Top Results at Mecum Kissimmee 2023

[70ChargerRT]

Recessions are for poor people.

Exactly!!!

 

[chargervert]

Most of us in the hobby are working people who work hard to live decent and have some extra funds to put towards the hobby. These guys throwing six and seven figures around for toys like it's pocket change are way above our means.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Of course I’m serious, do you think the guys dropping a cool $200K for a collector car are strapped for cash? To guys like you and I that’s a lot of dough, but to them it’s play money.

I tagged along when Car Craft was shooting my brother in law’s 340 Dart, one of the other cars they were shooting at the time was a ‘55 Bel Air. I struck up a conversation with the owner while his “builder” was working with the Car Craft staff. He never turned a wrench, but by his own admission he wrote checks to the tune of more than $250K. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy who worked his *** off and built a very lucrative marine salvage operation.

That's what happens when you don't lift a finger and give your car to a shop along with a blank check. Look at shows like Phantom Works, Chasing Classic Cars and Bitchin' Rides. What do you think those builds cost? The '69 Cuda notchback I bought last September came with all of the receipts from the shop that did the work and I was shocked to see that it totaled well over 200 grand. The previous owner, who was also the original owner must have loved that car an awful lot to drop that kind of dough into what was a slant 6 car. I bought it for less than 1/4 of what that guy spent on it.

 

[chargervert]

What I am completely amazed by is what 67 to 72 Chevy pickups and 66 to 73 Ford Broncos are selling for these days! Not even 10 years ago, those Chevy trucks were very affordable, and you couldn't give those Broncos away! People are paying stupid money for the new Broncos too,way above sticker prices! They are nothing like the original Broncos and are nothing to look at. They look like that squared off Ford Flex vehicle Ford came out with about 10 years ago with off road tires on them! At the auction before this past one I watched a 66 Hemi Satellite 4 speed car sell for 80 grand, and those Broncos new and old,and Chevy trucks selling for 200k!

 

[70ChargerRT]

What I am completely amazed by is what 67 to 72 Chevy pickups and 66 to 73 Ford Broncos are selling for these days! Not even 10 years ago, those Chevy trucks were very affordable, and you couldn't give those Broncos away! People are paying stupid money for the new Broncos too,way above sticker prices! They are nothing like the original Broncos and are nothing to look at. They look like that squared off Ford Flex vehicle Ford came out with about 10 years ago with off road tires on them! At the auction before this past one I watched a 66 Hemi Satellite 4 speed car sell for 80 grand, and those Broncos new and old,and Chevy trucks selling for 200k!

What the hell is even exciting about those Chevy trucks? And the Broncos are just dog face ugly, kind of like a G6 ugly as crap but people want them.

 

[6PKRTSE]

Crazy money what these auctions bring. I am just an average working man. Between being a single father who raised my 3 children and now have a third Grand child as of Saturday to spoil. If it weren't for the extra money I make on side jobs, fixing, repairing vehicles and fabricating out of my garage I could never afford to play in this hobby.

 

[Runcharger]

Well: I kind of feel like these guys are all suckers. I had these cars since the early 70's, drove them, raced them and showed them. I didn't trailer them to shows or show them to acquaintances in the garage. I worked on them to tweak them faster and polished them to make them look better.
Not sure what these guys do with them but it isn't as much fun as what I did with them.

 

[chargervert]

Maybe the prices are intentionally being driven up to get collector cars into the hands of people who want them to look at versus people like us who want to actually use and drive them, as the elitists steer the driving public towards electric cars. There doesn't seem to be a logical explanation for the recent skyward shift in the prices of collector cars lately!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well: I kind of feel like these guys are all suckers. I had these cars since the early 70's, drove them, raced them and showed them. I didn't trailer them to shows or show them to acquaintances in the garage. I worked on them to tweak them faster and polished them to make them look better.
Not sure what these guys do with them but it isn't as much fun as what I did with them.

The last time that bronze Hemi Daytona sold, it fetched a million (I believe) & now it sold for 1.3 million. Who knows what it will bring the next time it gets sold, but obviously, the seller wasn't a sucker.

 

[chargervert]

I thought when David Spade sold the car he got $750,000 for the car. I seem to remember him losing money on the car.

 

[Runcharger]

Well: When I buy stuff I use it. I don't buy a house to make money on it, I buy it to live in it. I buy a vehicle to drive it. I buy a hobby car to drive vigorously. I stand by my sucker comment. My wife is pretty too, I didn't marry her so I could invite friends over so they could look at her.
When I die I hope like heck that people don't remember me by how many cars were parked, unused in the warehouse.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I thought when David Spade sold the car he got $750,000 for the car. I seem to remember him losing money on the car.

