Rand Workman Friday update

[427TJ]

Point taken. I'd have to say that "true values" is a highly subjective term. Serious auctioneers have NO interest in the true value of a car, they only want the highest possible amount that can be quickly extracted from each item.

"True value" nowadays seems to depend on the amount of "stupid" money someone is willing to fork over in a televised, highly emotional pressure-cooker situation (gavel held high, about to DROP). In that case, a car's true value often has gone out the window--and is thus re-defined upward. It may be "stupid" to pay $125K for a questionable Daytona Yellow '69 Z/28 but every guy who has a '69 Z/28 knows his car is now worth more because of it.

Money + ego + competition between bidders + emotion + TV cameras + beautiful cars + beautiful women watching + kids telling dad to keep bidding = a great and dazzling spectacle, good entertainment, and solid profits.

[CamaroKing]

Mecum was a great auction not only were there good cars but people buying them as well. The best overall i have seen.

[Enoch]

Z-L1 #17 was that the silver car auto?? If so when I left last night it was 4 cars back from running trough then they shut it down for the night. This silver car was part of the "Jubilee Collection" and the gentelman I spoke to knew nothing more than they purchased it in January and the COPO connection said it was the best of it's kind. I'd say it was # 2 driver condition from the few mins. I spent looking at it. Rich.

[njsteve]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anybody know if Dons car ZL-1 #9 sold?

[/ QUOTE ]

If it was a legit, big dollar original musclecar it did not sell. What sold you ask?
1)A Hummer set up as a rescue vehicle with a 2,000,000 watt stereo and 40,000 strobe lights on it. It sold for $165,000.

2) a horse. yes, I said a horse. They had someone with a booth showing off some kind of fancy horse breed that looked like a cross between an Afghan hound and a shetland pony. It sold for $114,000 but not until it left the obligatory dump on the red carpet which really pissed off the guy with the Porsche Cup race car that would have served as the ultimate pooper scooper since it was 1 inch off the ground.

I don't recall any actual musclecars selling.

[CTChevelle]

I noticed that some cars exceeded the low estimate, but did not sell. An example is the Z28 conv. It ended at 1m, which is higher than the low estimate of 750k. I understand that it did not meet the owners reserve, but why would an auction company attempt to sell a vehicle that they estimate would not meet the sellers reserve. Yes they get their commision, but I don't think it looks good for the company when they hold an auction and most of the vehicles don't sell. Shouldn't the lowest estimate exceed the sellers reserve?

Steve

[69L89RAG]

To answer Steve's question about the reserve values. There is no formula to how the estimate and the reserve work. Otherwise it would be easy to figure out the reserve. Usually it is figured by past, current, and future market value of the auto.

Here is my input about the auction for what it is worth.

I spent the entire time at the Rand/Workman event. I brought 5 cars to sell.

The Guys have a great vision, great venue, and even greater taste in cars. The car quality itself was worth going for.

What they lacked was some organization (which would probably have happened to anyone the first time they run an event like this), but the BIGGEST problem was lack of bidders! Was it caused by the Date? Location? Cars?
No, it was caused by Kruse's lack of bringing in their bidders. That is why an experienced auto auction company is brought into an auto auction (although Kruse did do a good job auctioning the horse!)

I know Rand/Workman planned on it taking several years to build up a world class event. Why not have one in the financial capital of the world?

I think they also need to bring in a better auction house who can bring their bidders and some high quality lower priced cars to help get the bidders going.

By the way, at the end of the day on Sunday they sold quite a few cars.

Also, kudos for the $10,000 donation for 9/11.

I am looking forward to next year.

[12bolt]

68L89RAG: I appreciate your positive outlook and agree with your statement in it's entirety. you probably saw me wandering around with my son throughout the day. It was nice having an event like this so close to home. I believed it would be a great success or I would not have taken my car off the market for the last 4 months to put it in here. I would like to see them be successful as we simply do not have Auctions like this in the Northeast. I touched on KRUSE as the potential scapegoat for several reasons in my posting. several months ago I noticed this Auction was not getting enough Play in the Automotive world. Hey it's great that they covered the Bases with all the elite Money Papers and magazines. but are they the people that buy Cars?? some do I am sure but most consider it a foolish move investing in something that they know nothing about or only have a passing interest in. If I want to Auction off an Art Glass collection consisting of the finest works from Daum Nancy, Galle and L.C.Tiffany Studios, I would not advertise the Auction in "Hemmings Auto News". I also attempted to lure some friends up, but they were scared off at the high prices. Cars for $20-50K would have been HUGE there! sprinkle in the Big Money Car$ for entertainment. Kruse should have a list of Buyers that they work with. what did they do to attract them? whatever they tried did not work. Maybe they did not want this to work? Survival requires a Call for help to Craig Jackson! if they bring back the Kruse folks, It is certain failure. I did pick up on some scuttlebut that considering it is 2nd hand I will not delve into, but apparently KRUSE may noy be what it once was. we just were some of the last to know....

[olredalert]

12bolt,

-------Your second to the last sentence hit the nail on the head. You, sir, get a shiny new penny. As I stated before, having this auction do well would have been great, but certain things lined up to prevent the chance of success. One of them, IMO, is Kruse, short and simple........Bill S

[KellyAlana]

Steve thanks for helping with moving my car, it was nice to meet you and don't think this mopar guy didn't eye your car a number of times.

Dave, it was also nice to meet you and your car was another fine example of Chevrolet at its best.

Like everyone that was there has said, the place, the food, and vendors were some of the best, but NO bidders for a great gathering of some of the best musclecars. Hopefully Rand/Workman can get it together and bring bidders to this auction next year.

[Bill Pritchard]

Very interesting hearing about Kruse being involved in this auction. I am on Kruse's mailing list (not sure why...haven't been to a Kruse auction in many years) and I never received anything from them about this auction in NYC. I agree with others here, with the possible exception of their annual Auburn fall auction, Kruse has definitely gone down the toilet in the past few years.