Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

[Loren L.]

Mecum auction website is showing the 1961 Gulf Oil Corvette as a "No Sale" in Dallas for 1.1M. Can anyone verify that bid? Who is the current owner? Thanks.

[Joe R.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

Loren,

Yes, I witnessed that bidding. Could not believe it did not sell.

Don't know the present owner.

JR

[Loren L.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

JR, Thank You. Anybody else out there who knows the current owner?

[Clark K.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

Sorry, do not know the answer to your question. Just in case anyone wants to know, the car in question: 2012 Mecum Dallas Lot #S117 1961 SCCA National Champion; Ordered new by Don Yenko for Grady Davis; 1961 SCCA National Champion car; It was a "No Sale" at last winter's Mecum Kissimmee when the high bid was $850,000, failing to meet the owner's reserve price.

No sale this time with the high bid at $1.1 million. As Mecum says, "The bid goes on". No idea what is the owner's reserve. Obviously, it is over $1.1 mil. I was at the auction block when that car was auctioned. Very exciting!
-Clark

[Loren L.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

Clark, Thank you. I did not realize/remember that it had been offered at Kissimmee. Perhaps Dallas is just "chumming" the water for a return to Kissimmee/Monterey in 2013.

[George J.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

I have started to hear talk about the auction houses/owners playing games with these high end cars. This sounds like the stories I was hearing of them moving cars around to different auctions and bidding them to no-sales at higher and higher amounts. The car gets press, and a "value" assigned, where there was really no bidder. Normally, I would just chalk this up to talk, but the market for the high end cars is starting to look very much like the early nineties.

George

[Bruce B.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

Mecums sell contract allows the auction company (Mecum) to bid the car up to the reserve.
So, your reasoning appears to be sound, set a reserve, bid it up to that reserve and assign a value based on the phoney bid..........

[Paul J.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

I have started to hear talk about the auction houses/owners playing games with these high end cars. This sounds like the stories I was hearing of them moving cars around to different auctions and bidding them to no-sales at higher and higher amounts. The car gets press, and a "value" assigned, where there was really no bidder. Normally, I would just chalk this up to talk, but the market for the high end cars is starting to look very much like the early nineties.

George

If you look at the auction results through the consignment list with pictures, you'll see some familiar cars. They keep coming back from the last auction or the one before it. You'll also notice that some cars have a lot more money bid on them than other similar cars, and differences between these vehicles are minor. A lot of these cars don't sell.

Paul

[Terry M.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

If you look at the auction results through the consignment list with pictures, you'll see some familiar cars. They keep coming back from the last auction or the one before it. You'll also notice that some cars have a lot more money bid on them than other similar cars, and differences between these vehicles are minor. A lot of these cars don't sell.

Paul

As a cynic I might suggest the difference between those cars is in who owns them. Would one guess that the cars that keep coming back are owned by the auction house, or a good friend or client of the auction house?

[Clark K.]

Re: Mecum Dallas - Gulf Oil

If you look at the auction results through the consignment list with pictures, you'll see some familiar cars. They keep coming back from the last auction or the one before it. You'll also notice that some cars have a lot more money bid on them than other similar cars, and differences between these vehicles are minor. A lot of these cars don't sell. Paul

Yes, there are lots of fun and games at the auctions. I noticed a bunch of dealers at the recent Dallas Mecum Auction because I talked to them about their cars. They buy a car at one auction for less than book value and then flip it at the next auction for perhaps more than they paid. It is probably what happened to my car, bought in late '08 from ProTeam. The car had been owned for a few months each time by a succession of dealers. The title search showed five different owners that were business names, not individuals for a period of four years.

My car went from $15k in 1988 to $45k in '99 and to $66k in May '08, selling for $77k six months later, to me. The car had been advertised by ProTeam at $90k! Every time a dealer bought it at auction or otherwise and flipped it, the price climbed. Not one of those dealers improved the car, they just drove it in and out of trailers/transporters. I doubt ProTeam spent any money on my car during the six months they owned it. They made $11k gross profit on the sale to me (less whatever it cost them to keep it in inventory for six months and minimal administrative costs). With all due respect for Terry Michaelis of ProTeam, there must be a bunch of dealers doing the same thing. It takes no special education, no special business skill. All it takes is money to buy a bunch of cars and bingo, you're a speculator in the vintage car market.

The reason I know about collector car auctions is because I was a volunteer Mecum Driver for the Dallas Auction for the past two years. The Fire Marshall would NOT let Mecum fire up the cars inside the Dallas Convention Center. Each car was assigned a "driver" who actually just steered and braked the car while it was towed or pushed. The cars were towed by a golf cart to the staging area where a Mecum employee reconnected the battery. If the Fire Marshall was not around, we drivers were sometimes asked to see if the car would start. Nearly all did start, this year. Then, each car was pushed by hand (wearing cotton "inspection gloves") by a staff of temporary employees, to the stage. Only when on the Mecum "On Deck" part of the stage were the "drivers" asked to start the car and drive it to the center of the stage while bidding began on that car. At some point in the bidding process for that car, the car was again pushed by hand to the end of the stage. After bidding ended for that car, the car was pushed off the stage. After being pushed 30 yards from the stage, we were allowed to start it and drive it back to its parking spot.

I was assigned to one particular car, getting it towed from its display spot to the staging area, across the stage, and then starting it and driving it back to its assigned parking spot. The cars, when parked in the building days before, had their batteries disconnected. Drivers were told that only when a Mecum supervisor told us, would we start any car. I heard of one driver who got chewed out for starting a car without permission. Well, there was one dealer-dude who insisted on driving one particular car of his number of consigned cars although I was assigned to "drive" the car across the stage. A driver has to stay with his assigned car at all times since the car was consigned to Mecum. Since the guy didn't want anyone else to drive the car, I walked beside the car to the stage, staying with the car, as required. From the car's display spot, when it was time to tow the car to the staging area, he fired it up and drove the car to the stage! A Mecum employee told me that since he was a good customer of Mecum, that no one would say anything about it. Well, when he got to the middle of the stage, he hopped out and was wrangling with Dana Mecum over dropping his reserve price. The car did not sell, failing to reach the desired amount of money that dealer wanted for the car. The stage manager then, seeing that the dealer-dude was busy, called me onto the stage to drive the car from that point on. What a cluster-F! So, please forgive me if I am not a fan of speculators. That car will be seen again, at the next auction.
-Clark