Could be. It's hard to keep with how many times that car was bought sold.

 

[XS22J8R]

Guys paying big bucks for a cool car aren't as big a suckers as the people paying 10s of millions for a famous artists painting to hang on their wall, or 100s of thousands for a costume some actress wore in a movie, or piece of sports memorabilia IMO.

 

[chargervert]

There seems to be now more than ever a lot of people who have more money than brains! Whenever I hear about some Bozo paying insane money for the type of things described in the post above, I just shake my head in disbelief!

 

[AR67GTX]

I think these big celebrity auctions are kind of a separate sales bubble in the larger bubble of the entire dealer, smaller auction and private sale collector car values. Two separate market places - different price expectations. There’s some overlap but a lot of separation too especially on high end cars.

 

[XS22J8R]

The question I have had, is why are people willing to pay big bucks at auctions, but when I am trying to sell a car, I just get tire kickers, picture collectors, and an occasional Richard Rawlings/Count wannabe who wants to wave a lowball offer in my face and expect me to drool like a pavlov dog, so they can likely turn around and flip it for a big profit?
I guess traveling to a big auction, having a bunch of cars to choose from, drinks flowing, financing booths onsite, and car transportation services there eager to get your new purchase home for you appeals more than traveling around the country to look at a car, perhaps find its a perfumed pig, and have to head home empty handed and disappointed, and its worth paying a big premium for the amenities an auction environment provides you?

 

[Speedbird]

Must be the women.

 

[68BabyBlue]

We are all priced out of our own hobby! I can't hang with them with 383 automatic 69 Road Runners selling at 165K!

That's what happens when you don't lift a finger and give your car to a shop along with a blank check. Look at shows like Phantom Works, Chasing Classic Cars and Bitchin' Rides. What do you think those builds cost? The '69 Cuda notchback I bought last September came with all of the receipts from the shop that did the work and I was shocked to see that it totaled well over 200 grand. The previous owner, who was also the original owner must have loved that car an awful lot to drop that kind of dough into what was a slant 6 car. I bought it for less than 1/4 of what that guy spent on it.

Sad, but true. I was truly blessed that 50 years ago, Julie and Bill Clark, (the original owners of my GTX) took me under their wing, and explained the process to me. To have purchased their legacy in my younger days, and then brought the car to its current level, would have been triple the final transaction price.

 

[68BabyBlue]

The question I have had, is why are people willing to pay big bucks at auctions, but when I am trying to sell a car, I just get tire kickers, picture collectors, and an occasional Richard Rawlings/Count wannabe who wants to wave a lowball offer in my face and expect me to drool like a pavlov dog, so they can likely turn around and flip it for a big profit?
I guess traveling to a big auction, having a bunch of cars to choose from, drinks flowing, financing booths onsite, and car transportation services there eager to get your new purchase home for you appeals more than traveling around the country to look at a car, perhaps find its a perfumed pig, and have to head home empty handed and disappointed, and its worth paying a big premium for the amenities an auction environment provides you?

Over the course of seven GTXs, and a Chrysler 300F, I have experienced much of what you describe regarding the selling experience. Two exceptions, Baby Blue in 2021, and my Hemi car last fall. Both cars went to enthusiasts who loved the cars as much as I did, and were real gentlemen in closing the deal. This was not typical. The Hemi nearly went to Mecum because my patience with tire kickers was really getting short. Having attended multiple Mecum events, and consigned one car (which was de-listed as a result of the pandemic), I do think they offer something for the seller of a high end car, but the price of their marketing is not cheap.

On the buyer's end, I would never purchase at auction. But the lawyer in me likes weighing evidence, and doing deals. I traveled the country chasing GTXs over the past four decades, and never looked at a private party car I didn't end up buying. I evaluated the seller as much as the car, especially before making a decision to travel for the inspection. I negotiated with the seller of my current GTX for 20 years before doing the deal. For someone with deep pockets, the auction environment no doubt provides a different sort of satisfaction, but I've never been in that league.

 

[sunroof360]

For the big buck buyers at the auctions, those weekends and car buys are entertainment. They are simply spending their entertainment cash to do what they enjoy. Some people will pay several hundred dollars to go golfing, to knock a little white round ball in a hole. Other people drop their entertainment cash at casinos.
Old saying " I spent my money on wine , women and song, the rest I pissed away".
Those high rollers like cars, the money means very little to them. They got more money than us average folk can even IMAGINE. If we saw their houses we would understand their car buying money is pennies.