Latest / That Car Show / Mecum Auctions' COO Sam Murtaugh

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Mecum Auctions' COO Sam Murtaugh · That Car Show

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So we have $325,000 bid. Do you want to sell it?
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And he looked at me like this and he goes, well, yes, we took
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the reserve off and then we fired it up to him and he
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proceeded to just play, just wrap those keys.
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It was. That was a really cool moment.
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That is, that was. Neat.
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You should have sold that piano too.
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Yeah, right. Today on that car show, we're
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joined by Sam Murtaugh, Chief Operating Officer of Mecum
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Auctions. You know Mecum, and with Car
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Week just around the corner, they're gearing up for another
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huge presence. You're going to like Sam, too.
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We quickly discovered we have a lot in common, and it made for a
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fun conversation. Mecum, of course, has exploded
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in recent years, becoming one of the world's premier collector
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car auction houses and selling some of the most significant
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cars and collections on the planet.
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So stick around as we go behind the scenes of the collector car
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auction world, talk about what it takes to bring these
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incredible cars to market. And here's Sam's perspective on
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where the market and the hobby are headed.
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It's Sam Murtaugh from Mecam Auctions, and it's that car
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show. Hey, it's that car show.
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And we are glad you're here because we've got another really
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great guest today. Even if you've never been to one
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of their auctions in person, you've almost certainly seen a
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Mecum auction on television. Sam Murta joined Mecum in 2008
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and has served as Chief Operating Officer since 20/21.
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He overseas marketing, media, strategic initiatives and a lot
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more, I'm sure. So Sam, I have 1000 questions
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for you. Before we dive in, though, I
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should mention it's just me, Ryan, with you today.
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Dan and Lindsay are both out dealing with family matters.
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Sam, welcome to that car show. Thank you, Ryan.
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Happy to be here. Yeah, I as we talked a little
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bit before we hit record, I understand you're a Chicago guy,
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grew up in the Western burbs. I assume you've always been a
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car guy? Yeah, I've been a car guy most
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of my life. I would say probably really bit
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the bug when I was 16, not just because it was driver's license
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time, but my first job in high school was was at a car wash,
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full service car wash. So wiping down cars for tips,
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that kind of thing. And really just start, you know,
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it's funny as you, when you get a chance to talk to drive, I
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would say in air quotes because you're really driving it like 20
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feet to a parking spot, but really kind of rubbing your
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hands across all the cars and really, kind of really getting
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intimate with them in, in that way over and over and over and
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over and over. You know, hundreds of cars a
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day, especially on the weekends that you really start to, I
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started to connect with cars that way and, and really started
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to, you know, memorize, you know, makes and models and body
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styles and when body styles would change and all that.
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And it really became like almost kind of gamified it in such a
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way. So doing that throughout high
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school was really where I kind of bit the bog when I graduated
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into really getting into more, you know, heavier detailing of
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cars, not just wiping them off for car washes is really when I
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started to really kind of sink my teeth into the world.
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You know, it's funny why I was in this detail center at that
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same car wash where I worked and one of the we were grow up
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Chicagoland area. This was in a town called
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Mundelein, which is about, I don't know, 15 minutes West of
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of Lake Forest, IL, which is where the Chicago Bears
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practice. And so a lot of the players
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would live out in and around our, our area and Richard Dent,
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who would, he'd retired, but he still lived that way, started
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bringing in Lincoln Continentals.
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He had a, he had a big Lincoln Continental collection.
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And so he would bring these things in like 1 a week.
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He'd bring them in and we'd detail them for him.
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So I really got to know him and his cars.
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And that's really kind of where the start to get into the
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classic car connectivity. You know, before that it was
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mostly the late model, you know, everyday driver stuff.
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But I really just, you know, had some really good conversations
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with him and kind of understood what, you know, why was he
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collecting these things and what we know what drew him till he
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just loved those suicide door convertibles and being a massive
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human being, the large car made a lot of sense for him, right?
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So, so that was kind of my first interaction on the on the on the
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collector car side. And that's back in the, you
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know, that was in the early 90s. It's funny you mentioned him
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because he had an office in the building I worked at at Wacker
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in Michigan, and it was this old building, 1930s Art Deco
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building, small elevators. And sometimes he'd walk in and,
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and take up a good, you know, good part of the elevator, but
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always a very nice guy. I didn't know that he was a car
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guy at the time, but. Yeah, super nice guy.
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Yeah, it's funny. Full circle loop.
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So Fast forward to like 2 years ago, he was he was a a guest of
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a, of a member of the Golf Club that I'm a member at for a
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member guest. And he was there and I saw I saw
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him at the the dinner that night and I and reintroduce myself and
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told him the story that of course, you know, 20 some odd 30
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years later, 30 years probably later.
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Fast forward, I asked him, you know, told him about that what I
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did for him and he'd like you took him a minute.
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But and I don't know if he was just being nice to me
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remembering it, but it but it was it was kind of a cool full
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circle moment to reconnect with him 30 years later to talk about
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it. His Lincoln's.
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That is really cool. Yeah.
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Yeah. Again, you always seem like a
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nice guy. And I'm thinking, you know, I
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was really into detailing cars at that point in my life.
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We're probably about the same age.
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And if I recall correctly, it was a lot of armor all like that
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was. Yeah.
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Armor. Yeah, yeah, big time.
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Just being greasy. The goopier the better inside.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Fast forward, I'm curious
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to your journey, Tamika. Yeah.
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So it kind of is carrying out the the detailing side of
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things. I, you know, as I was going
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through school and continuing to work for it was Turtle Wax was
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the name of the company that around Chicagoland.
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They had full service car washes around the Chicagoland area at
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Kansas City. So I was a manager for them,
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going through their management program at the same time, and I
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was based out of a store on a car wash at North at North in
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Elston. In Chicago, I used to go to that
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car wash. Did you really?
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Helped you out? Yeah, yeah.
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That's cool. That's funny.
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So. Anyways, I was down there for a
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while and then when I moved back out to the suburbs, I moved out,
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back towards Mundelein, out in the Grace Lake area.
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And at that point started to start to think toy around the
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idea of doing something on my own.
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And, you know, since detailing cars and the car passion that
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I'd have been developing sort of seemed like that's the, the
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realm that I wanted to be in. It wasn't necessarily detailing
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cars that, that that really was my passion.
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It was the cars themselves. And so this was just sort of my,
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my pipeline, right? And so it's using that, you
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know, I started developing my own detailing company and turned
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it was a remote detailing company at the time.
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It wasn't really vogue. It wasn't really a thing.
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It was there. It was out there, but it wasn't
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as popular as it is now. And so kind of went down that
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that that path as I was still working for Turtle Wax
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eventually. And then one of the stores that
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I that I was responsible for was out in Crystal Lake, IL.
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And there was a guy that was bringing in very similar story
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to Richard Dent. Once a week he was bringing in
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these classic cars. He was more Mustangs and
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Shelby's OK, but was bringing in one car a week to have us just
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keep them up to speed. It was more maintenance
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detailing than it was anything else because they were nice
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cars. But just started picking this
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guy's brain and, and, and he was a A1 man band.
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He just liked Shelby's and Mustangs and collected them and
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he had amassed a, a building full of me, like 20 or 30 of
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them. And I didn't really understand
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that at the time and realized that there was a lot of others
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that were that like minded that that accumulated such, you know,
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collections like that. And so my sort of
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entrepreneurial brain started just kind of gears turning.
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Whatever. I, I got to know him pretty
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well, eventually invited me out to his place.
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I saw his cars and got to become friendly with him and sort of
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helped him on the side. And it was just fun tinkering
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with these old cars and, and getting involved with them.
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And then one day, this is probably, I don't know, 2005 ish
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somewhere around there. He said he was going to sell a
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couple of these cars and he was going to take him to this
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auction in Kansas City and asked if I wanted to go tag along with
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them to help them take care of the cars and keep them ready to
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just help them with the process. While it was a Meekam auction in
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Kansas City at the time, I, I had a, never been to an auction
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before B, let alone a collector car auction.
