Worldwide Auctioneers, another collector car company that normally holds its January sale during Arizona Auction Week, will instead conduct the auction as a live/online event at its home office at Auburn, Indiana, Worldwide has announced.
The sale of 80 vehicles, scheduled for January 23, 2021, starting at 11 a.m., is still being called the Scottsdale Auction despite its change of venue due to the coronavirus pandemic that has had such a deleterious effect on collector car events during 2020.
In January of this year, before the pandemic took hold, there were a record eight collector car sales held during Arizona Auction Week. Of them, only Barrett-Jackson and Bonhams have specified that they would be holding their usual events at their usual venues, although with coronavirus restrictions of masks, reduced attendance and social distancing.
Gooding & Company, like Worldwide, will be holding its Scottsdale Auction not in Scottsdale but entirely online. RM Sotheby’s, which normally has its auctions at the Arizona Biltmore Resort, instead will be conducting a smaller, 1-day sale at OTTO Car Club, a north Scottsdale collector car storage and event center.
Barrett-Jackson, whose hometown flagship Scottsdale auction is normally a massive event, will have a trimmed-down affair for January 2021, with limited attendance and strict pandemic restrictions. The January gathering will be a special event, however, as Barrett-Jackson celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Russo and Steele, also based in Scottsdale, says on its website that its annual Scottsdale sale will be an “exclusive private event.” Held January 23, the invitation-only auction will feature a private preview reception and a full-course dinner, followed by a memorabilia sale and an 80-car auction, all at no reserve, according to the website information.
The Russo sale will be held in its unique in-the-round format as usual, and although the lot number will be smaller, the same high-energy bidding is expected as in non-COVID years.
MAG Auctions, which held its first Arizona sale in January after taking over for the Silver Arizona events, announced Tuesday that it would not be holding its sale this year.
“Due to local restrictions with the continued rise in COVID-19 cases, and for the health and safety of our staff and patrons, we are postponing our January Collector Car Auction at We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort,” MAG said in an Email blast. “Stay tuned, new dates to be announced!”
Leake Auctions, which also held its first Arizona Auction Week sale in January, is still formulating its plans for Arizona Auction Week, according to a company spokesman.
The Worldwide auction will take place at Kruse Plaza, southwest of Auburn, and will include a selection of 20 Ford and Mercury woody wagons – all selling without reserves – some prewar classics and a number of modern exotics and sports cars.
For information, visit the Worldwide website.
Any 54 55 olds in auction
I often see puirpoted facts about the ‘Canadian’ Ford makes of the 1950s. I am not old enough to remember the relevant facts from the 1940s but here is what i do know:
We owned a two Mercury pickups; I understand that Mercury pickups were only sold in Canada. The first one must have been a 1947 model because it resembles the 1947 style of Ford pickup. The second was a 1953 Mercury pickup in the then-new style.
When i was more aware of these things in the 1950s, I knew that there were four separate makes of Fords (+ Lincoln) — Ford and Meteor and Mercury and Monarch. And they were sold here by Ford-Monarch dealers and by Meteor-Mercury dealers (with the pickups sold from their respective dealers). While the Canadian Meteor and Monarch were badged-engineered counterparts of the Ford and Mercury, they were stand-alone makes in their own right. I have seen a car from later in the 1950s that was badged with hybrid naming (I think it was a “Mercury Meteor”) in the time when the introduction of the Edsel must have jumbled up the dealer alignments.
Thanks Nick for your comments. In the podcast with Andy we will be covering his diving career and how it all started. He will definitely do a talk at the lake next year when we are allowed to socialise in groups again! Jacky Tadeas Muriel