Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Behind the Collection: Steve Contarino’s Automobilia Vintage

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Behind the Collection: Steve Contarino’s Automobilia Vintage · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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  over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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  designers, and everything in between.
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  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder.
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  How did they get that job or become that person?
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  The Road to Success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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  Tonight we're thrilled to welcome Steve Contarino, founder of Automobilia
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  Vintage, a one of a kind destination for collectors and enthusiasts.
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  Passionate about automotive history and memorabilia from rare, classic
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  car artifacts to vintage racing posters and historic automobilia.
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  Steve has spent years curating a collection that captures the spirits
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  of motorsports across generations.
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  We'll dive into his journey building Automobilia Vintage.
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  The stories behind some of the most remarkable pieces in his collection and
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  what drives his passion for preserving automotive history for fans old and new.
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  Whether you're a seasoned collector or just love the romance of
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  classic cars, this episode is a pit stop you won't wanna miss.
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  And joining us tonight is returning co-host Don Weiberg from Garage Style
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  Magazine, one of the many personalities on the Motor Inc podcast network.
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  So welcome back, Don.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you, Eric.
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  Good to be here.
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  Thanks very much.
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  And with that, let's officially welcome Steve to break fix.
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  Steve, welcome.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you.
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  Let's rewind the clock a little bit and talk about your superhero
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  origin story in the automotive world.
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  What inspired you to start Automobilia Vintage and how did your passion
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  for automotive history begin?
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  So the funny thing is, how did my automotive passion begin?
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  You know, I've always been so interested in the automotive industry, how it began.
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  Boy, aren't we back here again with the implementation of technology and
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  what that electric car, so the horse and buggy, there was no way that
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  automobile was gonna make it because everybody's gonna be riding horses
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  forever and yeah, it's just gonna be a flash in the pan and it'll be gone.
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  I like the little bits of history.
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  So I've loved all things mechanical and automobile related.
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  I remember one time I ran up to a car that was at a high end auction and I
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  said, why would there be a Model T here?
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  And my friend said, bottle T. Well, where do you see what that goes for?
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  Why?
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  Why?
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  What's so special about a red bottle?
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  TI said, because it's red.
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  And he said, that's not a model T, that's a model K. And I said, okay, tell me.
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  Well, Henry Ford went bankrupt twice before he was actually successful.
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  And that may have been three years, I'm not sure.
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  But just the history of that.
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  Who knew?
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  Well, you also have an interesting background, or we'll call it career
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  in the automotive industries.
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  Little Birdie told me you were involved not only with police
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  cars, but with Checker cab.
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  Yeah.
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  Both being involved with Ford, Dodge, and Chevrolet, and then even a few of
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  the companies who've actually come and gone in law enforcement, Tesla, they were
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  in, they're out, they're back in again.
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  Fisca actually dipped their foot in for a little while before the
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  end, but there's been a lot of companies that have come and gone.
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  You know, I've always followed automotive design and why do they do that?
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  Why do they do that?
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  Why do they make it this way?
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  Why is it that way?
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  You know, I've been to many automobile factories and I've always been so
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  impressed by them taking pieces and parts.
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  Driving it out the other end.
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  I, I never knew that most of these manufacturers, they don't even own what
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  we call automobiles or if you're from the New England area, cars, their assembly.
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  And I didn't know that.
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  I said, well, wait a minute.
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  What's an assembly?
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  Well, assembly is an automobile, but it has not gone over
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  that threshold to be sold.
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  So before it's sold, it's called an assembly.
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  It's been done for years, decades, forever, and ever.
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  And a lot of your followers probably don't even realize this.
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  One of America's largest automobile manufacturers is located in
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  Massachusetts, still to this day.
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  It's a company called Factory Five.
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  They make a lot of different models.
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  They're incredible.
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  They make automobiles, but they don't put engines in, so they make assemblies.
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  You know, I was so interested in that type of thing.
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  I said, I wanna do it.
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  I wanna make an automobile.
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  I like this checker automobile, but I, I just wanna own it.
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  I don't know why I restore them.
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  I have them.
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  I'm gonna own it.
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  I got all the intellectual property and patents and anything that was available.
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  Making an automobile was very, very difficult and expensive.
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  It's billions, but legislation passed that you could build what
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  was called replica automobiles.
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  Not knowing that this legislation was coming along and, and.
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  Poof.
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  You can make a small amount of automobiles and be successful just
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  buying pieces and parts here and there, and body being the most difficult.
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  Everything besides the body is easy breezy, but the bodies
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  were the most difficult thing.
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  And we had found some companies that actually make Camaro Mustang
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  Bronco bodies, and we just said, Hey, what about a checking body?
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  And they were on board.
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  So even the most difficult thing was not that difficult.