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And so it was intriguing. So I said, yeah, sure, I'll go
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with you. So I went and it blew my mind,
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you know, and again, this is back 2005.
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So what's I don't know what's that 20 plus years ago to over
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20 got to. Think about that.
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Yeah, two decades. Yeah, 2 decades.
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So anyways, went there and just was completely blown away by
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the, by what was happening, the process of what was happening
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and all, you know, there was 500 cars in one building.
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And it's, you know, I was, I was impressed by this guy's 30 cars
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in a building, let alone 500 of all different types of cars.
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And, and you know, mainly American muscle cars, Corvettes,
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things like that. And just watching these guys
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sell a car every few minutes was like, it was mind blowing.
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And I think, you know, had I had, I really familiarized
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myself with, with the auctions prior to that, I probably
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wouldn't have been as, as, as intrigued.
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But it, but it was my first experience of an, of a live
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auction coupled with the cars that they were and, and just
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what was happening in the community was that that was,
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there was, was intoxicating. So, and the guy, the guy that I
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was with, he also, he bit the auction bug at that moment.
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He was in. So had such a good time.
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He, we sold the two cars he brought.
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I think he bought like 3 or 4 more wasn't, which wasn't in his
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plans, but that's what he ended up doing because he was so
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excited to be there. It's like a kid in the candy
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store, right? So, so as he, he kept, he kind
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of sort of, I would say we like, you know, join the circus, so to
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speak. He was, he was going to multiple
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events at the time. I think Niken was doing, I don't
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know, 8 or 9 different auctions a year.
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We started going to all of them. And then since I was at the
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first one, he kept inviting me to go to the next one and the
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next one. So I threw that as a as a
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customer, you know, I'd help him with paperwork and titles and
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things like that. As a customer, I started to get
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to know the Meekum family that way.
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And you know, at the time was very small operation, you know,
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everything was, you know, everyone wore multiple hats and
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did different things. And you know, I really developed
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a good release working relationship with Harold Gerdes,
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who is our currently our our VP of auction operations still with
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us today. He was a consignment agent at
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the time while he was building out the auctions and operating.
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Like I said, everyone was doing multiple things.
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And so, you know, through my developing relationship with
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him, I got to know Frank Meacham, who was, you know, just
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coming out of college at the time and by way of all those
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relationships, eventually got to know Dana pretty decent, pretty
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well. And, you know, Fast forward
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until like 2008, you know, I had I had left turtle Axe and I was
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working full time on my own. And and so this, this gentleman
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I was been referring to was, was one of my bigger clients for
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this remote detailing business, right.
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And this was right when Meacham was getting its, it got its
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first TV contract back then it was HD Theatre, the Discovery
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Network channel called HD Theatre that became Velocity,
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which became Motor Trend. And when I learned that they
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were doing these live auctions on TV, my, I asked Dana and
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Frank. I said, well, what are you guys
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doing to guarantee that the sellers all make sure that their
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cars are clean before they show up on television?
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They're like, wow, they hadn't really thought about that.
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And so then Meekum became a customer.
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And so I had teams would go down and clean the cars prior to
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crossing the auction block and dusting them off on, you know,
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on the stage and sort of made it made added a piece of
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entertainment value to the show by, you know, kind of wiping the
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things off of it. So that's really how I got
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really first involved with Meekum.
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And then shortly, very shortly thereafter, in the fall of 2008
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when those when the market went to hell, most of my clients that
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I had non Meekum clients, two, I was down to three big main
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clients was all I could handle and it was fine.
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But two of the three basically evaporated overnight.
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And so I was kind of flailing around not knowing what I was
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going to do. I kind of put my eggs in in one
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basket, so to speak, which wasn't necessarily the smartest
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thing to do. But then so that one day Dana
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asked me what I was doing. And I just said, I, I really
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don't know, to be honest with you.
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And he just said, well, why don't you come work for me full
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time? So I said, I'll keep failing
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over here or take a steady paycheck over here.
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And I chose the steady paycheck. So that's how I got here.
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And that was back in 2008. And you know, the rest is
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history, so to speak. But so I was originally hired to
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to take care of Dana's personal collection.
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At the time he had about 150 cars.
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And that was my full time role is just take care of his cars.
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And that's that. Slowly but surely, as I continue
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to understand the business and have more conversations, I would
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Dana would give me a project here, a project there, something
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different. And you know, eventually invited
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me to come work out of the main office, which is in Marengo, IL.
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At the time, I want to say I was like the 12th or 15th full time
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employee hired that. So it was it was cool.
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I mean, you know, one day there was a there was AI guess I would
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call him a fight between Dana and the the marketing director
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at the time. I wasn't Privy to what, what
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took place or what was going on, but he eventually left the
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company And you know, Dana saw I had AI had a bit of an eye for
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design and, you know, marketing brain and, you know, some
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business science and that. And so he he had me get more
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involved in marketing side at the time.
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That was the the marketing department of meet him at that
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time was, was, was then myself and two other people, neither of
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which were had marketing backgrounds.
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And so really I was starting from scratch and just continue
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to to build what was necessary to help support the growth that
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was happening being on television or as the brand was
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continuing to to grow from that visibility.
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We kept scaling accordingly along with it.
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And, you know, Fast forward today, I think we've got, we've
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got a full blown marketing agency here in house, about 35
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people strong and really covering all the aspects of it.
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And you know, so, you know, I, I can't take full credit for that.
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Obviously a big team effort with a lot of things going on.
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But I, you know, to to build, to grow something from that was 0
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to to what it is today is it's pretty proud to be a part of
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that. Yeah, yeah.
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And it it all started with that chance meeting.
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That's so cool. Yeah, total, total luck.
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I mean, you know, I mean, I, I wouldn't say luck, but right
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place, right time combined, you know, that all the things right
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and hard work and, and you know, that's, that's one of the things
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that I've, I pride myself on is just being a, you know, hard
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worker with strong work ethics. And, and you know, the rest kind
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of takes care of itself. If you're if you do do the right
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things and work hard, things usually work out.
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That's that's for sure. You know, when I told a friend
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in the industry that we were going to have someone from Mecum
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on the show, the first words out of their mouth were Dana Mecum
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is a genius. So let's go back to the the very
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beginning for Meekum, because I have no idea really.
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Was it farm implements or something?
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I mean, right, it wasn't always collector cars.
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You know, so the Meekum family has been in the car business, I
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mean forever. Dana's dad was a was a car
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dealer. He was one, at one time the
16:15
largest fleet dealer in the United States, wholesale fleet
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dealer. He had a Pontiac store at one
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point in time, eventually had what was called the Speedway
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Auto Mall in Rockford, IL. So he's so Dana grew up in the
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car business from his father, you know, Dana, you know, to
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the, to the point of Dana being a genius that he is, he's
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brilliant. And one of the things about Dana
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he's he's always, always, constantly looking to
16:43
differentiate himself. Always.
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And, you know, working for his dad in the the dealerships, you
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learn the industry that way. And I, and I don't know how he
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acquired them, but at some point in time he had, he had done some
16:58
trade deal and ended up with a bunch of tractor trailers.
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They were like semi trailers or something like that.
17:05
Or, or the, or the tractors, I'm not sure which.
17:07
The sure, sure. The power of the trailer.
17:09
I'm not sure, yeah. Maybe that's what I read and I
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yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, tractor over the
17:13
over the over the road haulers. And however he acquired those
17:18
via whatever he did, ended up trading those for a group of
17:22
muscle cars. And when he had the muscle cars,
17:26
they're not, you know, trying to figure out the best way to sell
17:29
those. Sure, he could retail them one
17:30
at a time and and do that route, but he decided that he thought
17:34
the best way to get rid of those was would be to hold an auction.
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So in 1988, he started an auction in at the, I think it
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was at the Rockford Airport, you know, and, and got some of his,
17:49
you know, friends and, and colleagues or whatever to bring
17:52
some of their cars to. So on top of what he had already
17:55
amassed and, and built and they had their first event.
