Man drops $80,000 on a 40-ft Japanese container stuffed with motorcycles prohibited in the US
Published on Nov 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Nov 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
This guy just spent $80,000 on a 40-foot shipping container from Japan filled with motorcycles that were banned in the US.
The YouTuber actually placed the order about a year in advance, so he’d basically forgotten all about it by the time the container was delivered.
Still, $80,000 is a lot of cash, but to be fair, he did get quite a long of bang for his buck.
And some of these bikes were true gems.
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Here’s what he found inside the container
Sean Kerr, the man behind the Bikes and Beards YouTube channel, found some true gems in the container he ordered from Japan.
The only thing they have in common is they were all banned in the US, but they’re now available due to the 25-year import rule that says you can make (nearly) anything street-legal after 25 years as a ‘classic’.
The first motorcycle he noticed was a stunningly preserved XJR400 in lime green, which was apparently also accompanied by ‘an intriguing smell’.
We’re not sure what he meant by that, so we’re going to have to take his word for it.
Also, according to the paperwork that came along with it, this green machine would be worth $7,600, which is not a bad deal.
In addition to this bike, he also found a variety of Yamaha motorcycles, and then he discovered the real ‘Cup of the carpenter’, as in the real Holy Grail.
One of these motorcycles starred in a Hollywood blockbuster
Kerr found a Kawasaki GPZ1000 that bears a striking resemblance to one used by Tom Cruise in the 1986 movie Top Gun.
According to Kerr, this is less famous but arguably better.
“[The bike in Top Gun] was a GPZ900R, this bike is a GPZ1000. It’s the faster one,” he explained.
The GPZ1000 was produced between 1986 and 1988 and could reach top speeds of 158mph.
It set Kerr back $2,300 but would be worth around $6,000 today.
All in all, he estimated that he’d made $73,000 in total.
Not a bad deal.