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  Putting it all together was not that difficult Meeting National
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  highway transportation safety requirement, not that difficult.
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  EPA came along.
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  It wasn't that difficult until EPA decided gasoline powered engines were gonna be
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  something that would make impossible.
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  But anyway, that's why it, it stopped where it did.
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  California Air Resources Bureau said, let us think about it.
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  Came back with a roadblock.
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  That roadblock essentially ended the legislation that allowed the ability
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  to make a gasoline powered automobile.
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  So it all went crashing to an end.
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  And to this day, everything is still in neutral.
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  There's still some companies who were trying to t trudge forward, but
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  right now there's legislation, you can do it, but you can't power it.
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  But putting an engine in the chassis in that vehicle is what creates what's
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  called the requirement to be EPA in California Air Resources Bureau.
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  And that's the stumbling point.
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  So right now, it's impossible to meet with any engine and transmission
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  combination that's available.
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  So I shouldn't say impossible, just extremely expensive.
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  It's just not gonna happen.
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  During your career, during your journey, you collected an entire
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  car company, but then you've morphed this into collecting things from
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  the automotive industry as well.
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  So the birth of Automobilia vintage.
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  Why don't we switch gears and kind of talk about that.
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  Where did that come from?
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  That's elementary.
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  If you have a hundred cars, which I did checkers, it was
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  Restoration Park, whatever you needed, we had it ready to go.
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  Took up a lot of space, took up a lot of labor, took up a huge amount of
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  money, and I said, Hey, wait a second.
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  I could still do this.
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  And I could get items that are not so big and don't take up so much room.
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  Boy, if I love them, somebody else loves them, so I can love 'em for a little while
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  and turn them onto the next caretaker.
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  So it's like.
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  Automobiles but smaller.
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  I've got quarter scale models.
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  I've got all different size clay models from all the manufacturers.
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  So it's just a way of being involved in the automotive industry, collecting
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  automobiles, but in a smaller way.
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  And it, it's fun.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  Steve, I'm gonna guess you've been collecting for a lot
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  longer than Automobile Vintage.
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  Has been in business, been collecting since you were a kid, or how
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  long have you been collecting?
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  I still have things from my young age.
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  You know, I would say back to when I was teen 15, 14, I mean, I was working at 13.
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  The things I, I would always collect were kind of always automotive related.
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  You know, I worked at a towing service.
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  I worked in all kind of industries that brought me near something
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  related to the auto industry.
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  My wife and I started Adamson Industries.
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  I was 23, you know, when she was 20.
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  We were kids.
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  The things that I saw throughout my career, I collected.
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  It wasn't big, but it grew and grew, grew, grew and, and today, yeah, it's
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  a thing called automobile Vintage.
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  Okay.
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  So how do you go about finding rare automobilia?
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  Is there something you do specifically to find what you want, what you like?
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  Is there something, is there some criterion that turns Steve on that
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  says, oh, oh, I've gotta have that?
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  Or is it just you're walking down an aisle at a swap meet, you see something,
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  you think, oh man, I gotta have that.
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  You don't even know what it is.
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  You never expected to find it.
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  What is it?
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  How do you go about finding rare stuff?
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  It's like.
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  A lot of car collectors will say, and it, you probably heard this before, the
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  majority of it finds me the rest of it.
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  I'm always searching for, there's shows and there's books about finding that
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  barn find, finding that hidden treasure.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  I'm the same way, but I had to dial it back a little bit and
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  automobiles were something that, it took up a lot of the space.
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  I mean, the scope of Adamson Industries.
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  Okay.
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  Just for example, when I had 100 checkers.
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  It was taken the space of 100 cars.
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  Adamson in his shoes on any given day had 300 cars on the ground.
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  Oh, wow.
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  You can imagine what it's like when you have 400 cars, but now you have 300 cars.
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  It's big.
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  It's a lot.
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  Especially when you are in an area where December-ish
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  things start changing quickly.
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  When it snows, it's tough.
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  So you think about, you know, that amount of vehicles and trying to keep
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  it so that they're not frozen in time.
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  That's a monumental task.
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  Cutting down a hundred cars, it wasn't such a hard decision.
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  It hurt my heart.
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  I know a lot of enthusiasts thought it wasn't the right thing to do.
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  You know, I, I did take a, a lot of negative publicity about how
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  I had no care for these cars.
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  But I sit here today and I could have a hundred of these small cars and
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  they don't take up much room and I can keep 'em under a roof where it doesn't
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  snow on them, and I can manage that.
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  It's much easier and much simpler, but it's just as rewarding.
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  It really is enjoyable.
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  Alright, so tell us the story behind finding one of your favorite or your
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  most unique items in your collection.
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  I'm passionate.