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So that's how it really got started, you know, as, you know,
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him looking to differentiate himself and how, what the best
18:04
way to sell those cars was. And you know, back in 88, you
18:08
know, 60s and late 60s, early 70s muscle cars, they were still
18:12
borderline just used cars at the time.
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You know, they weren't, you know, obviously there was
18:17
collectability within certain aspects of of them, but by and
18:21
large they weren't what they are today.
18:23
So, you know, I think, you know, we've definitely got that's
18:26
really how we got our names out there as in the beginning as you
18:32
know being the muscle car and Corvette auctions is really
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because of that that start. Yeah, yeah.
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And Meekam's still family owned, Yeah.
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Yes, 100%, yeah. Family owned Dana's still
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working day everyday. I, I think he works seven days a
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week, 24 hours a day. And I'm not sure when he sleeps,
18:50
but his brain is always on how to, how to evolve this, how to
18:54
make it better, how, what can we do to change and evolve.
18:56
And he's got four sons. All four sons are involved with
19:00
the company. Frank Meacham runs our
19:04
consignment division and runs the sales team.
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He's the one you see on the auction block doing deals and
19:09
all that with the sellers. And, and Harry Meekum is our CFO
19:16
and Dan and Ben, various things around the company.
19:18
So yeah, they're all, all, all part of it.
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Even their, their mom, Dana's wife Patty was, was here working
19:24
full time up until probably about 10 years ago.
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But she was, she was right there with it.
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So yeah, they've been. The Meekum boys have been doing
19:34
this thing since day one. Yeah, yeah.
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And I guess we're kind of getting at this, but you know, I
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was going to ask what makes me come different than say Gooding
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or or Broad Arrow. And I guess being family owned
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is is obviously a large part of you know your what.
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Differentiates you yeah, I would say you know the the the biggest
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differentiator for us is that you know we Dana is has always
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been about volume and and and quantity that's really and
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that's we've evolved from that mindset to you know we have now
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we're looking you know it's volume of quality not just
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quantity how that's taken an organic evolution over the years
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but you know with the frequency of events we do you know more
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events with frequency throughout the United States than than most
20:23
of the other auction companies the.
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The range and values is, is something that differentiates
20:31
us. You know, we'll, we'll happily
20:33
consign and sell your $10,000 whatever you might have all the
20:39
way up to, you know, like for example, Yosemite back in
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January, you know, we sold it for our GTO for 38 and a half
20:46
million dollars and so and everything in between, right.
20:49
And so, you know, while we're not just we'll take anything, so
20:55
to speak, we're our, our platform is much more diverse
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and much more wide and much more, I would say, welcoming to
21:04
the masses. And there's, you know, there's
21:06
car enthusiasm in all the various segments all the way up
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from, you know, the home built car that that doesn't have a
21:15
brand name attached to it all the way up to it.
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You know, I would say, you know, Ferrari, another thing in
21:20
between. There's so many different
21:21
segments of this car collecting community enthusiasts that, you
21:25
know, I think our brand resonates with just far more of
21:30
those people across the board, you know, and we're not trying
21:34
to isolate or alienate any, any piece of that segment.
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Everyone is welcome to be part of what we do.
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And I think that that combined with our family atmosphere and
21:48
our, our, you know, you know, being a Midwest company, you
21:52
know, the Midwest values that, that most of our employees have
21:56
that that is very welcoming and, and connecting that to the, to
21:59
the, the Meekum family, that's part of this.
22:01
You can really feel that when you come to our events, you can
22:03
really feel that connectivity. And I think that really is
22:05
something that separates us. Yeah, there's an entertainment
22:09
aspect as we were talking about before, you know, you know, it
22:12
started with you polishing the cars, right?
22:15
TV, right? And it's a spectacle in the very
22:17
best way, right? In a way that the other auctions
22:19
aren't, right. And I think you've democratized
22:22
the collector car auctions, right?
22:24
In a, in a way, too, right? They're they're comfortable.
22:27
They, you know, and you've expanded you, you have a
22:30
transport service, right? And you finance cars now, right?
22:34
I mean, you really are the whole, you know, the, the, the
22:37
whole deal, which is which is pretty impressive.
22:39
But you mentioned that Ferrari Sam and I want to talk about
22:42
that because I think, you know, the, the two biggest, I guess,
22:46
you know, Meacham stories in recent months were that Ferrari
22:48
and then the Bachmann Ferrari collection.
22:50
So this this was called the Bianco Speciale.
22:54
It was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTL like the Ferrari, right, a rare
22:59
white color. When you when you sell something
23:01
like that or you have the Bachmann collection, you know,
23:04
come through your doors, Is it it's just a different vibe.
23:07
It's got to be right. Like you kind of know that
23:09
history is being made. There's got to be an energy in
23:11
the air. Yeah, no, absolutely.
23:13
I, you know that you know what the Bachmann collection, just
23:19
what what those cars were. I knew it was going to be
23:21
special when we when we can sign those cars and we're preparing
23:24
that and starting to market those cars.
23:26
You know what Phil Bachmann and his wife Martha amassed over the
23:30
years. I mean, really was extremely
23:32
unique. I mean, to have for him to, you
23:35
know, spec bill the car almost every year along the way.
23:38
And you know, as he got later and later and that the I would
23:42
say the cars got more and more unique from a color perspective,
23:46
you know, that that was it was I knew it was going to be special.
23:51
You know, it the, the, the final results far exceeded my
23:57
expectations. I was blown away by the results.
24:00
But really, when I boiled it down afterwards, I wasn't
24:03
surprised. And, and, and why I say that is
24:06
because, you know, these cars collection like that.
24:09
Everybody knew of Phil Bachmann and his collection and how
24:13
special it was. But everybody knew that those
24:17
cars were never, never for sale. Phil was never had any intention
24:22
selling any, any of them. So they were, they were on
24:26
Obtainium essentially. And you know, they were, they
24:28
were unicorns in their own right because of their special builds.
24:32
And so to have something that was never going to be available,
24:34
that was a Unicorn to begin with.
24:35
And then all of a sudden, not only is something available, but
24:39
all of them are available at one time.
24:42
It really was a, you know, the moons really aligned for that
24:46
particular collection for it was a bit of a feeding frenzy to get
24:50
their hands on on those cars, which was it was you want to
24:55
talk about entertainment, Just to be in that room and watch
24:56
that unfold was was pretty special.
24:59
Yeah, it was kind of like the closest thing to the Sultan of
25:02
Bruneis collection that we had on our shores, right, as far as
25:05
spec and uniqueness and this kind of thing.
25:07
He was a a car dealer in Tennessee or something, right?
25:09
That's how he made his. Multiple dealerships in in
25:12
Tennessee. Middle Tennessee, Yeah, No.
25:15
He's used to come out and do the Colorado Grand, which I'm a part
25:18
of. I I never got to meet him.
25:19
It was. He was before my time, but yeah,
25:20
yeah. There was a lot of pictures of
25:22
him with his son that did that, I think almost annually so.
25:26
Yes, yes, yeah. And I hear all the time about
25:29
what a nice, nice man, what nice people they were.
25:31
So yeah. And hell of a collection.
25:34
It was so cool to see that happen to get the numbers you
25:36
got. And you know, in a, in a, in a
25:39
hobby where, you know, so many people just get the, the red
25:41
over tan Ferrari or the silver Porsche, right.
25:44
I'm guilty of that. You know, it was fun to see
25:47
those, those cars for, for, for sure.
25:49
So you, you put on what I'm just looking at my notes over a dozen
25:52
live auctions a year. The Kissimmee FL, I think is
25:55
still the big one. Can you take me behind the
25:58
scenes of one of your auctions? Because they're, like I said
26:01
before, these are big productions.
26:02
They're genuinely entertaining, but they also have to be
26:05
incredibly complicated logistically.
26:07
I just, I can't imagine what can you give us a peek behind the
26:10
curtain? You know, one of your auctions,
26:12
what's going on? What don't we see on television?
