On Sunday we took our second trip this year to the Newark Autojumble, arriving at 6.45am we sat patiently behind a mass of other vans that had also made the pilgrimage to the hallowed Newark show ground.
Mortons now operate a funky scanning in process for those who’ve booked online, simply hold up your phone with their email attachment open and bingo, we then got a vehicle pass for our dashboard and directed through the open double gates. The clipboard system, and tickets on the gate way of doing things appears to be dead.
There were already hundreds of traders busy doing business, instead of emptying our van out we couldn’t resist a quick walk around.
We weren’t here to buy, instead to sell a van full of bits from the Motorbikes Breakers workshop.
I spotted a few things that would be my benchmark items for the day. By that I mean to see if they sold or not.
A really clean CBR600FV in the duffest colours was offered at a decent price.
It had a years MOT, a Yoshimura silencer and 57,000 miles on its bores, asking price was a realistic £995.
Chatting to seller revealed that he’d had it on eBay for two months with no success, so he’d slung it in the van along with some other stuff and headed north from Essex. Come midday and it was still unsold, that surprised me, and gives you an idea of the state of the used bike market for older machines.
A Kawasaki ZXR400 upside down frontend caught my eye, it consisted of forks, yokes, wheel, EBC discs and a pair of manky looking brake calipers. The seller wanted £200 for the lot, which wasn’t too spiteful if you wanted a cheap frontend for a cheapy project. Like the CBR600 come midday it was still laid out on the grass looking for a home.
I can’t help but think if both sellers had taken time to stick a price on their wares it might have assisted a sale? Not everyone likes to ask.
By mid morning the jumble was in full swing, no shortage of happy people carrying all manner of motorcycle parts around that they’d purchased.
Our pitch was pretty busy, we only took stuff that we had no interest in taking home. Our formula was simple, lay it all out on our assortment of pasting tables and sell it cheap. Our dearest items were £5 each, with loads of £1 dips on the other tables.
Interacting with buyers often swings from pure piss taking, through to interesting chats about what people intend to use the parts for.
Another wander saw me pick up a few parts that I’ll sell on via eBay, all proceeds going to the Scabby to Slabby fund (more on that later)
By 1pm we were done, it took much less time for us to load up than it had done to set up at 7.30am.
Another great day at Newark had been had by all.
