[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Keith, Perhaps you could get the answer you are seeking by talking with Jim Mattison who is often seen at auctions (such as MECUM) as a buyer and seller.

I could do that but it doesn't normally come up. I'm interested in all y'all's perspective as well...

K

[MikeNoun]

Well, Mecum Auctions has dog and pony shows too. They're all the same. Shill bidders, money exchanging hands behind the scenes, phony reserves, cars hammered down as "sold" when they don't sell, it's all part of the auction circus, and with TV cameras rolling, it sometimes becomes a scripted reality show.

[bluebird455]

I like Mecum a lot more than BJ, more regular stream muscle cars, no charity car every other car, and from talking to people attending the car corals, lots and staging lanes, there seems to be a lot more real car guys that have been in the hobby a lot longer, and have more knowledge about a wide variety of cars. I went to the Reno Auction, and to be honest, there was a lot of over paying on a lot of the cars, hell, you could have gotten a lot better buys just going to the cars shows on all the casinos, there was lots of high quality cars with for sale signs, some with very good prices.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Well, Mecum Auctions has dog and pony shows too. They're all the same. Shill bidders, money exchanging hands behind the scenes, phony reserves, cars hammered down as "sold" when they don't sell, it's all part of the auction circus, and with TV cameras rolling, it sometimes becomes a scripted reality show.

Thanks, Mike. Sorry to hear that.

It looked like they (Mecum) did a nice job with Randy William's stuff.

K

[MikeNoun]

All the auctions are the same really. The dog-and-pony show has been around a long time, where cars are paraded across the block for TV, shill bidders (or phantom bids) pile up, the car is never sold, and the web, along with magazines, start the chatter about how much a certain Brand X car is "worth".

I witnessed several questionable sales at the St Charles Mecum Auction over the years, and I eventually gave up. I realized that unless you're in the inner circle, the clique, you're not going to sell your car at the price you expect.

We're talking millions of dollars here for auction houses, so it's no surprise there are a lot of back door deals, questionable sales, the occasional phony sale, all to boost the perception that the car collector hobby is healthy, that you'd better hurry up and buy your dream car, and prices are skyrocketing. Just a classic case of Marketing 101. When you think about it, with auction houses, all they do is marketing. They don't produce a tangible product, they are middle men, so marketing, hype, and the occasional shell game, is their business. And they're very good at it.

But I still tune in to watch the show, and look at their websites to see which cars are being sold. Still cool to see in person.

[unclescratch]

When I first started viewing the BJ Auction, quite a few years back, I thought it was great. Now, its just too many commercials. I watch it some when my preferred show is in commercial mode. It does seem like some nice cars sell cheap during the first days of the auction, but after reading these comments about the hocus-pocus baloney going on, I am re-awakening up to the reality of life everywhere: its mostly about money. So I just enjoy working-on and driving my 'not quite original' but 'pretty original looking' '65 GTO and soaking-up the smiles and thumbs-up from everyone that sees it go by!