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  I really, really am.
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  I look for a lot of things.
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  Some days there are days where I go, well, you know something that
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  could be my favorite, or, no, that's my favorite, or that's my favorite.
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  But I find these things that get closest to my heart just like anybody else.
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  You're not supposed to have that.
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  So I have a few Mercedes design studies, and those Mercedes design studies
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  were of things like a doom buggy.
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  Mercedes never wanted to get let out that they were even thinking
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  about making a dune buggy.
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  So I've got these dune buggies, clay models in three different
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  versions of a beach type car.
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  And that's what makes me passionate.
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  That's what makes my blood boil, because they're things you're
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  just not supposed to have.
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  And why are you not supposed to have them?
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  Well, back then, I mean, these aren't 20, 25 models.
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  These are clay models from the eighties vintage, so you know, it's passed the bang
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  on the door from the legal department.
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  But to think that somebody somehow carried them out of there, smuggled
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  them out of there, who knows?
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  Don't know.
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  It's like a concept car.
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  They're all supposed to be crushed, but yet a lot seemed to appear.
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  So that's exactly the things I love the most are things that you're
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  not supposed to have that I have this quarter scale Ford model.
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  I got a phone call.
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  Hey, I, I know you're interested in these quarter scale models.
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  I, I'm in a bind.
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  I said, you are in a bind.
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  What's the bind?
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  I need this gone within two days.
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  My office has been closed down in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
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  I worked for Ford.
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  Can't tell you any more than that.
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  You want picked up, meet me at the corner of such I, I said I, I'm in
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  Massachusetts, I'm in New Hampshire.
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  I'm on East Coast.
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  Well, that's the only way you're gonna get it.
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  I had a call, a friend of mine meet this guy at the corner of such and such.
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  He's going to hand you this big quarter scale model.
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  Don't think I'm nuts.
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  It's a baby car that he's like, what?
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  I said a baby car.
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  It's a quarter scale model.
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  It was just amazing that that thing existed.
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  It's amazing that that thing made it past the security gates or however, and
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  this is a little later model, this one's probably from the, the later nineties.
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  So it's, it's that stuff that's just amazing that it
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  exists and you know, every day.
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  They're thrown into crushers or dumpsters or however they destroy it.
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  And it happens.
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  So it's, it's like anything.
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  A few squeak out, but the majority don't.
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  It's interesting, Steve, that you mention that, 'cause Don has exposed me to some
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  really unique pieces over the years.
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  Like, Hey, I met the designer of this thing and he had the prototype of this
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  wheel, or this component or this thing, and those little nuggets, those little
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  hidden gems are always fascinating.
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  Those lesser known histories of these objects and these things that later came
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  to production that we take for granted.
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  And so I wonder in your journey.
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  In this case, you talked about going there and knowing exactly
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  what you're getting, right?
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  This thing's coming off the back of the truck.
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  But was there ever an instance where in your journey and your collecting
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  where somebody presented you with a box and until you actually went through
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  it, maybe you put it to the side that something popped out and you're
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  like, oh my God, this was in the box.
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  Did they make a mistake?
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  Is there anything that's ever surprised or shocked you?
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  Happens all the time, especially when someone who's passionate has a collection.
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  Unfortunately, they don't always make arrangements for what would happen
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  if something happens, you know?
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  And that's something being either an illness or a death or something.
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  I'll give you an example.
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  I, I'm always looking for something.
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  I'm on this auction site, train auction, like toy trains.
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  I look and I go, wait a minute.
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  That's not a toy train, that's a real train.
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  Real crossing gates.
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  I couldn't believe that there was such a, a following who would
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  collect all this train stuff.
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  So I started looking at it and you know, I said, wow, okay.
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  And then I kept checking back 'cause I was kind of interested.
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  I said, you know, trains, planes, automobiles, right?
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  So kept looking.
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  All of a sudden this auction company pops up with 20 lots of Gordon Buring mobilia,
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  including clay model of a concept.
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  He had to do a mobile office.
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  When you wanna do something with a client, we don't want the client
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  to come to our office, we're gonna bring our office to the client.
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  He had the start process.
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  He was gonna make this mobile office.
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  Now this is long after you know the Auburn and designing all the cars.
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  And this was later in his career.
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  And that's an idea he came up with.
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  And when I found that stuff, I was like.
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  How does that have anything to do with trade?
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  Well, good.
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  Buring liked trains.
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  Okay.
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  This widow sold everything with the trains and this auction company had the trains.
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  It's amazing, and not only does it then include that, it
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  includes some fiberglass cars.
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  We make it based on Corvettes.
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  He made like three or four of these neoclassic Corvettes, all kind of
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  documents, pictures, literature, cases, and cases of these leather bound.
