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I sold mine with about 8000 Km for 3500 €, there is no market for Zanes in Germany.
Bought it for 4000 € a year ago, bike was ok but not my thing.
 
That's what's so interesting, its either someone loved its sexy look and just bought it or an informed individual knows there history and bought it anyway. Even more interesting is wither it gets displayed like art or it gets ridden.
 
US is a totally different market. When I tried to sell the #0001 1000 SFC, the bids in Europe ranged from 5.000 - 8.000€. I sold it to the US for almost twice as high. They simply value things differently and - not to forget - not many of any type of Laverda made it to US...
 
It sure is a different market, but markets don’t always make any sense. Within the last five years or so my cousin was buying 70’s and early 80’s bikes in the states, tarting them up a bit and selling for a good profit in the UK. If he wants to get his money back on some of them now he’ll have to start shipping them back the other way…
 
Same was for Italy... in the 90's, my brother bought ship-loads of 750's and 1000's Laverdas from Italy very cheap (750 around 2.000 - 2.500 Deutschmarks (roughly 1.000 - 1.250€ today), triples went for around 3.000 - 3.500 Deutschmarks (1.500 - 1.750€). He fixed some issues on them, made them run nicely, got german papers and sold the 750s for around 5.000DM and the triples for around 6.500 - 8.000 Deutschmark.

10 or 15 years ago, the market in Italy dried out and people started to see them not as "old, used bikes" but as a piece of history and wanted them back. prices for 1000 SFC's (which very rarely were sold in Italy) went really up, so were other Laverdas, too, but mostly in original state, low millage etc.. Italien customers started to buy things back from Germany (and for sure from other countries, too). Not sure how the market is there now though.
 
Laverdalothar said:
Same was for Italy... in the 90's, my brother bought ship-loads of 750's and 1000's Laverdas from Italy very cheap (750 around 2.000 - 2.500 Deutschmarks (roughly 1.000 - 1.250€ today), triples went for around 3.000 - 3.500 Deutschmarks (1.500 - 1.750€). He fixed some issues on them, made them run nicely, got german papers and sold the 750s for around 5.000DM and the triples for around 6.500 - 8.000 Deutschmark.

10 or 15 years ago, the market in Italy dried out and people started to see them not as "old, used bikes" but as a piece of history and wanted them back. prices for 1000 SFC's (which very rarely were sold in Italy) went really up, so were other Laverdas, too, but mostly in original state, low millage etc.. Italien customers started to buy things back from Germany (and for sure from other countries, too). Not sure how the market is there now though.
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Yes, the Germans and the Dutch pushed up the prices in Italy by going to the Mostra Scambio with lorries and buying lots of bikes for resale with important profits.
After a while, the Italians caught on that they were on to something, money.
The Italians seem to have understood that it's now over. It has however left them with the understanding of the importance of their motorcycling heritage.

Paul
 
I always had the impression the italian old-bike community was far smaller than that in central Europe, especially Germany and UK and was far more focussed on pre-WWII machines. Italians were usually hell-bent on owning the newest, hottest shit and 5-year-old bikes were quickly banned to the back of the shed, nobody wanted them. Many no doubt found their way to the junk/recycling facilities, maybe the beer can you're holding has a tiny bit of Laverda DNA in it!

The german scene at least was very different, at times it seemed anything over 20 years old was worth a fuckin' fortune... even if it was a tarted up POS that had been botched to within an inch of death. German restorers/flippers would scour european jumbles and flog off their junk at a premium here, they knew eager punters' pockets were big and well-filled! There were many foreign vendors with trailer-loads of assorted bikes in differing stages of patina at german jumbles as well. While EU new bike sales peaked in Germany, it was still pretty cool to be seen on a "classic", so there definitely still was a quite sizable market for the old stuff. Used-bike prices usually hit rock-bottom after 5-6 years but would then often steadily climb, depending on rarity/desirability/whatever. The classic scene peaked around 2015-20 but prices have plummeted since then. Probably has more to do with the general state of our world and the general prevailing uncertainty than no longer wanting to ride old bikes. Interest in old vehicles in general is waning a bit, but top-tier stuff is still fetching obscene prices. Reckon these are seen more as investments than anything else though. But, judging from the sunny Sunday afternoon traffic past my home, there are more classics of all types on the road than ever before! Perhaps it's more about using them than hoarding/restoring/tinkering/bragging these days.

The UK market seemed to me as far more realistic with owners hanging on to and riding their pride and joy for longer, therefore preserving them and providing the market with loads of working bikes. The UK classic market usually yielded far higher prices for what looked like mostly half-decent bikes, bet there were some real wonky bastards amoung those though!

The Dutch and Belgian markets offered quite cheap stuff for a while during the 1980's-90's, but bikes there were very often run into the ground. Spain was even worse... only ever saw total junk coming from there. Decades of industrial isolation through the Franco regime meant parts and know-how to keep older bikes running were scarce. Happily, things have changed for the better in sunny Espana, with strong Benelux classic communties evolving as well, not to forget France. ;)

Things have definitely changed in Italy, classic italian bikes and spares have become rare and the Italians themselves are now far more aware of their once-great bike industry and heritage with prices rising accordingly. Rare to find a classic "barnfind" worthy of a restoration, more often it would be restored domestically and then thrown on the market. Old bikes seem to be thriving though, with professional and semi-professional restorers popping up and offering some true gems, as I experienced at the Imola jumble just a couple of years ago.

Overall, while not being totally dim, the future for our bikes isn't too bright... enjoy them as long as you possibly can.

piet
 
Well - the italian market was different as they faced immense import taxes for foreign bikes with larger than - I think - 350ccm, still keeping that after joining the EU in 1959 I think.

Therefore, riding a bigger capacity Guzzi or a Ducati (or even a Laverda) was much cheaper for them until somewhere end of the 80's I think. When these tarrifs were phased out in the 80's slowly, jap bikes became much cheaper, they were more powerfull and had even better suspension and brakes than the italian bikes, who were missing inovation for a long time. The result was, that Guzzis, Ducatis, Laverdas etc. were "just used/old bikes" in the 90's that were sold cheaply.

With the loss of the home market, many of the brands struggled. Used italien bikes were of almost no value (there were to many of them available while demand shrank). Used Jap bikes though were still selling in high numbers, as the italian customer wanted them for very long and now finally could afford them, while the Dealer-Network wasn't established yet which still made them a bit "exotic" and with that, rare. The loss of money between a new bike and a used one wasn'd as high as today, which overall made them the better deal and many italiens sold their "outdated" used local bikes to other countries, who had a "classic" scene already and even were looking for "Retro" bikes, like Honda Clubman, a new edition of the Yamaha SR500 or similar.
 
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