Bret Voelkel from Ridetech spent last week at the Mecum Auction and we have his update from Friday for you to enjoy. As usual, Bret brings a unique perspective to events. Luckily he shares it with us! Plus he takes photos to boot. See them all below.

Friday at Mecum…

The Chevelle didn’t meet the reserve. I was a bit surprised given the conversations I’d had during the week and the pricing trends on Thursday. It came very close, but the bidding stalled at $47,000. I’m not revealing the reserve quite yet because I’ve still got ongoing conversations with at least 2 solid guys. I’m still confident we’ll go home with an empty trailer, or at least with a different car in the trailer.

Friday is cloudy, cool and windy…and significantly more crowded. The prices are stronger as well…people know the cars get better (and more expensive) as the week goes on. I’m still a little dumbfounded that so many cars are sitting around dirty and unattended. The 36 Ford I’m looking at has a weeks worth of dust on it and no owner or caretaker in sight. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d really like to talk to someone about some of the details on that car. It will make the difference between buying the car or not. In reality, that one is likely a $70,000 unit…too much for me right now.

We did try to bid on a 76 Caddillac convertible for my buddy Albert Melchior yesterday. We figured it was a $20,000-25,000 car….it went for $36,000! happy seller!

I’ve decided that if I don’t get my original reserve price out of the car I’ll take it home and drive it. It’s just too nice a car to compromise the price. There’s just nothing about the car I don’t like! I might pick out something else to sell later…anyone need a great 71 GTO convertible?

I’m not sure what I would do different at the next auction to make a car more sellable. A Friday or Saturday sale time souls help, but there are only so many of those. Maybe some extra pre-auction promotion? Hard to say. A different day, a different auction…a different price. I’m still working on two guys here so I’ll keep you updated after the weekend if the Chevelle sells or not. Until then…!

-Bret Voelkel

UPDATE Saturday results in a SALE!

After the Chevelle didn’t sell on the block I figured there would be several people want to negotiate a better deal after the fact. I was right. I talked to at least 3 people at length who I thought were real players.
But I was wrong. After all day on Friday and most of Saturday none of my “players” had pulled the trigger so about 2:00 PM  I decided to pull the plug and send Ty and the car home and enjoy the rest of the weekend. The timing here becomes quite important so pay attention…
My family had come to Florida for the weekend as had my buddy Albert Melchior and his family. We went to a nice seafood dinner at the Moonfish grille at around 7:30PM when Frank Serafine from Prodigy Customs [my broker for this auction] called and said someone had claimed the Chevelle at the reserve price.
What! After all this time? Is this a done deal…do we have a signed contract? Do I need to turn Ty around [he was already in Georgia by that time]? Frank wants to make double sure so he calls me back about 15 minutes later…yep, it’s a done deal, turn Ty around, get the car back here.
Ty is already 2 days late getting back…we were so sure that the car would meet reserve and be gone on Thursday night. He is not happy, but ever cooperative as he knows “it is what it is and the job has to be done”. So he starts back south and gets back to the house about 2:00 AM on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, the buyer has become quite concerned that the car has been transported out of state and wants to make his offer contingent upon final inspection when it returns. I have no problem with that necessarily since I know the car is just fine, but it does allow the buyer to potentially get a case of “buyers remorse” and use that contingency to refuse the car. Ty is already headed back so I have another drink and hope for the best.
The end of the story is I was issued a check about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon…4 hours after my family and I had flown back to Indiana and I was laying on the couch. I have no idea who bought the car…or even if we had talked to them during the week.  I told my wife that I hadn’t worked this hard for a sale since our first date!
So…my thoughts about the Mecum program…
They are very efficient. Each car has a selling time printed right on it..and they stay pretty close to that. On the other hand, they don’t give you much stage time and don’t hype the car up on the block as much.  Is this good? I guess it depends on if you are a buyer or a seller, and what your tastes are. The Mecum deal seemed to draw serious buyers with serious money. I say lots of people with notebooks, price guides, and calculators.
Prices? I thought they were average to soft. I didn’t see anything I thought was a home run for the seller. I did see several cars that I would have bought if I had the means.
Will I go back. Very likely, if I have something to sell and if I don’t have another event on top of it. At the end of the day…I saw a LOT of cool hotrods, talked to some very nice hotrodders and spent a week in 80 degree sunshine. Tough to top that!

Pictures from the Auction

Almost…but not quite.

Here’s that 36 Ford coupe I’ve been talking about. If you own this car, wipe it off and come and talk to me!

I even got my kids in on this deal. Who could refuse a Chevelle flyer from these two!

Hard to tell in a picture, but this car is tight, tight, tight…the definition of “laser straight”.

It may or may not be your style, but this old Ford is a kickass piece!

I didn’t dare ask a price, but these restored bowling games were cool as hell.

I didn’t think this car would ever see this trailer again. But at this point I was already planning to drive the car this summer. Wrong twice!

I almost bought this 55. Morrison chassis, forgelines, ls1…it was a no sale at 50k.