Features The Hirohata Mercury price: Take a guess and win a prize!

customs usually never sell well ... but this is a pedigree barris kustom if not The barris kustom, ... my guess is $ 1,325,000

 

Less than half a million and won’t make the minimum. The capitol gains tax on this will be a ball buster. If the seller is of means, donating it to a museum might make sense at tax time,

 

Very sad that we live in a world where that may be true.

 

$2,375,500

 

$2,375,500.

 

Updates? I missed it. Did it sell?

 

Not yet. It goes on the auction block on January 15, next Saturday.

 

Looking at the Mecum catalog, it appears that the Merc has a reserve price.

Mick

 

We can probably all rest assured that there will be a reserve. I think the reason many Customs don’t do well at auction is because they were built to the taste of the builder , or the builders customer, and not necessarily to the taste of others. Obviously, that’s not the case here as this historic car is, no doubt, considered to be the quintessential American Custom. Hopefully, Mecum can draw the right crowd for this thing. I predict it won’t make reserve , but who knows. All it takes is two rich guys who can’t live without it!…JMO.

 

If it doesn't sell, is the closet guess to the highest bid still in line to get at least a Moon Pie or something?
Gene.

 

989,000
It should go for more but for some reason assembly line cars typically sell for more than craftsman built cars.

 

Wayne Carini video...

 

I'm a bit late to the bidding party but my guess is an optimistic 1,320,000.00 US dollars.

It's a beautiful custom that I'm afraid will not see the respect it truly deserves.

 

Less than a week.........

 

Well it sure is getting big time recognition. Article in today's NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/business/hirohata-merc-auction.html

Says this:

 

Wayne C.'s video is catered to the whale bidders they are hoping to attract. I'm guessing it doesn't meet the reserve of $1mil., but I think it's worth it.

 

This is the car that introduced me to the Kustom car world. I now own a 51 merc and am making modifications to it similar to this iconic car.
My guess/entry in this shirt contest = $1,350,000

 

I think Wayne could have done a better job in describing the car, his monologue was kind of disjointed and jumped all over the place. He could have said more about the car's place in custom history, about Bob Hirohata and Jim McNeil, and the people involved in the restoration work (like how it was painted by Junior Conway.)

 

It made the New York Times today! A true American treasure.

 

Any information on how much bob Hirohata paid fro the original work?

 

Not a word in the video about it originally being a post car and now a hardtop.....only we should put the windows down.

 

The walk around was piss poor.
Wrong info as well as lack of details.
He didn't even get a good picture of the Von Dutch work on the dash........
If you expect to get that kind of money out of something you should present it as such.
No matter how it goes. Some ones going to be disappointed.
Torchie

 

Whatever the hammer price turns out to be is what it's worth, to me personally I think like many that it's the most iconic custom in the world and wish I was able to be a part of the cars history.

I just hope the next owner will share it like the past owners.

Maybe Bruce Myers will add the car to his collection, a fitting stablemate to the McGee/Scritchfield '32 roadster.

There are many people out there who can afford the car if it's something they want.HRP

 

I can't imagine any car being worth a million bucks.

 

"I BID ONE DOLLAR, BOB!"

 

I'll expect two hard-heads will go at it and pump up the sale price to $2.23 million.

 

It's all, very slightly, relative. If you are worth $100,000 then you can afford a $10,000 car. But, if you are worth $10,000,000, you can more than afford a $1,000,000 car because you can live just fine on the other $9 million.

The other thing I have found as I have become a bit more affluent and a bit older is that one gets less calculating. So, while I am not buying this car, I don't really think about whether I should spend $5.99 or $6.99 on a package of meat. A dollar meant more to me when I had fewer of them.

 

love the colors, a custom mix I guess, anybody got the paint codes?

 

getting close !

 

The description of the car was for someone who doesn`t know customs. You can always find fault after the fact. Von Dutch`s signature was very, very small. I read somewhere that a guy had him watch his cat for a couple days. The owner noticed the cat was missing it`s wiskers. He more than likely used one for a brush to sign his name. Maybe not on this car, but maybe others.