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  He in made prospectus that you would hear into somebody if you
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  wanted them to back you financially or a dealership or something.
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  That stuff is just amazing and that it existed, that I found it
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  at a training auction and that it's available now because I've had it.
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  Now I share it.
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  So what I say is I love it.
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  I love the fact of what it is, but there's gonna be somebody
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  who's gonna love the Gordon Buring connection and it's available.
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  So I have that.
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  And then I have all kind of automotive related items that have a story.
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  And remember, everybody always says it's not about what it is, it's the story.
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  Where did it come from?
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  Why is it unique?
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  And almost to a negative, I list as much information as I can.
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  And I talk about not only the item, but why, where it's from, what it is,
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  what it's made of, why it was made.
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  And so much of it, it's all rich with automotive history.
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  It's all very, very exciting to me.
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  It just, I enjoy it very much.
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  And Steve, you have all these items from that train auction.
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  I do.
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  And I was very successful.
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  On 20 of 20.
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  Wow.
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  No, I mean it was out of place.
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  It shouldn't have been there.
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  And I see that a lot.
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  Is that a case of people not knowing what they have or is it just
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  wanting to get rid of it quickly?
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  What do you think the method is behind that?
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  All of the above.
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  I think that auction companies, a lot of times, unless you hit
• 18:22
  the right one, they're gonna look at the bulk of what you have.
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  They don't look at the individuals of it.
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  If you go to a specialized auction, they'll do the the back work on it.
• 18:32
  You know, I bought things at auctions and even some of the most
• 18:35
  well-known automotive auctions, they'll have something on a
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  shelf and they'll say, toy car.
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  I'll say, well, what kind of toy car?
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  We don't know.
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  It's a toy car.
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  We give you some details.
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  It's pretty big.
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  How big?
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  Well, three feet long.
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  I'm like, okay.
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  And in my mind, you know how that slot machine goes, ding, dinging,
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  ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dinging.
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  So I'm like, there's no three foot long toy cars that are made of clay that
• 19:06
  I know of, except for concept models.
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  Right?
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  And I've done it and I've seen it and it still happens.
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  All the time.
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  It's a toy car.
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  I mean, I don't know why they didn't do the back work.
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  They're auctioning off a hundred cars and maybe 200 pieces of automobile and that
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  thing just happened to be, I don't know.
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  It's a toy car.
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  It's not a real car.
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  What are we gonna say?
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  Toy car.
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  Okay, so you've mentioned a couple times auction companies and things of that
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  where you're going to select things from your own collection, or you're maybe
• 19:38
  finding those hidden gems that we've been alluding to, but with the rise of
• 19:42
  popularity of shows, and some of them have been around for a long time, like
• 19:46
  the Wolf Brothers on History Channel with American Pickers and things like that.
• 19:50
  Where do you go pick where are your best finds and what do
• 19:53
  you recommend for other people?
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  I mean, outside of Automobilia Vintage, they should come to you first, but if they
• 19:58
  were going to pick, you know, and go look for items, where should they be looking?
• 20:02
  That's a very difficult question.
• 20:05
  It doesn't really have a go here answer.
• 20:09
  You are always gonna have things on eBay that are listed.
• 20:12
  Toy car, you know, there's a lot of cool stuff on eBay.
• 20:16
  Unfortunate, it's like everything else.
• 20:18
  It's like looking through the phone book and trying to find the, a's you know,
• 20:22
  there's a lot of, A's in that phone book.
• 20:24
  What's a phone book?
• 20:25
  Oh my god, I can't believe I said that.
• 20:27
  A big book dictionary there.
• 20:29
  There you go through that dictionary and you are looking for the letter as
• 20:33
  it's just, there's a lot of 'em and you've gotta look and they go, oh, wait
• 20:37
  a minute, I'm only looking for capital.
• 20:38
  As that narrows it down quite a lot.
• 20:41
  So yes, eBay, I mean all different place flea markets.
• 20:46
  You can find automobilia.
• 20:48
  Everywhere you could find things related to the auto industry
• 20:52
  and clay models everywhere.
• 20:55
  It's just a matter of having the diligence to keep looking and looking
• 21:01
  and realizing, well wait a minute, this is a concept car one 43rd.
• 21:06
  Yes, this was, oh, they designed this car and I said, no, it's kind of small.
• 21:11
  I can't see them bringing that up to the boss's office and say, boss, listen,
• 21:15
  we designed this little car right here.
• 21:18
  This is gonna be the car.
• 21:19
  So you get the opposite too.
• 21:21
  You know you'll get all these, well, this is a real rare Tesla concept car.
• 21:26
  So I guess Tesla had this event and you went to this event in
• 21:31
  exchange for going to this event.
• 21:33
  They were 3D printing the next.
