rponfick

I must say that I am amazed at some of the low prices for fully restored C2's at the still ongoing Florida auction.
What is going on?
Ralph

Frankie the Fink

Examples ?

It was reported yesterday that two non-fuelie SWCs went for $122K or $140K:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1593861541

dcaggiani

I just did a cursory review of the Corvette results myself and they are all over the board. High level originals for $310K is not cheap. Restomods at $160K to $200K is pretty good money. I also saw many at the $50K range - so the question is - what condition and level of craftsmanship of these Corvettes?

Bottom line from my perspective is that the range is about the same with exceptional vehicles commanding the high dollars - as usual.

capevettes

We were at the auction. Prices were soft on some very nice midyears like Joe Pikes coupe as well as many others both big and small block. Resto mods brought good money but only rare, high end Vettes like the black 57 air box car were bringing the money. Hard to figure the trends on solid axles and midyears.

SW Vette

Joe Pike's coupe sat on ProTeam's website for well over a year with no takers. Sharp buyers knew that it had a replacement block and showed evidence of birdcage rust.

I saw a nice '65 fuel coupe sell for $150K - hardly cheap - a '65 L76 A/C coupe got bid up to $95K but the owner wanted more, clean L76 split windows sold for $120-140K... anything pulling less than 60 had some issues, bottom line.

Vettrocious

The good stuff is expensive, the crap, not so much.

vettebuyer6369

They were all over the board... high and low. That black AC SWC was a no sale at $77k the first Sat, but sold for $93k at No Reserve the second week. Low money for a black Air SWC, but there were a number of deductions to it. Meanwhile, the white AC SWC coupe sold for $135k. A nice car.

Most of the cars that seemed to undersell, in my opinion, reflected some issues upon closer look.

SupremeDeluxe

There were several high midyear sales, which to me indicates a strong market for what must have been high-quality cars. Having been to many Mecum auctions, there is a great deal of variance in the quality of lots. Coupled with the fact that no one holds the sellers' feet to the fire on the published description of the lots, could lead someone watching on TV or the internet to believe some great cars are selling cheap. They aren't. Cars getting low money have issues, and the bidders know it.

mikelj

To me, this was the best bargain considering the color combo, engine, and condition: $42K
https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0117-27...e-convertible/

Vettrocious

Looks like a nice car. 64s always seem to go cheaper.

Vettrocious

I tried to see every Corvette. There were a lot of 63's, most of them were questionable in some aspect, certainly some bogus claims on the listings.There was a white SWC with air that claimed all original body panels, but the headlight openings had square corners. Maybe not so original.

Seems almost every questionable 63 had fuel tags. There was even a silver blue ZO6 with the fuel emblems seriously mis-located. How do you do that on such a high dollar car?

On the other hand, there were some jewels. As usual, you just had to know what you were looking at.

rfn026

With so many auctions going on they've become nothing more than a used car lot.

There will always be a few really nice cars but most are just average used cars. That's actually a good deal for those of us with normal bank accounts. We can get a nice car for cruise night at a price that still allows the kids to have new sneakers.

The significant collector cars have always been out sight. And, there aren't many of them around. Certainly not enough to support all of the various auction houses.

Richard Newton
Auction Games

capevettes

I was not aware of the issues with the Pike car. I looked at it briefly, not giving it the kind of scrutiny I would have if I were buying. 55 seemed light for a car of that history.
I think there were close to 200 Corvettes in the auction. Some that did not bid up seemed like nice cars at a glance but may have had issues when scrutinized. I view Mecum and BJ as entertainment and not a great place to buy. I wouldn't buy a car without driving it and getting it up on a lift.

SW Vette

It's interesting that you mention it, because that COPO "brass hat" car was one I had a serious interest in buying when I was on the hunt after selling my '63 coupe. It had all the right boxes checked; I probably spent hours micro-analyzing the pictures on Michaelis' website .

He was asking $80K for it but had dropped the price to $69K "for a limited time." I was willing to accept the CE block given all the documentation, but my intense scrutiny of the photos revealed what could only be rust stains bleeding through the paint around the rivets on the lock pillar door jamb, and the right front fender paint shade didn't match the rest of the car. I decided to pass.

If you look at the auction results for that lot, it's listed twice; first as "the bid goes on" at 55, then sold at $70K. At that selling price, I doubt the winning bidder was aware of the issues described above.

hope2

I was a buyer on this car, could not make it so maybe too bad for me.

Maybe front row JG bought it!!!

Vettrocious

That '65 car was pretty special: black /silver original fuelie, outstanding restoration, Triple Diamond...one of the only (maybe the only) real 65 fuel car in that color combo...

jchez7

I too thought prices were kinda soft on some seemingly decent looking cars, though I didn't look at them too closely, and did notice that the auctioneer wasn't mentioning accolades like 'Top Flight', original, etc on many/most of those cars that didn't bring the kind of $ I expected. Saying a SWC or BB Fuel brought big money is not a real barometer on the C1, C2 market, as those special cars will always bring the cash.
I just didn't think the interest for 'regular' C1, 2 Corvettes was as strong at Mecum as it was for the general muscle car. Always seems more people there are looking at Hemi's and 409 Biscaynes, etc than Corvettes.
Mecum Kissimmee (and Indianapolis) are usually pretty cool muscle car shows; I usually fall in love at least 150 times

SeeYah

This car was nice and looked good right up until you noticed the paint from about 2-3 feet away where at first you thought that there were lots and lots of pinhead sized specs of gray overspray only to realize that the gray was the primer underneath and the black paint was missing. I found it on a couple of panels over the driver's side but didn't look the entire car over to see if it was more than that.

Dale002

Seems these cars go from auction to auction.