After a long weekend and some turmoil, the 67 Chevelle was sold. Bret summarized the entire event and the story leading up to the car selling:
“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 “buyer’s 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 lying 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 saw 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! ”
– Bret Voelkel, President of Ridetech
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.
Glad to hear your sold your car. I came very close to pulling the trigger on it myself. It was one of the nicest i saw at Mecums Since you have many followers an seemed like the kind of guy that does things right when we spoke, I wanted to share my Mecum experience with you.
I recently attended the Mecum auction in Florida for the second time with several friends and had a bad experience that will have me attending Barrett Jackson auctions in the future instead of Mecum. Late on Friday night I was bidding on a green 69 Camaro. I had spoken with the owner of this car and he told me how much hope to get for his car and it was well within my budget. I bid the car up till the reserve was met and the bids stop flowing. In a panic the owner started fussing with Dana Mecum and so Dana and/or one of his employees started to bid on it against me. When I saw this I stop bidding. The owner then got in my face and started cussing and saying “don’t let Dana steal that f-ing car, he knows what the reserve is and he is trying to steal it”. I stopped bidding because I just thought it was wrong to bid against Mecum and staff. The next day I confirmed that one of Mecums staff won the bid. The next day the car was put back in the auction and it sold on Sunday for approx. $5k more. This is just wrong!!! The house should not be able to do this against their customers. In the end I am sure this will cost Mecum more than the extra profit they made off this car. Again, this is not right! Mecum and staff should not be able to bid against their customers since they would have inside information. As I mentioned earlier in this email, I will plan on attending other auctions such as Barrett Jackson in the future, but will not be attending another Mecum. They can laugh this off if they would like, but I will have the last laugh knowing that they most likely will ignore this post and I will take my story to the social networks and most likely discourage many others from attending their auctions in the future.
Mecums disappointed customer,
Chattanooga