• 21:37
  Type of car they were gonna make.
• 21:39
  As you guys know, the models are S-E-E-X-Y.
• 21:43
  There are many versions.
• 21:46
  So the SEXY, they were handed out and they were 3D printed models.
• 21:51
  But what's happened is they weren't done well enough that
• 21:55
  somebody couldn't copy 'em.
• 21:57
  So you gotta make sure you know what you're looking at.
• 22:00
  And the real Tesla models all had numbers on the bottom of 'em.
• 22:05
  They were much better done than just somebody 3D printing one
• 22:09
  24th or slightly larger model.
• 22:12
  That's what you gotta do.
• 22:13
  You have to really look and out is like, know what you're looking for.
• 22:18
  You've got these large auction companies and they've got what
• 22:22
  they call automobilia experts.
• 22:24
  That is such a broad statement.
• 22:27
  I mean, automobilia can be assigned, it could be anything.
• 22:32
  Are they experts on automotive related collectibles?
• 22:36
  I get a lot of calls about that.
• 22:38
  Well, what do you think?
• 22:39
  And I, I try to help people out the best I can, and also to secure that
• 22:46
  item so that I can have a chance to own it for a little bit of time.
• 22:51
  It's really a, a learning experience.
• 22:53
  And I know there's a lot of companies that sell automobilia and individuals
• 22:59
  who sell automobilia, but they don't specialize in that, right?
• 23:03
  From the factory stuff.
• 23:05
  That's me.
• 23:05
  I'm I, I want a stuff that comes right out of the factory.
• 23:09
  I want the stuff that wasn't supposed to leave.
• 23:12
  Okay.
• 23:13
  Here's a perfect example.
• 23:14
  I love hood ornaments.
• 23:16
  I love mascots.
• 23:17
  Okay?
• 23:18
  One day perusing on eBay in England, there's this flying
• 23:24
  lady, the spirit of ny, the famous mascot that's on a Rolls Royce.
• 23:29
  This one's root beer, Cullen.
• 23:31
  And I said, why is there a root beer colored flying lady?
• 23:36
  So I asked the man about the flying lady, and he replied,
• 23:40
  he said, that's a prototype.
• 23:42
  And I said, what do you mean it's a prototype?
• 23:45
  And he said, well, there was a problem.
• 23:47
  Rolls Royce couldn't meet the USA pedestrian crash standards with that
• 23:52
  rigid hood ornament because if they hit a pedestrian, it was like a spear.
• 23:57
  And this was a prototype.
• 23:59
  And I said, well, what do you mean it'll shatter?
• 24:01
  I said, it'll shatter.
• 24:03
  They said, yep, it's made of a special material and it'll shatter.
• 24:07
  And I said, well, how do you know that?
• 24:10
  And he said, 'cause I made it.
• 24:12
  And I said, you made it?
• 24:14
  And he said, yes, I did.
• 24:15
  I was involved.
• 24:16
  And I said, okay.
• 24:18
  Would the purchase of that item include your statement?
• 24:22
  You know all about it.
• 24:24
  Absolutely.
• 24:25
  This guy went, nevermind the extra mile.
• 24:29
  I got a CD of the testing.
• 24:33
  I got the drawings.
• 24:35
  I got the drawings of the real one that actually went on the
• 24:40
  American make How with the spring in it, and I got the whole story.
• 24:45
  I couldn't believe my eyes.
• 24:47
  I couldn't believe that that had happened.
• 24:49
  All it was was a matter of doing a little bit of research, asking a bunch
• 24:53
  of questions, and seeing something that.
• 24:55
  It didn't quite look right in getting the right answer,
• 24:59
  getting the right information that made that item legitimate.
• 25:04
  There's only one other place that comes to mind that has a collection
• 25:08
  of concepts and clay models and things like you're mentioning.
• 25:12
  So I wonder, have you ever dealt with a National Museum of Automotive
• 25:16
  Design down in the Carolinas?
• 25:17
  I have not.
• 25:18
  I've heard of it.
• 25:19
  It's on my list, but I definitely want to get there and I do know of it.
• 25:23
  Yeah, I, I actually do, but I have no, I have not had any interaction with them.
• 25:28
  Can you tell us about a memorable interaction with a fellow
• 25:32
  collector or an enthusiast that maybe helped shape your journey?
• 25:37
  You mean a lot of people, and I'm gonna say a name and, and you
• 25:40
  know him, Don, you know him very well, and his name is Gary Wales.
• 25:44
  Oh yes.
• 25:45
  So you know what he did before he was.
• 25:48
  A mad scientist of the creator of these monstrous automobiles.
• 25:53
  Right, right.
• 25:54
  That's amazing.
• 25:55
  I spent a lot of time talking to him about his experiences and whatnot.
