Randy G.

Easy Rhino

Somewhere in all this data I'm clearly still missing all the evidence that C2 prices are plummeting?

Nowhere Man

If a car isn't selling for what they think will won't the auction house bid on the car to win and sell it at anther auction so the orginal seller gets what they want for it.

I also had a friend that was at the auction on Friday and he was not impressed with most of the cars and said it was lip stick on pigs.

rsinor

Not at most auctions, sure if its a reserve auction they will make it look like real money to right below the reserve and hope somebody jumps on it, the reserve auction laws allow that. Some auction houses might have a business model that has them buy cars that are cheap but in reality not at their own auctions. Why would they spend 20K, 30K, 40K or more when they make their money on consignment fees, quantity, and buyers and sellers premium, the only way that business model woks is for them to keep their hands in their pockets.

jerry gollnick

anyone have information on black 63 fuelie documentation?

68hemi

Moxie62
Why do you care what is under the shiny paint? If the car drives good (no tweaked frame under the shiny body), you like the color, it looks good, has been on the car long enough that you know it is going to stay without a problem then why worry about it? ALL repaints have at least SOME bondo in them for smoothing small areas. If the car was hit previously (99% where in 50+ years) and fixed to be invisible when painted then why worry?


R66
Your comments require some more info to get your point across. Have you seen the car? Do you know something others don't?

MOXIE62

If you are not smart enough to understand why then no need to tell you.

68hemi

I have never heard of it working that way. R&S were BIG on what I am about to say 5 years back, don't know if it has changed but I doubt it. Having attended many auctions with bidder passes which allowed my closer access to the action here are some of the things I have witnessed.

1. Yes the "house" will bid a car up if they feel they have fish on the line and they think they can get the fish to bid closer to reserve. Even if the "house" bids over reserve and no real bidder follows they would simply adjust the bidding back to the last real bid. They don't buy cars to transport to another auction to run again.

2. They want the seller close on the block when selling and are constantly beating on them to lift the reserve. They either have fast calculating minds or crib sheets for each car because when the car gets close to reserve even if the owner does not lift the reserve they often hammer the car sold. The owners usually have a dumbfounded and shocked/surprised look on their face. After following the owner off the block I heard it explained to him that the car is sold and he will receive his reserve price. The auction already had it computed to what their acceptable discounted fee was when they hammered the car sold. If they could have gotten the seller to lift the reserve they would have gotten a little more commission.

3. Some commission is better than no commission. The auction companies have high expenses and the gate fees, concession rentals and extras such as better run times and dates hopefully cover their expenses to the point that the commissions are their profit.

68hemi

Well, I started in the car business in 1968, have likely appraised more cars than most people have seen and used to sell over 1300 cars per year so I think I am fairly SMART about it. Are you smart enough to answer the question directly?

MOXIE62

Simple enough. If buying a car would you go with one that had been wrecked and repaired or a no hit car, assuming everything else was equal.

68hemi

The point is that if you can't determine this without removing the paint what difference does it make? You may never know the answer to the question. If it drives and looks good who cares in this situation?

Looking at a car at auction you have a limited time to do so, have to fight the crowd and possibly the owner while trying to inspect and compare to books/notes. I don't recommend you buy a car at auction if these type things are paramount to you. In fact many people sell their cars at auction because THEY feel they have something to hide OR don't want to go through the inspection listed above.


Member R66 has not stepped forward to explain his "$35,000 Driver!!!" comment either. He eludes to the car being a "pig with lipstick" but left it there. I would think it would have to be some pretty cheap lipstick for that kind of a price hit especially since it is getting hard to find ANY kind of C2 driver for $35K today.

iflyto

I believe there was some discussion of it having a replacement block. It was a very nice looking car.

The nice C2's did very well, the ones in the 30k-40k range were rough. A couple said believed to be 20000 or 30000 miles had clutch & brake pedal pads so worn the metal was showing through.

OldKarz

Have been taking cars to BJ Scottsdale, RS Scottsdale, Mecum Seattle, and of late Mecum Portland, Florida for many years. In my opinion you need to take the correct car for the venue, thats the hard part. All the above will work with us, to assist in getting the best bang we can. I would guess we have sold over 125 cars, and purchased perhaps 8-10...

rayvaflav

I always have a great time at auctions, especially when my friends are buying. I personally could never imagine buying a "restored" car or motorcycle at auction because the time that you have to look at the car is brief and while most auction houses will allow you to poke around the car while it's on the stage they prefer that you don't pull out a cordless screwdriver and pull out the glovebox frame to get a better look at the birdcage.

An acquaintance of mine had a 1970 Cutlass convertible beautifully restored, the car was perfect. But the driver's seat sat just a little askew. The car had been "back-halfed" and no potential buyer felt comfortable in that angled-seat. Most folks don't sit in the cars that they purchase at auction so guess where he sold that Cutlass ...

Ray

scopeli

I've been to a couple auctions were one seller has a major auction house list all cars as non reserves. A couple of the more expensive cars that get sold at unreasonably low prices appear a short time later at another auction by the same auction house.

Duck916

At Mecum the cars are very accessible before the auction, so it's pretty easy to do a decent inspection (with no tear down, of course). Also, Mecum gives the buyer 24 hours post hammer to verify numbers if the car is advertised as a matching numbers car.

But still, buying at an auction does involve some risk (and so does selling if you don't have a reserve).