I learned about the popularity of vintage Harley Davidson items a few years ago after I found myself owning a ton of the stuff.  There were no actual Harley Motorcycles involved, but I think I ended up owning a little bit of almost everything else! 


I'm exaggerating a bit there, but seriously, I had a LOT of Harley Davidson gear in my house.

photo credit: gutter

I had gone to a large neighborhood garage sale and probably visited over fifty different houses looking for things I might want for myself or that I thought might sell on eBay.  One particular house caught my attention because it looked sort of like a department store.  There were clotheslines full of shirts, various items spread out on tables, the works.  When I walked up I saw that it was almost all vintage Harley Davidson merchandise.  I didn't really know that much about Harley gear, but the shirts were from all over the United States and many of them had dates on them going back to the 80s and even 70s.

The lady who was selling the stuff came up and started talking to me.  She introduced herself and explained that her and her husband were both pretty big into riding for a long time, but he had been injured pretty badly in an accident and they didn't ride anymore.  She seemed pretty sad about that.  Anyway, she said that she was selling the stuff off.  We talked for a while and I bought a few things before moving on.

This video shows a sample of just the shirts I picked up that day!

Later that afternoon I started looking on eBay to see if anything I had bought might be worth anything (this was how I used to shop in my clutter building years).  It turned out that the vintage Harley stuff was pretty popular.  I drove back over to her house and everything had been put away.  I guess I was feeling pretty bold at the time because I actually knocked on her door to ask if she was still interested in selling any of the stuff.  Unbelievably, she said I could have everything for FIFTY bucks!  That was over one hundred vintage Harley T shirts, a Harley Davidson jacket, a Harley Davidson commemorative bank, Harley floor mats and steering wheel covers...the list goes on.  She just wanted to get it out and didn't want to bother with putting it all away again.  I jumped all over that deal and loaded up my van with all of the Harley Davidson merchandise.


That may have been the single best purchase I ever made as en eBay seller.  I was selling that stuff off for the better part of a year and I had more than made my fifty dollars back just from selling the jacket alone.  I was constantly doing research about what used Harley Davidson items might sell best and I found that although there are people looking for Harley Davidson motorcycles for sale, it seemed that more of them were looking for Harley accessories.

This is another one of those areas where eBay shines for buyers looking to find something.  The old vintage Harley stuff still looks very cool.  Some people search out parts for vintage bikes, but I believe that even more are looking for those old items you can't get in a bike shop anymore.  The commemorative shirts from bike week events in places like Sturgis and Daytona did very well.  Vintage 3D T shirts picked up bids almost as quickly as I listed them.  As I've been checking recently I've noticed a lot of interest in almost anything celebrating the Harley Davidson 100th anniversary.  That anniversary was in 2003, so items from that celebration aren't quite vintage yet.  But they are definitely popular and if you search on eBay, you will probably find that someone has listed some 100th anniversary stuff as vintage.

Of course, some people are looking for Vintage Harley Davidson motorcycles.  As far as used bikes go, they seem to do pretty well.  I've never tried buying and selling anything that would involve me investing as much money as that would involve, but they are a nice investment and they certainly seem to hold their value well.