• 26:01
  And I'm gonna tell you, uh, I met Gary at one of the, uh, garage style garage tours.
• 26:07
  Now you understand why you use so many voices Because no matter where I turn,
• 26:11
  I'm getting blamed for everything.
• 26:13
  You know, here he is blaming me for meeting Barry Whale.
• 26:16
  It's not my fault.
• 26:17
  He just happen to be at the same place and I'm getting blamed for it.
• 26:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:21
  Gary amazes me 'cause he just keeps going his mind.
• 26:25
  You ever say, boy, I'd love to see the window into that mind.
• 26:29
  And every time I see his, one of his creations, it's just amazing.
• 26:33
  But Gary, he's got a lot.
• 26:36
  Of that automobilia and all those kinds of cool things.
• 26:41
  But yeah, I, I, I gotta tell you, he's one of the guys, you know, I met Bob
• 26:45
  Lutts and spent some time talking to him.
• 26:48
  You bumped into a lot.
• 26:49
  Really, really do, there's a lot of great automotive icons out there.
• 26:54
  Tell us a little bit about Jerry.
• 26:56
  Oh, Jerry.
• 26:57
  So Jerry was real dear friend Jerry and I met about, God, I wanna say 40 years
• 27:05
  ago, I had a passion for Rolls Royce's.
• 27:08
  Jerry was the Rolls Royce aficionado, one of America's top automotive
• 27:15
  appraisers, collector of all things automotive and encyclopedia of
• 27:21
  anything to do with automobiles.
• 27:23
  He's the one who said, that's about okay.
• 27:26
  And I'm like, oh.
• 27:27
  It is these conversations that Jerry and I had, they were well into the night.
• 27:34
  After walking all day, it shows whether it be Hershey or Monterey or Seaman in
• 27:41
  Las Vegas, Scottsdale, or any of it.
• 27:44
  I mean, we talk about design.
• 27:47
  Did you see the, the rear end of that car?
• 27:49
  Did you notice that way?
• 27:50
  They painted that so it looked like it was longer, all that type of thing.
• 27:56
  So Jerry and I, like I said, it was a 40 year run.
• 28:00
  He was 30 years older than me.
• 28:02
  I was always accused of being a son, and Jerry would laugh.
• 28:05
  He was a big collector of, uh, automobile.
• 28:08
  He only had a few cars.
• 28:10
  I've always had a few more than him.
• 28:12
  But Jerry was just a wealth of knowledge, a great cheerleader too.
• 28:18
  And that's what everybody needs is a cheerleader and a friend
• 28:22
  to always keep them going.
• 28:24
  You know, that's one of the things Jerry, he was my cheerleader.
• 28:27
  As many of our listeners know, Don is the yin to my yang, right?
• 28:31
  But we both cherish the collecting part of the automotive world, and as people see in
• 28:37
  the behind the scenes videos, the studio here, I've got racing memorabilia all
• 28:40
  over the place, but it's very different than classic car memorabilia where
• 28:44
  people will outfit their garages like you would see on Garage Style Magazine,
• 28:47
  Hey, I'm a Hudson guy and I bought all the Hudson stuff I could possibly find.
• 28:51
  Or you know, the Hemi Hideout or whatever it is when they focus in on the
• 28:55
  cars that they have in their garages.
• 28:56
  Whereas Motorsport, I think we're more about the driver.
• 28:59
  It's like, if it's got ton's name on it, I'm probably gonna pick it
• 29:02
  up and buy it, or you know, have a copy of it or whatever it is.
• 29:05
  I noticed even behind you, you've got a vintage sign that says auto races
• 29:09
  today, you know, which was probably part of some dirt track in New England
• 29:13
  somewhere, you know, that kind of thing.
• 29:14
  Pointing the spectators to where they needed to go.
• 29:16
  Let's talk about the balance and the relationship of Automobilia and
• 29:20
  preserving the history of Motorsport.
• 29:23
  I think it's really important because, you know, again, being a New Englander,
• 29:28
  you know, I oftentimes get to go to Newport, and a matter of fact, the
• 29:32
  Newport Concourse is coming up and you go out to Monterey and it's all
• 29:37
  about the races, the vintage races.
• 29:39
  Well, that just happened to be a place where it landed.
• 29:43
  But you know, you think about going to Newport, Rhode Island, what does that have
• 29:47
  to do with the automobiles and automobile?
• 29:49
  Yeah.
• 29:50
  And all that.
• 29:50
  It was a stopping point before they created the Cape Cod Canal.
• 29:56
  You couldn't go to Boston by ship from New York.
• 29:59
  You had to go to Newport and catch the train from Newport to Boston.
• 30:04
  Well, Newport became the playground of the rich and famous.
