The Wild Angels

Rick Fichter: For a trader and a picker, it's always good news when someone's short on cash. Well, not so much when you're like me and you want to keep everything for yourself! While it's hard to purge, first things first; I am a businessman, after all, yet this one is mine: an original theater-marquee poster from the Peter Fonda motorcycle flick The Wild Angels.

So, it's been brutal in the Philly area, and on yet another 5 degree day, the old guy who owns the building brings in his bud, Bruce.  Bruce is a real throw back to the 60s and right from the jump, he says how he'd seen the shop and wanted to meet me and money's tight (bingo) and that he that he had something I might want. That's like music to a picker; he's short on cash and trying to get rid of a few things. I can sing that song all day.  

And let me tell ya, paydirt. [Here you can understand Rick's enthusiasm if you tag on the inflection as he said it: Paay - DIRT]. He starts out rambling about building bikes since the 60s and a TW panhead basketcase he's been working on and a '49 pan chopper, la-la-la, so I'm getting antsy until he finally asks me out to his car.

What he has is a numbered piece of biker history in poster form. This one's going in the tattoo shop so I can look at it everyday! Easily its value is in the $3-500 range, and I picked it up for change, so that's like the real bonus. Since then I've been working with him on the panhead and who knows, maybe money gets tight again. That would be like getting the keys to the castle - a 60s bike builder who hoards everything and has never sold a thing - till now. Who knows, a '52 panhead could be here soon!