Event Coverage MECUM Auction

1st day, most OT. but, some Cool rides. '40 Ford coupe with Chevy & more was a pretty good deal. Motor Trend Channel.

 

No way you could pull a junker out of a field and build that car for $23K (or the $25,300 the buyer paid with the auction premium), even if you have a SBC and the rest of the drivetrain stashed under your work bench. I would call that a great buy, assuming it drives as well as it looks and wasn't built by some ass-monkey type car flipping outfit.

 

another, Flathead - bid goes on - '39 Merc

 

WOW! I knew I should have been there.

 

Is this great bargains or a view of the hot rod market….i would have thought all 3 would have been almost double of the prices shown

 

I watched this one go down the line.......

 

Screw work, my buddy and I are going tomorrow. Spectator pass is $30.

 

I am not an auction guy so have no personal experience, but have a good friend who is an auction guy and he always tells me that the cars that I see as selling cheap do so for a reason. They look good on tv but not in person.

 

...I can certainly understand that. The prices on the cars above do seem to leave a bit of room to fix some shortcomings, maybe.

 

..............The lighting could even make my junk look good.

 

One guy I met, he bought a '64 Impala at a Mecum suction, by phone or online. It LOOKED great, turned out to be a bondo-filled mess. I did watch some of the show mentioned, there were deals to be had.

 

Just a heads up for ones that are not familiar with this auction company but that 39 mercury convertible did not sell at $39,000 but was bid up to $39,000 but they are still taking offers on it off the runway. When it says bids will go on, they haven't met reserve on the runway.

 

That '40 for 23K is great, but you have to add the buyers fee (not sure what that is, like 5-10%) and get it moved if it won't go where you want it to. But, let's say you get it for 23+5% or roughly 24k and can move it w/out a hauler,etc. At 24K, if you had to add 3-5K to get it right for you, that would be roughly 30K. Even then, I doubt at today's prices, you could start off bare car (also part of cost) and have one for 30K. Of course, I'm just looking at a pic that looks pretty. What's underhood, drive train, interior, tires/wheels, chrome, etc.etc.

 

I wanna say both, the market seems to be cooling down. Great if you wanna buy more stuff in the future, bad if you wanna sell stuff.

I think I did spy a street roddy dash in it and who knows what else needs to be changed to suit your (or someone elses) wants.

 

The opportunity to look the cars over is wide open today, and each day. Don, the lights in these buildings picks out everything! Quite a few had new paint jobs that were obvious quickies. Overall high quality cars. Kindigs "54" corvette was sitting front and center in the lobby. Corvettes, Camaros and 'Stangs far, far outnumber all others. Plenty of late model stuff. Glad I went, rooms and rooms full of vehicles and memorabilia both sold, going on the block and on the "reserve not met" lot. Which was cool because the top bid was posted on the windshields. Tri 5s were well represented also.

 

Friday started

 

not at MECUM but, Wally buying '53 Chev on Leave it to Beaver

 

...Thanks for the update, Steve.

 

That was an amazing deal!

 

Thanks Steve for the heads up on site accounts. As always with any auction, BUYER BEWARE!

 

That Packard Carribean may look good in the picture above, but the bodywork, paint and chrome were horrible in person.

 

I dont watch the Mecum auctions to often, but every time I do the hot rods we all love don't seem to do well at all. These auctions always seem like the place to sel muscle cars and newer stuff.

 

Cars up to the mid 50's, not counting classics like Senior Packards and Caddys and others, seem to be a good bit cheaper at Mecum vs some of the other auction houses. Mid 50's and up go for about the same everywhere. I've seen some steals on stock or slightly modified cars the last few years. I've heard the first couple of days are the best time to get deals on less than perfect cars, they save the best stuff for the last day. I've seen some clean mid 60's cars, not musclecars but the lower tier like Pontiac Tempest and LeMans, Chevy Malibu, and Ford Fairlanes go reasonable , where they're more HP sisters like GTOs and Chevelle SS went for big bucks.