• 30:10
  That's the Vanderbilt, the Rockefellers.
• 30:12
  You've heard 'em all.
• 30:13
  But remember they had to have the firsts, the first automobile, the
• 30:18
  first of all, and those automobiles in that richness of that area resonates.
• 30:25
  And why?
• 30:26
  Well, it got competitive.
• 30:28
  It wasn't competitive of just, I have a car.
• 30:30
  You have a car.
• 30:31
  Then it became racing.
• 30:33
  And what the Vanderbilt cup.
• 30:34
  So, you know, you talk about motor sports, it's like.
• 30:38
  Always evolving.
• 30:39
  You've got this trend.
• 30:41
  People wanna follow nasfa, now it's F1, and they do the,
• 30:46
  uh, the alternative fuels.
• 30:48
  And then there's vintage racing.
• 30:51
  It's kind of the foam that comes out from the top of the auto automotive world.
• 30:56
  Racing and automobiles go side by side.
• 30:59
  That's just something you can't look over.
• 31:03
  I mean, there's so many levels of automobilia.
• 31:06
  You mentioned pickers, and you look at what they go after and they go
• 31:10
  after such a broad range of items.
• 31:13
  It's basically anything that's old, don't take that as a, okay.
• 31:17
  Anything that's old is not exciting.
• 31:19
  It is.
• 31:20
  It's just that it's a lot.
• 31:21
  That now means old everything.
• 31:24
  Old furniture, old items.
• 31:26
  Well, the automotive industry.
• 31:29
  Although it's old, it's not really that old.
• 31:33
  You look at any of the, uh, the shows that follow early times Boardwalk Empire.
• 31:40
  Well, the Gilded Age is the new one.
• 31:41
  Yes, exactly.
• 31:42
  I was gonna say Gilded Age.
• 31:43
  But Gilded Age is a spinoff of Bridgeton.
• 31:46
  So here we are, Bridgeton, they're riding horses and carriages, and
• 31:50
  then the Guild at age, what happened?
• 31:52
  They're in New York City.
• 31:54
  What is that thing?
• 31:55
  Making all that noise?
• 31:56
  It's the motor car.
• 31:58
  There's a lot of people who don't even realize car motor,
• 32:01
  car, motor, carriage, carriage.
• 32:04
  It's the evolution.
• 32:06
  What came with that evolution, we call it motor sports.
• 32:09
  My horse is faster than your horse goes back to the chariots.
• 32:13
  Right.
• 32:14
  Well, okay, let's go back that far.
• 32:15
  My chariots faster than your chariots, right?
• 32:19
  That's right.
• 32:19
  Dave, you do know when the first race took place, right?
• 32:23
  You heard that story, how the very first motor car race took place.
• 32:27
  You heard when that happened, right?
• 32:28
  I did.
• 32:29
  Yes.
• 32:30
  Yes.
• 32:30
  It it happened when the second car was built.
• 32:32
  That's right.
• 32:34
  A absolutely.
• 32:35
  And that's something interesting that Don is foreshadowing.
• 32:39
  My next question in the sense that I wanted to ask you about the historical
• 32:43
  significance of some of the pieces.
• 32:45
  'cause we've been talking about that basically this entire time.
• 32:47
  And so what's funny is when you're looking at a piece and we're
• 32:50
  talking about picking, we're talking about, you know, building our
• 32:52
  collections and things like that.
• 32:53
  If you and I went to a swap meet together and came across a Hain
• 32:58
  Valvoline, maybe a Texaco sign, I don't think we would have the same opinion
• 33:02
  of it because I'm thinking Texaco, Kmart, IndyCar, Mario Andretti, or
• 33:07
  I'm thinking Valvoline A or Junior.
• 33:09
  You know, something like that and you're going, well, isn't this a
• 33:11
  nice porcelain, you know, whatever sign, where is that intersection?
• 33:15
  How do you create a balance between the stories?
• 33:18
  Or do you just self-identify with the piece and it means something to you?
• 33:22
  At the end of the day, different people are gonna look at different
• 33:25
  items in a different way.
• 33:27
  You are gonna look at that Hal Lean sign, and you're gonna think about
• 33:31
  racing and motor sports and what things that are your passionate, I'm gonna
• 33:37
  look at it and I'm gonna think about, wow, isn't it amazing that they had to
• 33:42
  come up with a company to create this lubricant and fuel for automobiles.
• 33:47
  Someone else was gonna look at it and go, wow, I remember seeing that sign when
• 33:51
  I was a little kid going to fill up my bicycle, you know, the air and the tire.
• 33:56
  So everybody's gonna see something from a different point of view, and
• 34:00
  that's what makes us all different.
