Back in 1979, Honda introduced the Z50R mini bike. As an adult, if you’ve never attempted to ride one of these 50cc bikes, it can be quite challenging (and entertaining). Designed to get children into the sport of motocross, these bikes were even produced as “Christmas Specials” with each Honda dealer getting two per year to sell in December. This pair of 1999 Z50R’s are still in the factory crate and can be found here on eBay with a current bid over $16,000. While you might think $8,000 apiece is a premium, these vintage Hondas are highly collectible. Sure, you could go to your local dealer and get a 2020 CRF50F for about $1,500, but the Z-series 50’s were only made for 20 years. Located in Tucson, Arizona, it probably wouldn’t be too much to ship the crate as-is, which is a huge plus. Take a look at this amazing pair of bikes!
Here is what the duo would look like if they were assembled. 1999 was the last year for the Z50R and while they aren’t as flashy as the chrome version from 1986, they are still cool. We’ve featured some Z50’s here on Barn Finds before and they always command high bidding.
Not only is the original metal crate still intact, but the outer cardboard box is also still there too! It’s not in perfect condition, but you can tell it was put up and stored for most of the past 20 years.
Here you can see everything is still wrapped in plastic and cable-tied together. I’m not sure what the new owner will do with this awesome pair of bikes, what do you think? Are they going to hold their value better if they are kept crated up?
Sure they’ll keep their value up if they’re kept in the original crate and boxes (for awhile) but of what use is a machine if it’s not being used?!?? If someone wants an investment they’ve a more certain cash return when they buy property, recognized rare art, some stocks and bonds, certain precious metals/stones or by taking a chance on buying a political candidate! (Well, at least all the former to the latter have a decent economic track record, but hey!)
Realistically, the only way anyone can get there money back and make a profit on something like this (these) is by recognizing how much cash they saved by the focus on the positive of an entertaining and enjoyable machine such as something like this as they build/fix/ride rather than paying some mental health specialist to relieve themselves of the daily angst everyone experiences every day..
What do I think? I’m sure most know what I’m going to say. All this proves is how out of whack this world has become. To maybe bolster what Nev said, people that are doing this, must already have fine art, VW buses and such, and clearly don’t know where to spend their money. They don’t want their money back, it’s a feather in their cap to show they can do it. It’s certainly not for the awesomeness of a Honda 50, sitting this long, they may be junk anyway. Just shows, vintage crap, attractively offered ( in a shipping crate) can have big rewards. It’s nuts, and that’s what I think.
Classic vintage dirt bikes I can see as highly prized collector items, not even from ’99 really, like much older, not mini bikes so much.
Neat looking when assembled instead of packed in a crate, but not sixteen thousand dollars neat, in my humble opinion.
Assemble them, use one, and display the other!
Everybody has a Rosebud itch, or an interest in gambling that someone else does. What else are we doing in here?
If this were mine, being able to scratch it with a potentially brand new revisit to my childhood could well be worth the asking.
rich father son project?
The link above goes to a driveshaft one this aint.
4K$ is over the top…?16?
I agree w/current owner. Mosta da fun is in debox’n assembly But…
certainly not in the purchase (16?)
(?16?)
Wha…..!?!
“…only made for 20 years.”
Means they are not “rare.” In the box is unusual. But unless you are a collector and for some odd reason want to leave them in the box, then you can probably find a very nice example (or two) for much less.
How often are the comments section of each posting scrubbed of posts? Are all of them deleted and only select remarks reposted? Why mess with any of them at all? or just some of them? And why scrub them? Delete them I mean.
Short answer: Some posts are automatically placed on hold because of the language used or that they come from known spam addresses. First posts are automatically held for the same reason. If you get into politics, religion, or lack of respect for other commenters it gets pulled as long as we see it. Also, we pull posts where folks are trying to sell their own (different) vehicles through the comments section. There are enough posts that it is difficult to review every one. Make sense?