26:14
Yeah. I mean, you know, the auction
26:16
schedule, the calendar itself is is I like to call it sort of a
26:20
dysfunctional concert tour because we don't, you know,
26:22
unlike a concert tour that sort of travels, you know, in a very
26:26
systematic lying around and and it creates a lot of efficiency.
26:30
We can't do that because you know, we can't go from Florida
26:34
to to Georgia in the same, you know, one after the other.
26:37
But officer events have a lot of regionality to them from a
26:42
seller's perspective and then from buyers obviously come from
26:44
everywhere, including all over the world.
26:45
So, you know, it take Kissimmee for example, which is the the
26:49
largest collector car, live collector car auction in the
26:51
world, you know, pushes 5000 cars over span of 12 days.
26:57
You know, to your point, that's a lot, there is a lot of
26:59
logistics that go into that. You know, there's we're, we're
27:03
planning that event all year long.
27:06
You know, we've, I just had a 2 hour meeting this morning
27:09
specifically about Kissimmee for January 2027 and, and the things
27:13
we have to do to get prepared to, to execute that event.
27:17
You know where it starts early January 1st, we could you know
27:20
about four or five days after the new year depending on where
27:24
the calendar falls. OK.
27:26
And so we're we're down there prior to before Christmas
27:29
setting up, starting to set things up.
27:30
So, you know, there's over 13 acres of tents that have to get
27:34
up that have to get put up. Obviously we don't do that.
27:37
We have our tented contractors that do that for us.
27:39
But the planning, making sure that we have everything set.
27:42
Once those tents are set, they're not going anywhere.
27:44
So you got to make sure that everything is is mapped out,
27:47
ready to go in alignment so that the tent company can execute get
27:52
that ready. That sort of starts to to
27:54
formalize the the infrastructure for what the rest of the event
27:57
that we build around it becomes, you know, Kissimmee, we're
28:01
fortunate to have an arena where we hold the auction.
28:04
So the auction is at Osio Heritage Park in Kissimmee and
28:09
the silver Spurs arena there, which is actually where the
28:11
Orlando Magics G league team plays.
28:14
It's like AI think a, I don't know, 5000 seat arena that we
28:21
kind of shave the back third off and then create a bowl
28:26
surrounding the audience. You know what that with the rest
28:29
of the stadium access as the the the seating area.
28:33
And then we carry that seating from the the bowl, so to speak,
28:37
down into the floor with raised decking that creams comes down
28:40
and and set the whole the whole stage up that way.
28:42
So everything transactions inside that arena and then we,
28:47
we build everything out from there.
28:48
So we've got to create displays for all the different cars
28:52
that's all organized by, by day by lot number.
28:56
So there's, you know, there's whole teams that that are
28:58
responsible for after when vehicles come in, they go
29:01
through a check in process. So every, every vehicle that we
29:04
have comes through, gets, gets the VIN checked, VIN verified
29:09
against the title to make sure that there's no funky VIN,
29:12
there's no manipulation. If we find anything funky, then
29:14
we start to look for secondary numbers to make sure that
29:17
there's that the car is legitimate and transferable.
29:22
And after that, then the drivers take it through.
29:24
It's every car has its designated position and those
29:27
drivers take it out to their spots, they park them.
29:29
Then there's inside there we have what we call lot managers
29:32
and those lot manager responsible for their area.
29:35
And then they make sure all the cars are there set right, ready
29:38
to go and recorded. Everything gets scanned in,
29:41
scanned out of the different zones so we don't lose any cars
29:44
or nothing gets lost, so to speak.
29:47
So yeah, it's just a, it's a continual cycle movement.
29:51
And then they, once everything gets parked that everything
29:53
starts to make its way to the staging lanes before it comes to
29:56
the auction. And then it comes through there
29:58
whether it sells, if it doesn't sell, that determines it might
30:00
go to a different place to a sold lot versus a still for sale
30:03
lot. So it's, there's a lot of
30:06
logistics and we're up. We're fortunate because we have,
30:08
we have a, a really dedicated staff that that really is truly
30:14
passionate about what they do and that and that's they make
30:17
the difference. I mean that the fact that they
30:19
take ownership and all those different facets of the company
30:21
is really what makes it all work.
30:23
Yeah, how many Meacham folks travel, you know, when you put
30:26
on a big event like that? Well, from like Kissimmee, so
30:30
there we have about 100 and 6070 employee full time employees
30:34
here in Wisconsin and probably about OK.
30:39
Wow. Yeah, yeah, the rest.
30:41
Of. The HAPS keeps the, keeps the
30:44
balls moving here at home and working forward while the rest
30:47
of us go down there. And then we, you know,
30:49
Kissimmee, we have, we've got probably a couple 100, what we
30:55
call auction only employees. So they still travel to all the
30:59
travel to all the events throughout the country.
31:02
But that is their primary role. They only go to the events.
31:04
They don't report here to the office.
31:07
So there and that's a that's a mix of Diaries that that want to
31:11
just kind of stay busy. So we've got a combination of
31:13
people like that. We've got folks that they're
31:15
literally just they're good with just travelling and doing those
31:18
events and they've got other things they do in between.
31:21
You know, all of our auctioneer staff are all contractors.
31:23
They're working other auctions throughout the year.
31:27
You know what it be most of them work like wholesale dealer
31:30
auctions, things like that, as on their weekly stuff in between
31:35
our events. But the consistency of those
31:38
people, you know, we could, we could probably just as easily
31:41
find local labor and all the different places that we go.
31:45
But if we did that, we would lose the, the consistency of our
31:48
of our service and customer service levels.
31:49
And that's that's big. That's a big thing for us.
31:52
We don't want to do that. So, you know, there's a big
31:55
expense attached to traveling all those people all over the
31:57
place, but you know, the day it makes makes the Meekam
32:00
experience what it needs to be and it's worth doing.
32:02
So that's why we're doing. And you do 12 to 14 of these
32:06
auctions around the country each year.
32:07
You just had a really successful auction in Harrisburg, PA.
32:12
What goes into deciding where you hold these auctions?
32:14
Because to your point, you're you're bopping around.
32:17
Yeah, we have to, we have to bop it around, right.
32:20
So if we're, you know, if we're in Florida in January, then we
32:23
take February to regroup and then we're in Glendale, AZ in
32:28
March. So we go from the East Coast to
32:30
the West Coast and then in April we go back to the Texas.
32:35
We're in Houston in April and then we go to Indianapolis in
32:39
May. And then June we go to Tulsa, OK
32:44
for a little, little auction there, a little 2 day event
32:46
there. And then July we go to
32:49
Harrisburg. It was just last weekend and
32:55
then then we're over, We jump over to Monterey a couple of
32:59
weeks for Pebble Beach Week and then what's in to September.
33:07
We're actually, we have our first inaugural event in
33:10
Nashville, TN in September. So we're excited about that one.
33:14
That one's really, really building a lot of a lot of
33:16
momentum and a lot of energy, a lot of excitement for that
33:18
event. So we're excited about that.
33:19
We're going to build a an event inside the infield of the the
33:23
Nashville Superspeedway. So we're going to set up a set
33:26
up a whole auction event inside the the tracks.
33:29
So that'll be kind of cool. Yeah, Yeah.
33:31
So what data points go into these locations?
33:33
Is it, is it, you know, just places you haven't been?
33:35
Is it, you know, I guess it's, it's the demographics, it's
33:38
population centers. It's.
33:39
It's all that stuff. I mean, it's all combined, all
33:41
that combined. I mean, obviously we look at,
33:43
you know, where, where our existing customer base is,
33:46
where, where are they coming from and that, that that adds a
33:48
factor. Obviously population is a
33:50
factor, you know, ease of, you know, commuting to, to the
33:54
various cities as a factor. And then also where, where can
34:00
we go that's not competing with places we already are.
34:03
That's where it really gets. That's where the matrix really
34:05
gets interesting because it, you know, you don't want to
34:07
cannibalize one live event from from another of our own.
34:10
So, you know, it wouldn't work for us to go from Harrisburg, PA
34:14
to Philadelphia in, in, in the same time zone.
34:19
You know, it, it just doesn't work.
34:20
So you have to take that into account.
