Mecum’s inaugural Las Vegas collector car auction proved no gamble for the house, with 557 vehicles going to new owners for a collective price of $22 million, and that figure does not include the buyer’s fees added to each of those vehicles sold.
“Bidder and spectator turnout were excellent, and the healthy hammer prices achieved among the top 10 sales and beyond served as a testament to that interest,” Mecum said in its post-sale news release.
“You never know with a new auction venue, but we hit it out of the park,” added John Kraman, the company’s head of consignments. “It was one of our highest totals of any of our auctions this year.”
With the sale taking place in Las Vegas, Kraman said Mecum hoped such a destination city would be a boost to attendance. “We had bidders from 44 or 45 states,” he said.
The sale, conducted at the Las Vegas Convention Center, was held just a month after Barrett-Jackson’s 10th annual collector car auction at Mandalay Bay on the Vegas Strip. At that auction, more than 600 cars sold for $30.68 million, and that figure includes buyer’s fees.
Kraman said Mecum had been working for several years to find a suitable location and date that would fit Las Vegas into the company’s calendar. He also noted a pent-up demand for an auction there that would offer consignors the “protection” of setting reserve prices for their vehicles (Barrett-Jackson is basically a no-reserve auction).
A pair of 1968 Yenko-modified Chevrolet Camaros topped the Mecum auction. Mecum noted that fewer than 20 of the original 64 ’68 Yenko Camaros are known to still exist. At the sale, one of them, from the heralded and headlining Les Quam collection, sold for $600,000. Another, an RS/SS version and one of only 11 RS-optioned Yenko Camaros produced, went for $450,000.
Top 10 sales, Mecum Auctions at Las Vegas, 2017:
- 1968 Yenko Chevrolet Camaro, $600,000
- 1968 Yenko Chevrolet Camaro, $450,000
- 2006 Ford GT, $290,000
- 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 fastback, $200,000
- 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 fastback, $200,000
- 1932 Packard 902 Eight roadster coupe, $164,000
- 1958 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, $160,000
- 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air resto mod, $151,000
- 1967 Chevrolet Corvette coupe, $145,000
- 1963 Chevrolet Corvette “split-window” coupe, $135,000
(Prices are hammer figures and do not include buyer’s fees.)
Kraman noted that the top-10 sales were all for American cars, even though the docket included a nice selection of European sports cars.
Mecum concludes its 2017 calendar with a collector car auction scheduled for November 30-December 2 in Kansas City, Missouri. It opens its 2018 year with its largest sale, January 5-14 at Kissimmee, Florida, where as many as 3,000 vehicles are expected to cross the block.
Top seller was a Camaro? I attended on Friday so didn’t see the last day but when you walked into the South Hall, there was a red 300SL convertible sitting there that would have gone for just a bit over one million dollars. The silver 289 Cobra sitting next to the 300SL should be worth just under a million. Yellow Porsche GT sitting there is worth over $500K, but the yellow La Ferrari sitting stage right is worth over $3,000,000. So, were all these expensive cars merely window dressing?? They were not sold??
They likely had reserve prices that were not reached in the bidding and therefore the cars did not sell.
Crazy results. Those are some nice cars that were sold. Vegas is always a fun place