Letter from Glenn Bator:

The smoke has now cleared, the excitement is gone, and all 385 motorcycles are with their happy new owners! Thursday June 25, 2009 is now in the history books and that day will be remembered as a great moment in motorcycling history for the S&G Custom Cycles blow out auction! Bator International Inc. and J. Wood and Company Auctioneers hosted a barn burner of an event as over 633 registered bidders and an estimated two thousand enthusiasts crowded the back field, tent and building of Sam Goodman's facility.

By the end of the day, all of the motorcycles, antique cars, trucks, parts, hit and miss motors and even an airplane brought well over $600,000.00 and all in just under seven and a half hours of fast and furious bidding! The auction was set up as a "walk by" style with all of the items sitting static with the auctioneer and the crowd following behind. The crowd was so tightly packed, that we constantly had to ask everyone to take a few steps back so the ring men and auctioneer could have room to conduct the auction. The record sale for the day was the 1934 Brough Superior 1150 selling at $46,000.00 and the surprise of the day was the 1933 Royal Enfield selling at $27,000.00. On the other end of the price scale, there were many project motorcycles selling for as little as $10.00, like a very restorable Yamaha Mini Enduro, Bridgestone 100, and a mid 80's Honda Express! 

The beauty of this auction was that there was a great variety of bikes being sold that fit any sized pocketbook, so all of the buyers went home with a truck load of bikes and smiles on their faces! We had buyers coming in from all over the states as well as other countries such as France, Canada, England and Germany. The local motorcycle enthusiasts also took home a big share of the booty as the amount of pick up trucks and trailers with Tennessee and Alabama license plates were quite prominent while loading up the sold inventory.    

S&G owner Sam Goodman and his staff were exceptionally gracious and the old saying "Southern Hospitality" is not just a saying as we could have not been better treated by a finer bunch of people. Even though the temperatures were in the high 90's and the humidity hovering around 80%, the words, yes sir and yes ma'am were a common place throughout our entire stay. Our thanks go out to Sam, Ronny, Marquetta, Adam, Cathy, Margaret, Evelyn, Helen, Regina, Kimber and the two boys James and Justin that humped out more than their share of bikes and parts! 

The auction staff including Jerry and Dee Wood, my wife Deni Bator, Steve Dance, John Tevins, Phil Reed, and the two local talents Mike and Justin all did an exceptional job of making this event run as smooth as a brand new Honda Aspencade. They were all in top form and took care of all of the days business without incident. 

When the last bike went out the back gate, and all of the parts shelves were picked clean, I was able to sit back and smile as another successful auction was a wrap. Our association with J. Wood and Company could not have gone better and I look forward to our next events. J. Wood's next auction is scheduled for August 7, 2009 located outside of Buffalo NY. For more details, please go to www.jwoodandcompany.com. Our next Bator International auction is scheduled for October 10, 2009 at the beautiful Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum located in Birmingham Alabama. This auction will run in conjunction with the 5th Annual Barber Vintage Festival weekend. We are currently accepting consignments for this event so please contact us early to insure that we are able to get your bike featured on the website as well as the color catalog.