34:22
And then really it also comes down to venue capacity and what
34:25
venues can support what we do. That shrinks it down to a finite
34:29
number as it is, right. So, you know, people might say,
34:31
I don't understand why aren't you in Chicago?
34:33
It's in your backyard. Well, we used to be in
34:35
Schaumburg and we haven't been for for a number of years.
34:38
Well, the reason is that there's the, the, the venue choices are
34:43
really great for what we do and how we do it.
34:46
And then the other part of it is, is time of year, right?
34:49
So doing an auction in the Midwest in the middle of winter
34:54
is very extreme, is extremely difficult.
34:56
It doesn't really make sense. It's also, you know, to somebody
34:58
from California want to go spend a few days in, in Chicago in the
35:03
middle of February. Probably not, you know, but one
35:06
of the reasons January because in Florida is so, so successful
35:10
is because the time of year, it's, it's a winter escape for,
35:14
for anyone that's in the north. And you know what, it's a
35:18
natural vacation spot for really, you know, everything
35:21
east of the Mississippi, Florida's the place to go in the
35:24
winter, right? So, you know, it's all those
35:28
different things combined. You gotta boil all that stuff
35:31
into a pot and see what comes out of it, what's going to taste
35:33
good. And that's where you end up
35:34
going. No, I think that's fascinating
35:36
and I imagine you are in attendance at most of these
35:39
auctions or a good number of. Yeah, I go to all of them.
35:41
You do OK so what's the craziest auction moment you've ever
35:44
experienced like what's what have you seen that just your jaw
35:48
dropped whether it. Was just, you know.
35:50
Bitter behavior. Yeah, well, it's always fun to
35:53
watch a, a, a, you know, I mean, I don't really have one specific
35:57
one because it happens, you know, at least one, one to five.
36:00
An auction where you get something where, you know, we,
36:02
we have bitter battles all the time.
36:03
But you get some, some of them out at, you know, turn into an
36:06
extreme battle where, where the car really just is no longer the
36:11
subject matter and it's just winning and watching 2 guys just
36:14
Duke it out. Those are always fun to watch.
36:17
I mean, it gets the numbers get silly, but it's fun to watch the
36:20
energy and the, the passion really just bleed out of these
36:23
guys. That's really fun to watch.
36:26
Probably my most memorable moment was I don't even remember
36:29
the year. It's it's definitely 10 years
36:31
plus ago. But we at one point had, I'm not
36:36
sure how it came to be or how Dana got connected with him, but
36:39
somehow we got connected with Jerry Lee Lewis.
36:43
And he had a a 1957 Harley-Davidson that he was
36:47
gifted by our by Harley back in the day when new.
36:52
And somehow he got connected with Dana and Dana and wanted to
36:55
sell that bike with us. So I actually went to Jerry Lee
36:58
Lewis's home in Tennessee, which was was a wild experience on its
37:03
own. Yeah, we actually couldn't we,
37:08
we didn't get to meet Jerry Lee right away.
37:10
We got he had about an hour where we had to essentially sit
37:13
down and be interviewed by his wife to to make sure we were
37:17
trustworthy enough to meet him. So thank we did get to meet him.
37:20
So thankfully we passed the test.
37:21
OK, good. He.
37:22
Was giving us, yeah. So that was good.
37:24
Wow, was he way I expected him to be?
37:27
Was he like, you know, the great balls of fire guy that you?
37:30
You know, you could see it in him.
37:32
I mean, he was definitely, he was, he was on the older side
37:34
and was getting more frail. He wasn't, he wasn't feeling
37:36
good the day we were there. He was, he was coming off of
37:38
being sick, the flu or something.
37:40
So he was, he was a little off, but you could definitely see
37:43
that that fire inside there it was.
37:45
It was pretty neat. So we got to go there and then
37:47
Fast forward to Kissimmee. We sold the car or the the
37:50
motorcycle rather down in Kissimmee that year.
37:52
And, and we came up with a, a wild error brain idea that we
37:55
pitched to him and said, hey, you know, how cool would it be
37:58
that if the reserve comes off your motorcycle that we had a
38:02
piano nearby and he played great balls of fire when the reserve
38:05
came off. Love this.
38:07
And he said, he said, well, yeah, that'd be all right, I'll
38:11
do. I'd do that.
38:12
So I was like, OK, well, shit. I got to figure out how to get a
38:14
piano out on the stage without disrupting all this stuff,
38:17
right. So we figured out, we got a, we
38:20
got a grand piano on rollers. That was we shoveled off the
38:22
stage. And then we, we wheeled it out
38:24
as the bike came on the on the block.
38:26
Then we wheeled the, the piano out behind them.
38:29
And you know the bit, we introduced the, the motorcycle
38:34
and we introduced Jerry Lee's way to the crowd And, and we sat
38:37
him and we, we sat him at the piano.
38:39
So it was the motorcycle selling.
38:40
We had him sitting at the piano right behind the bike.
38:43
And, you know, it's, it's, it's loud, it's crazy, it's bright,
38:47
it's, it's fast. And, you know, he's, it wasn't
38:50
really, the auction process wasn't computing fast enough for
38:53
him to keep up, which understandably so.
38:55
It's hard. I mean, you know, if you're, if
38:57
you've never been there, it's, it's, it's a, you know, it's,
39:00
it's, you got to pay, be paying attention.
39:02
And he wasn't paying attention. And, you know, so I was there
39:07
sitting with him and the fitting kept going.
39:11
It was 250, then 275. I got the 300, I think.
39:15
And I got to like 325 or 325 or 350, I can't remember.
39:19
And Frank Meekum was went up to Jerry Lee and said we've got
39:23
$325,000 bid, do you want to sell it?
39:27
And he's looking at him like, wow, what do you feel like?
39:29
He was confused. They just didn't know.
39:31
Yeah, Yeah. And so Frank looked at me
39:33
because I'd, I'd developed a little bit of rapport with him.
39:35
He was, you know, comfortable with me and.
39:37
Right and so I leave got down on one knee and I I I got into his
39:41
ear really close and I said we have 300 I really slow I said we
39:45
have $325,000 bid do you want to sell it and he looked at me like
39:50
this and he goes well yes it's like we took the reserve off and
39:56
then we fired it up to him and he proceeded to just play just
39:59
wrapped those keys It was it was a really cool moment that's fine
40:04
that was neat you. Should have sold that piano too.
40:07
Yeah, right. Now that's super, super cool.
40:10
It's that's, I mean, it's those moments, right that that make
40:13
Mika, Mika, I think and yeah, I think so that's exceptional.
40:16
So you you talked a little bit about the range from like a
40:18
$10,000, you know, collector car to, you know, the 250 GTO, what
40:23
type of stuff doesn't fly for auction?
40:25
What gets brought to you and you look at it, say hell no, that's
40:28
not. Yeah, that's a good question.
40:31
I mean, really it's, it's a, it's a tough one because you
40:36
know, the passion and collect, collect, you know, people what
40:40
people like to collect, what they like to collect.
40:42
And that's a very subjective thing.
40:46
You know, until what, what I think is beautiful, you may
40:49
think is ugly and vice versa. And you know, so, you know,
40:52
really what comes down to is, you know, what, what makes sense
40:56
financially. I mean, we have minimum fees and
40:58
we have, you know, if somebody has something that you know,
41:02
value wise isn't going to even meet a minimum that, you know,
41:05
those types of situations just don't make sense, you know, so I
41:08
think when you get down to that level, that's that's by the most
41:11
of it. Obviously we you know, we need
41:13
to have you know, that there's you get people that try and sell
41:17
stuff and it's well, it's my mother's this.
41:19
And you know, we do make sure that, you know, it has to be
41:22
something that you physically have the ability to sell.
41:25
You own it. You have titled, you know, all
41:27
those, all that stuff's in line because we don't, we don't want
41:30
to, you know, we do that all, all on behalf of the buyers to
41:33
make sure that they're going to get a clean transaction on the
41:35
back end and that you know, so it's things like that, you know,
41:39
but there's, you know, part of part of Meacham's platform and
41:41
we're not the only, but no part of the auction platforms.
