strong customer base and none of the bikes will be giveaways. When people have extra time to consider bidding rather than being in a live auction where you have to raise your hand all the time, there’s less pressure,” he said.

The majority of the historic collection of motorcycles is amassed at J ing a rare 1970 Velocette Thruxton with just 13 original miles, a restored BSA Gold Star and a museum-quality 1978 Kawasaki Z1 in