OK, classic car hobbyists, now that we’ve seen what those who play in the deep end of the market are doing, it’s time for the rest of us to plunge into the auction pool.
“We’ve had the opening auctions at Arizona and Amelia Island with the high-dollar stuff, and now we’re starting the ‘average’ collector and hobbyist season with the advent of spring and summer,” said Megan Boyd, a car specialist for Auctions America, which stages its first classic car vehicle auction of the year March 14-16 at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
This will be the 12th year for the sale, which was launched by RM Auctions and then became an Auctions America sale when RM started its more grassroots sales arm.
“We pride ourselves on offering a variety of cars, not only in makes and models and ages, but in prices as well,” Boyd said, adding that there will be around 500 cars crossing the block at the Broward County Convention Center.
While this is Auctions America’s first classic car vehicle sale of the year, it is not the company’s first auction of the year. In January, it sold more than a quarter-of-a-million dollars’ worth of automobilia in a special on-line auction.
But the focus at Fort Lauderdale is on cars, not the memorabilia that decorates garages.
Auctions America has published a 176-page catalog for the auction. Flipping through the pages you’ll find no seven-figure pre-auction estimates, and some of the five-figure cars start with the numbers 2 or 3.
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Eighteen Shelby’s in the sale, and six without reserve.”
— Megan Boyd
[/pullquote]“The feature lots definitely represent a wide range of cars and prices,” Boyd said, sharing some of her favorites:
- A 2006 Ford GT in Gulf livery heritage colors — and with only 80 miles on its odometer. “It’s pretty much a brand-new car,” she said. “It’s from a big Ford collector who recognized something special and wanted to keep it special.”
- A 1963 Shelby 289 Cobra that sold at this same auction a year ago, but since then has been restored to its original color and condition. “It’s neat to offer it again this year, but with a completely new personality,” is how Boyd put it.
- A 1947 Chrysler Town & Country convertible with mahogany-wood paneling over cream-colored paint. “Spectacular,” Boyd said.
- A “great collection of Shelbys, something the Fort Lauderdale auction has been known for,” she added as she started counting. “Eighteen Shelby’s in the sale, and six without reserve.”
Oh, and one more time, Boyd patiently answered the question, “What’s nice girl like you doing in a place like….?“
“I grew up with a car Dad who didn’t have any sons. I was all he had to work with,” Boyd said of her father, who restored cars at night after work and on weekends, but he wouldn’t go into the business full-time because he worried it would ruin his hobby.
Boyd grew up in the Akron-Canton area of central Ohio, where the local drag strip closed in 1977. But the facility re-opened when she was a teenager, and she not only worked there, she raced there, and her father insisted that for her own safety, she know everything there was to know about her car.
She’s worked at Auctions America for the past three years and, unlike her father’s fears, she’s thrilled that working full-time with classic cars has not ruined her hobby; Last year, she drove her 1946 Ford Woody on the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour, starting from San Francisco and meeting up in the middle of Nebraska with the eastern contingent that had started from New York City.
Why did she pick the western section of the route? Easy, she said. She’d already driven the eastern half of the historic roadway.