41:44
A public auctions is really, you know, here to facilitate what
41:48
the market is and let the market evolve and, and continue to grow
41:52
and, and evolve what what it's going to become.
41:54
So, you know, I'm not going to say that, you know, something
41:57
from, you know, the 2000s that I don't think is collectible.
42:01
There could be as there's a segment of, of the, the, of
42:03
people that that are after that stuff.
42:05
And so, you know, we, we try to be as flexible and common as we
42:09
can within reason. And then, you know, that's the
42:12
cool thing is to watch those sort of trends and, and, and
42:14
markets evolve out of what we do sell.
42:18
Yeah, yeah. And I want to come back to that
42:20
because things are always changing, right?
42:22
And, and, but run me through the process as a, as a seller, if
42:26
you will, to make it interesting.
42:27
Let's say I've got a 73 Carrera Rs, which I want to unload.
42:30
I don't, I wish I did. But if I did walk me through how
42:34
that would go. I come to you, then what
42:37
happens? Yeah.
42:38
So I mean, you could one or two ways you can either, you know,
42:41
you can send a put set up an inquiry online and and enter
42:45
your information in the car information and all that and
42:47
then submit it that way. And then that information gets
42:51
to our consignment sales team here in at the Home Office.
42:55
Then they'll reach out to you to discuss that car and kind of
42:58
help understand it. You can also just pick up the
43:01
phone and call us directly and talk about it by the way.
43:05
But really what we're going to want to know is, you know, you
43:07
know, tell us about the car, let it help us give us some tidbits
43:10
and information. What do you know about it?
43:12
What have you, you know, how long have you owned it?
43:13
What have you done to it? You know, all the, all the
43:15
particulars to help how we might build a description right for
43:18
the car. And you know, we'll talk about
43:22
value. You know, we're a reserve based,
43:24
we start with a, you know, reserve based company in that,
43:27
you know, we're, we allow sellers to put reserves on their
43:30
cars to protect them, to protect their value.
43:34
You know, so let's just say we'll use round numbers.
43:37
Let's say you, you sell a car or you want to sell a car and you
43:40
believe it's worth $100,000. And you know the, you know, our
43:45
sales results in the market. Maybe we think it's probably
43:49
more like 7580 thousand dollars. You know, we're not necessarily
43:54
going to tell you we'll consign it, but only if you put a
43:58
reserve of $75,000 on the car that that's not really how we
44:01
operate. If you truly believe it's worth
44:03
100, we you know the data tells us it's probably 7580.
44:08
Well, that's not too far apart. So we would go ahead and let you
44:10
place a reserve on that car of a of 100 and let the market decide
44:14
what what, what it's worth, right?
44:16
And so in you fast, I'm skipping a lot of details, but once you
44:20
get to the to the auction itself and you have a reserve of 100,
44:23
that means that we cannot sell that car unless it reaches 100
44:27
grand or we tell you, we keep you informed of what the high
44:32
bid is. And you might make a decision
44:34
right there in the moment, say, OK, there's 5000 people here and
44:38
the high bid is 82,000. You're in charge to make the
44:42
decision of do you want to take, lift the reserve, take it off
44:45
and sell it for the 82? Or do you want to take the car
44:47
home and, and you know, hold on to it because you truly believe
44:51
it's worth 100. So that, that, that's a really,
44:55
I think a really good feature to have in place to, to, to keep
45:00
the sellers to have control and not feel like they have a bad
45:04
experience. Where as if in the flip side of
45:06
that, you sold it without reserve and you think it's worth
45:12
100 and it sells for 70. Now you're extremely upset.
45:17
You're upset with us because we didn't get your value where we
45:20
didn't think the value was there to begin with.
45:22
But right, right. You're you know, and now you're
45:24
just going to tell your friends. Why would you do that?
45:26
Is lost 30 grand. Well, did you though?
45:29
You lost 30,000 of what you think it was worth, but maybe
45:32
the market decided it wasn't that.
45:34
So we have that option. We also have a no reserve option
45:37
if it's a standpoint of, you know, you're confident what the
45:40
car's worth. It's a known, you know, a known
45:42
car with it, you know, track record comparables up the out
45:46
the wazoo. You know it's probably going to
45:48
bring between this and that. Sell it.
45:50
No reserve. We actually charge less of a
45:51
seller's Commission for that. We know that there's going to be
45:54
a transaction. So instead of 10%, we would sell
45:57
it for 6% Commission. That makes sense.
46:01
But as far as consigning it back to the original question, it's,
46:04
it's fairly easy. I mean, we, we walk you through
46:06
all that, We'll walk through that, have that conversation
46:08
upfront. It's something you want to do.
46:11
You know, it's a simple contract that you do via, you know, via
46:14
or online and via e-mail, you know, whether you have photos
46:20
you can send or do depending how we usually send a photographer
46:23
out, photograph the vehicle, help you set up transport to get
46:28
it to the event. If you need the help there.
46:30
Obviously, like you mentioned earlier, we do have a transport
46:32
company here to try and make all the, the points and all the
46:36
process as seamless or as hands off as you want it to be.
46:42
And then, you know, we help build the description out.
46:44
We send that back and forth, get approval from from you, the
46:47
seller, get that to us. We're representing the car as
46:50
you want it to be represented. If you make any claims that it's
46:54
got certain things, you know, whether that, you know, certain
46:58
pieces of documentation or certain stories or certain
47:01
owners and things, we, we validate all that to make sure
47:03
that what we're representing is, is true and correct.
47:07
I mean, you get people sometimes to try and slip, slip certain
47:10
tidbits in that that don't necessarily have support.
47:13
That makes it a little bit harder to, you know, when
47:16
they're not necessarily true. So, you know, facts and figures
47:20
are are are part of it checking that stuff and making sure that
47:23
the seller is as an accurate description based on his
47:25
representation and that Meekum is comfortable that we're not
47:28
misrepresenting the car in any way to lead a buyer down a path
47:33
that's wrong. So.
47:34
Right, right. So Jon Voight's Lebaron, for
47:37
example, you're going to catch that right before.
47:40
Yeah, yeah. No, that's I, I had no idea that
47:44
you, you had that sort of full spectrum of services, I guess,
47:47
and that, and that's got to give a perspective, you know, seller,
47:50
you know, some Peace of Mind for, for, for.
47:52
Sure. I mean the nice thing is it
47:53
gives the seller the opportunity to you know, we can do most if
47:57
not all the work, take all the heavy lifting burden off of off
48:00
of you, sit back, relax and watch it all go down.
48:04
And but I will say that some of the best sales that we have
48:08
especially with guys that are offering larger collections of
48:10
cars at one time, you know the the partnership success is
48:14
really what makes it work when you have an engaged seller and
48:17
and Meekam working together to develop the presentation
48:20
together, yeah, that really makes all the difference.
48:24
Yeah, yeah. No, that's that.
48:25
That's cool. You know, in the time that
48:28
you've been doing this, you know, 20 odd, it's been 20.
48:31
How many years, 20 years, 20 odd years, 25 years you've been
48:33
involved. You've seen a lot of changes,
48:35
right? You've seen the online auctions,
48:36
you know, blow up in this kind of thing.
48:39
Yet, you know, mecum continues to just grow and and grow and
48:41
prestige. How do you see things changing
48:44
the next 10 years for you? Yeah, it's a good question.
48:48
Some we we're always, always working on and thinking about.
48:51
And I think that, you know, as, as it continues to evolve, I
48:56
think there's, I think there's, you know, we've, we've seen the
49:00
rise of online auctions and that, and the success of those,
49:04
which I think is great. Honestly.
49:06
I think it's, you know, we've seen the rise in that.
49:08
We have online bidding as well, obviously in conjunction with
49:10
our live bidding. So folks can log in and live bid
49:13
live right in the moment, along with our cars.
49:15
And, and, and we've seen, you know, since, since COVID really
49:19
that's spiked a lot of it's, you know, I mean we do about 25 to
49:21
30% of our sales are, are online to online bidders through our
49:26
live events. Wow, OK.
