Mecum Kissimmee Auction is off the charts...
 

Today a 1959 Chevrolet El Camino went for $60,000.

A 1967 Corvette 477/435 bid to $145,000...and didn't meet reserve.

And a 1969 Corvette L89 sold for $150,000.

Pretty sure I saw that a couple of weeks ago.

Kinda dumb if you ask me. :island14:

:seasix: ASS us old phardts die off, or are not in the market for ANY reason, prices will decline.....especially on the FACTORY restos......

the kids today are not into anything V8 powered, and the very few that are will be demanding modern drive trains in older cars.....like the happening to my buddy Mike, some 30 years ago.....

Mid 30's Ford rumble seat convertible.....would have made a fantastic steel body hotrod, but he insisted on resto.....sold for maybe 2k more than he PAID for the car, so his parts/time/effort went to nil.....the market shifted on him, making it worth FAR more at a hotrod.....same thing will happen to our Corvettes, and IF battery tech allows with improvements, don't be too surprised if battery conversions are popular as hell in a few years.....

:shots::)

I had never gone to a major auction so a buddy and I trekked to Kissimee last weekend and did a grand walk around. Amazing is the word. We sat and watched a bunch of cars I did not preview cross the block... pricing did not seem ridiculous as several failed to meet reserve.

I fell in love with a 1977 308 GTS that sells tomorrow at no reserve... I am not a registered bidder but will watch the result wondering what might have been.

I watch Mecum often for the cars but am put off by the side show bid ass-istants. Barret-Jackson less of a side show, but has issues too. I've only been to one auction many years ago.. Leake Auction. I remember getting pretty caught up in the excitement of some of the cars. Keep meaning to go to mecum when they are in Dallas but there always seems to be a conflict.

Prices are out of hand... but then so are new cars. Wonder if a real L88 will be worth anything when everyone that remembers them is 85 or gone.

These auctions can be entertaining to watch. I keep some of them on my DVR and sometimes just put them on as background noise while I'm doing something else.

I would absolutely never consider buying a car on live TV. If I were buying a special interest car I would stay relatively local to avoid shipping costs. Plenty of stuff in California to pick from and no interstate registration problems to deal with. I see lots of cars at these auctions that would have some real issues getting registered in California.


I would also not want the whole world to know what I paid for a car. Doing it on live TV is like saying "Hey, everyone out there seriously interested in (fill in type of car), I know you are all watching and maybe bidding, but when the auction bidding is hammered, I want everyone to know that no one was willing to pay more than me." Doesn't seem too smart when the time comes to sell it.

Pre 75 cars wouldn't be an issue, no SMOG check required. Yes, technically, they are suppose to have the SMOG equipment still attached, but who is going to know?

Otherwise yeah, I agree. Frankly, if I was going to go the vintage route again, I would probably seek out West Coast cars anyway...they don't salt the roads here.

I remember when I was a kid how cheap a lot of these cars were, it's just absurd now. Six Figures for 50 year old Chevy's is STUPID. Don't get me wrong, they are neat cars, but GMAFB

Sooooo, what did you buy Larry?

I wasn't only thinking about smog, I was thinking about fenders. The only legal way to have no fenders in California is to be under 1,500 lbs and be originally registered before 1/1/70. I know this because I owned a car that weighed 1,420 and was registered on 12/31/69.:D I used to carry three CHP weight slips and the DMV code book with me. I got pulled over dozens of times.

I agree. Prices are way out of hand, but obviously there are people willing to pay.