The Elusive Barn-Find

Photo was taken in a damp Schenectady, NY basement in the mid 1970s. I found the sister bike to my 1947 Indian Chief that I managed to buy for $300 in a town nearby five years earlier. I had noticed that some of the parts were mixed between 1947 and 1948. Turns out the reluctant seller had two Chiefs. It took me a few years to track him down and talk him into letting this one go as well. This time it cost me $600.....a real impossibility in today's American Pickers environment. Shows like that are exciting to watch, but unfortunately have escalated prices of barn-finds. A bike like this restored will sell upwards of $30,000.