49:27
Didn't you? Yeah.
49:29
So, you know, I think it's it's all those things and really just
49:34
refining all those different features and weight, you know,
49:36
making sure that we're offering the right mix to everybody to,
49:44
you know, to be able to do business the way you want to do
49:46
it. Some people personally, I'm one
49:48
of those guys, if I'm going to spend a large chunk of change on
49:52
a car, I, I want to touch it and feel it before I pull the
49:56
trigger. You know, I think it's, it's
49:58
easier to do with, you know, something, you know, the, you
50:01
know, especially with, you know, talk about the rise of, you
50:02
know, the late model, the supercar stuff that's really
50:05
going to gangbusters right now. You know a lot of those, you
50:09
know what the specs are. You can, you know, can you can
50:12
get away with probably a sight unseen purchase to some of
50:15
those, especially if they're, you know, low mile, no mile
50:17
stuff. That's a lot easier to make
50:19
those decisions then, you know, if, if I'm talking about buying
50:22
a 69 Camaro that was restored and, and, and all the different
50:27
things. I I kind of want to lay eyes on
50:28
that, you know, personally, some people are, you know, but I
50:32
think that society is getting more and more comfortable every
50:37
year that goes by that buying things like unseen on the
50:40
Internet. And I think that, you know,
50:42
where will that continue to just evolve to where no one talks to
50:46
each other ever down the road in person maybe.
50:51
But I also think that there's, you know, everything is very
50:55
cyclical. And I think that, you know, as I
50:59
don't think the online auction, I think the online auction style
51:03
will continue to grow. I think what we do in our
51:07
current state today will remain stable and continue to grow
51:13
incrementally. And I think it will continue to,
51:15
you know, as it people are eventually want to connect with
51:18
with people. And I think that our, our, our
51:21
venues, our events create a platform for people to engage
51:24
with one another as a as a community.
51:26
And I think that, you know, combining those two things
51:28
together is really probably most of it.
51:31
And I. And then there's also all the
51:34
things we don't know what we don't know.
51:37
But you touched on something really key and I think that's
51:40
authenticity, right? You cannot fake the funk, right,
51:43
when it comes to, you know, a purchase like this.
51:45
And there's so much emotion wrapped up in a, you know, a
51:47
collector car purchase, right? So, you know, that's something
51:50
that that you have that the on, you know, the, the strictly
51:53
online auctions just can't, you know, just can't offer, you
51:57
know, and, and just put your hands on something, you know,
51:59
and. And some people are fine with
52:01
that, you know, and I, I think that you know, the, you know,
52:03
the, the entertainment value of the excitement and that you get
52:07
in a room isn't just about when we say excitement and
52:11
entertainment. It's not just a car ringing the
52:13
bell for a big number. It's, you know, that you could
52:17
be in a room with a whole lot of like minded individuals having a
52:21
really good time together, whether they're paying attention
52:23
to the auction or they're just there and you can you can feel
52:26
that energy. That energy is, is, is that's
52:29
something you can't produce inside of a computer.
52:31
And and so that that's that's something special that I think
52:36
that will continue to, you know, as people sort of discover
52:41
connectivity, human connectivity again, I think they'll they'll
52:46
be another resurgence of, of growth just from that, you know,
52:50
from being, you know, so tech that it'll be, you know, sort of
52:54
a history repeating itself moment where where that's, you
52:58
know, cool again for the younger generations.
53:00
Right, right, right. And you are in such a unique
53:03
position, right, to see, you know, these cars come and go
53:06
and, and auction trends over over the 25 years, You know,
53:10
what do you think are some of the best buys coming across the
53:12
Mecum auction block right now? You know, it's, it's a good
53:18
question. It's obviously the you know, I
53:20
would like to know for sure because I'd try and pile them
53:24
all up and hold. Nope, I could, but things shock
53:27
me all the time. But I think, you know, there's
53:30
you know, we're starting to see more and more.
53:34
You know, JDM stuff is, is, is starting to catch on stronger
53:38
than I mean, it's been strong, but you know, when you get into
53:40
really some of the real exclusive cars, but even some of
53:44
the more I would say, you know, run-of-the-mill stuff is
53:48
starting to pop up. I mean, it, it's, it's the same
53:53
story, right? I mean, even with you had, you
53:54
know, a million Mustangs and yet here Mustang values grow.
53:58
Well, why would that be with a million?
54:00
Well, how many just got drove to death and, and died off and how
54:04
many are left? They were cared for.
54:05
And I think that, you know, those you're seeing a lot more
54:07
of that from the, you know, the 2000s era, I think is a
54:12
interesting era cause the, you know, my personal opinion, that
54:15
era was pretty rough on, on design and, you know, power and
54:20
all that. But but there is there's pockets
54:23
within all that. So I think that those are, I
54:27
think things to continue to pay attention to for sure from that,
54:31
from that decade. Yeah.
54:36
You know, I think there's, there's just so much.
54:40
It's a hard. It's really a hard.
54:41
Question to answer, but I think JDM is really where it's at
54:44
because I read something the other day that that the most
54:47
expensive JDM car ever sold at auction I think was a Lexus LFA,
54:51
the Nurburgring edition. I think it was 1/4 or 1/5.
54:53
That's the most expensive Japanese car ever sold at
54:56
auction. And you look at the gulf between
54:57
that and that 250 GTO, right? You know that's what 30 times
55:02
the right, you know, the the sale price, right, the hammer
55:06
price. So and and you know, my
55:07
generation, our generation and those younger than us have an
55:10
emotional connection, I think, to those cars that.
55:12
Yeah, I mean, I've got an emotional, I've got emotional
55:14
connection to, you know, I've got on my, my hit list of I
55:17
haven't found it yet, but it's a, you know, I really want a
55:20
1993 Acura Legend 2 door coupe. Oh come on now you're talking my
55:24
language. Why?
55:25
I mean, to me that that resonates to me because that car
55:27
was cool as hell when I was in high school, you know, and so
55:31
and you can find one with a 6 speed transmission.
55:33
They're cool, you know. So you know, that's what I was
55:36
kind of meaning by some of that, some of I wouldn't say it's
55:39
obscure, but it wasn't. You wouldn't really think of
55:41
that car from a collector car standpoint as much as, you know,
55:45
you would the you know, the the stuff that gets all the press
55:48
and attention. Yeah.
55:50
But I think there's a lot of that stuff out there.
55:52
Yeah, yeah, make it beige, right, I mean.
55:56
Mine's white, white, white, white over tan with the gold
56:02
trim you. Know yes, yes, but what a big
56:05
thing that like the gold package was there for a minute, but that
56:08
era of cars like the the Infiniti, you know, G20, the
56:11
Nissan SER right Sentra, you know, it's just because when I
56:15
was poking around in my 81 BMW 320, you know, you know, the the
56:20
rich kids at school all drove that kind of stuff are CRXSI,
56:23
you know, that was you know, that was the stuff that that I
56:25
always wanted and never had our prelude, you know, and and I
56:28
don't know prelude. That's another one.
56:30
Another one, yeah. Now that NSX's have have
56:33
completely, you know, skyrocketed.
56:36
But you know, they were such wonderful cars and I and they
56:39
still are. You just don't get to drive them
56:40
so often. I had a, a new Integra, a spec
56:44
press car recently with a manual transmission and it brought back
56:48
so many memories of those cars right from the, from the 80s and
56:51
the 90s and early 2000s, right. The shifter was amazing.
56:54
Those were just great cars, great cars.
56:56
And, and, and we're touching on something too.
56:58
We've mentioned earlier too, but this emotion that's, that's
57:02
involved and you know, I think that cars, collector cars are
57:05
one of the few markets where, where emotion really beats
57:08
logic. So how much of ultimately what
57:10
you're doing is selling emotion at the end of the day?
57:14
I think it's more I I would say Oh yes, there's a lot of emotion
57:17
involved, but I would say it's, you know, we're it's it's
57:19
nostalgia really that we're selling.
57:21
I think it's about better. Yeah, OK, yeah, word to put on
57:24
it because I think, you know, it's, it's all about, you know,
57:26
like, like I just said that about that legend like that, you
57:28
know, it's, it's memories, it's moments in time, yeah, that that
57:34
you want to capture and you can capture it through the through
57:36
the cars that. And I think that that's, you
57:39
know, nostalgias we all have. I've I, I say a lot.
57:43
I think everybody, at least Americans, I think are, we're
57:47
all, we're all car people, whether we know it or not,
57:49
because we all have memories that'll have something to do
57:51
with the car at some point in time.
57:53
It's just weathers. Some of us are, are, are more
57:56
collector minded than others, but everyone's got a memory and
57:58
everybody can think, can connect and and you know, that's, that's
58:03
really the coolest thing to me is, is listening to those
58:06
stories that and randomness that that people have associated with
58:10
cars, whether they're a car person or not.
58:12
You know, when I go to, you know, gatherings at home or
58:15
whatever, and when people learn, you know, if I'm telling people
58:18
what I do, you know, most people I interact with know very well
58:24
what Meekum auctions is. But you get into a, you know,
58:27
some obscure party somewhere or whatever and you tell them and I
58:30
own it and they're intrigued by it because they don't understand
58:32
it, you know, and it's, it's a world that, you know, really is,
58:38
I think once people get introduced, very similar to how
58:42
I started in this business. So when you get introduced to it
58:44
and you and you learn about what's happening, it's, it's,
58:46
it's so intriguing that you want to learn more and you just
58:50
continue to just keep chewing on, on more and more and more
58:53
until all of a sudden you're a car lover and you don't even
58:54
realize it. Yeah, well, I, I know we're
58:57
nearing in an in an hour here and I want to be respectful of
59:00
your time, but I do have to ask what's in your own garage,
59:02
right? Yeah, so I just got rid of a
59:07
2023 Hellcat that I had for a couple years.
59:10
It was the fun car that was a that car was a blast.
59:13
It put 25,000 miles on it, which, yeah, I just drove it
59:17
snot out of. It was fun.
59:18
Soft spot for those. Yeah, they're fun.
59:23
I had a 76 El Dorado convertible.
59:27
I currently don't have any cars in the garage.
59:29
Let me just be honest with I'm putting the second kid through
59:32
college, so I'm getting that done and over with.
59:34
So I buy and sold a few cars over the years.
59:38
And, you know, really it's, I think once I got two more years
59:42
left worth one daughter in school when she's out, then I'm
59:45
going to then it becomes me time again.
59:49
So I've got a hit list. But it's.
59:50
But yeah, it's the fun. The Hellcat was fun.
59:53
I drive an F150 pickup truck that I put a lot of Roush, a lot
59:57
Roush upgrades on and right on. Yeah.
1:00:00
You know, so that's kind of my daily driver now, which is it's
1:00:02
still fun. Yeah.
1:00:04
Absolutely. But I get surrounded, I get see
1:00:07
them all every day and enjoy everybody else's car.
1:00:10
The problem is like I've got a little bit of like ADHD taste
1:00:13
like I like, I love, you know, I love Shelby's and I said, well,
1:00:16
that's really cool. And it's like deep dive research
1:00:18
into something else. Then I kind of start to fall in
1:00:20
love with that. So I would definitely going to
1:00:22
need a big garage when it's when it comes time to start acquiring
1:00:25
stuff again. So.
1:00:27
I hope to see a 2 door legend in your garage at some.
1:00:29
Oh, it's coming. It's I will get it.
1:00:31
I almost pulled a trigger. One, there was one in, there was
1:00:34
one in, there was one in San Francisco.
1:00:36
I think it's like two or three years ago I found one and I just
1:00:40
got busy and it was across the country and just I should have
1:00:44
just went out and she was, I should have bought a sight
1:00:46
unseen and just dealt with the the but I didn't, I didn't pull
1:00:49
the trigger. Do you know who Myron Vernus is
1:00:52
by chance? Myron Vernus.
1:00:54
He goes by the Junk Man on Instagram.
1:00:56
He's a guy. He's in Akron, OH, but he
1:00:57
collects all that kind of stuff. He's got like 300 of them.
1:01:00
Just all that, you know, wouldn't be on everybody's
1:01:03
radar. But it's off to look him up.
1:01:06
Maybe you have to. Look him up because I, I, I
1:01:08
think you'd appreciate his, his taste in, in cars.
1:01:10
And he's got a lot of the offbeat stuff too.
1:01:12
We had him on the show a couple months ago, maybe 3-4 months.
1:01:14
He was wonderful. He's a great guy and I know
1:01:16
he'll be at car Week and I'm looking forward to meeting him
1:01:19
in person. And you guys will be at car week
1:01:21
very obviously too, when this episode airs.
1:01:24
It's hard to believe, but Monterey will be just over a
1:01:26
week away and you guys will have a big presence.
1:01:30
Specifically, you'll be at the Del Monte Golf Course in
1:01:33
Monterey from the 13th through the 15th with over 600 vehicles,
1:01:37
I think, and that includes 100 vintage motorcycles, which is
1:01:40
cool. So what are you most excited
1:01:42
about and what should we be looking for when we're there?
1:01:44
Yeah, there's a lot we've got. I think we've got almost 30
1:01:48
Ferraris to choose from at this event.
1:01:50
OK, cool. Headlined by A96F50 that'll be
1:01:56
that'll be a good one to watch it's got a beautiful 63250 Lusso
1:02:01
that'll be it that's a beautiful car and that's on the classic
1:02:05
side we've got a 33 Duesenberg model J disappearing top
1:02:10
convertible coupe, super, super cool looking car that's I'm
1:02:14
excited to watch that one cross the block it's gorgeous we had
1:02:16
it on display at our auction indie when we announced it for
1:02:20
sale. So it's it's been in our office
1:02:22
here waiting to get on a truck to go out West to Monterey.
1:02:25
And so I walk by it every time I I go out to use the washroom and
1:02:28
I fall in love with every single time I walk by it.
1:02:30
So that'll be cool to watch. So yeah, some really good stuff
1:02:34
we've got, you know, it's. The best stuff?
1:02:37
Yeah, and now on the golf course is a great place to walk around
1:02:40
and and yeah. I really enjoyed seeing the Me
1:02:43
Come preview last year and look forward to this year as well.
1:02:45
Hopefully we'll cross paths at some point, but we should tell
1:02:49
people where to find you online too.
1:02:50
Where is Mecum Auctions online and on social media, Sam?
1:02:54
Yeah, so mecum.com, mecum.com, all of our our schedules on
1:02:59
there, all of our upcoming lots for upcoming auctions.
1:03:03
We've got obviously all of our Monterey catalog is listed
1:03:06
online now to kind of peer through very simple, easy to
1:03:08
navigate. I think we've got cars published
1:03:11
out through through our Dallas auction, which is out and and
1:03:16
October. So quite a lot of the tour to
1:03:19
check out and get excited about. But yeah, Monterey is just two
1:03:23
weeks away. I can't believe it's already
1:03:24
here so. It's gonna be great, right?
1:03:27
It's best time of the year, right?
1:03:29
Yeah. Lots of fun.
1:03:30
I know you'll be working, but yeah, I would love to say hi
1:03:33
given the chance and. Yeah, swing by, you'll swing by.
1:03:35
I'll be there. So please do.
1:03:37
We'll hook up and say hello for love to meet you face to face.
1:03:40
Yeah, sounds good. Well, Sam Murtaugh, Chief
1:03:43
Operating Officer at Mecum Auctions.
1:03:45
This has been really fun. This has been great.
1:03:47
Appreciate you coming on. Appreciate your time.
1:03:49
Hopefully we can have you on again some time.
1:03:52
Thank you very much. Yeah.
1:03:53
Thank you. Look.
1:03:54
Forward to it, and if you're new to the show, please consider
1:03:57
leaving a quick rating or review on your platform of choice.
1:04:00
Thank you, Sam Burtaugh, COO of Mecum Auctions.
1:04:03
And until next time, we're that car show.