• 34:02
  That's what makes us all unique and that's what makes us all able to
• 34:07
  see things from a different angle.
• 34:09
  And that's what it comes down to.
• 34:11
  You know, it's human trait to be able to see things differently
• 34:15
  and you're exactly right.
• 34:17
  The reason I brought that up is because I think it changes our
• 34:20
  perspective on the value of the item.
• 34:23
  And so when I look at that sign, maybe I'm going, well, it wasn't signed by Andretti,
• 34:28
  but if it was, it'd be worth more.
• 34:29
  And you're looking at it going, no, you don't understand.
• 34:31
  It was made in 1963 and it was done this way and using this paint, and
• 34:35
  it is worth what they want for it.
• 34:37
  And so how do we settle those arguments about what something is worth?
• 34:41
  You know, the memories of the memorabilia versus the aesthetics of the memorabilia.
• 34:46
  How do you draw a balance when you acquire something, what you
• 34:50
  should be paying for that item?
• 34:51
  I gotta go back to what my friend Jerry used to say.
• 34:55
  You can do an appraisal and you could do an appraisal for value and
• 34:59
  you could do an appraisal for worth.
• 35:01
  Although both words sound the same, they're very far from the same.
• 35:06
  What the value of something could be.
• 35:08
  One thing, what something's worth is a lot different.
• 35:13
  That could be anything for any reason.
• 35:16
  It could be a connection, it could be a family connection, it could be,
• 35:21
  uh, an automotive type connection.
• 35:24
  That's something that I've seen happen with everything I've ever
• 35:28
  done related to the automobile.
• 35:30
  Different feelings from different people because.
• 35:33
  What it's worth is different.
• 35:36
  What it's valued at may not be because a value is something that
• 35:41
  you compare other things, okay?
• 35:44
  Let's say a Volkswagen Box.
• 35:46
  Volkswagen Box is very, very valuable.
• 35:50
  Okay?
• 35:50
  What's it worth?
• 35:51
  Well, it's worth what this other Volkswagen bug is worth 25,000.
• 35:56
  Why does one sell for 125,000 then because somebody had more
• 36:02
  worth to that vehicle than value.
• 36:05
  Same with automobile, same with all of the different things that I have.
• 36:09
  If somebody's got a personal connection to it, that worth could be anything
• 36:14
  that price paid could be satisfaction.
• 36:19
  One of the particular categories I wanna say that I have is a category
• 36:25
  called Fisher Craftsman's Guild Cars.
• 36:29
  You will very rarely see me sell those.
• 36:33
  The reason I very rarely sell those is because not only are they part of General
• 36:40
  Motors history, because General Motors creates this contest where young adults
• 36:47
  are gonna create these automobiles.
• 36:50
  They have no computers, they have no TVs.
• 36:52
  They have.
• 36:53
  Time to put a thousand hours here in carving or creating this futuristic
• 36:59
  type automobile that's easy.
• 37:02
  Kids got nothing to do.
• 37:03
  So they did it and what were they doing it for?
• 37:05
  Grand Prize, a college scholarship, second prize, a trip out to
• 37:11
  General Motors headquarters and a tour of the plant and a trophy.
• 37:16
  And you know, third Pro.
• 37:18
  So they had all these levels and these cars are all works of art.
• 37:25
  Even the ones that you look at and go, that was made by a kid, but some kid took
• 37:30
  the time to be able to put it into that.
• 37:33
  Item, and those items are really, really worth a lot to me, and they're
• 37:40
  worth a lot to me because, A, they're related to the automotive industry,
• 37:45
  but B, some persons did that work.
• 37:48
  It wasn't a designer who was getting paid to do it.
• 37:51
  It wasn't somebody who expected to win.
• 37:54
  They hoped they win.
• 37:56
  They didn't expect to win.
• 37:58
  Those Fisher cars are worth a lot more to me.
• 38:02
  Are they valued a lot more?
• 38:05
  Probably not, because it's very hard to value the Fisher cars because some
• 38:11
  of the more higher value ones are more intricate and more complex, but yet the
• 38:18
  ones with the history from A to Z. And I mean the person's name, the awards
• 38:25
  they won, where they placed, written dossier, or how the whole thing was
• 38:31
  done and why, and maybe the son wrote it because their father told them.
• 38:38
  How about if it was somebody whose grandfather told the father
• 38:42
  and the father passed the item down to the son, the grandson?
• 38:46
  I mean, that's different.
• 38:48
  Those particular cards are worth a lot to me.
• 38:52
  I think there also becomes a point at which there's maybe a little bit of
• 38:56
  guilt when you're collecting, and I know I've had this conversation with
• 38:59
  Don before where it's like, well, I could spend 200 bucks for the real
• 39:03
  thing, or 20 bucks for the repop.
• 39:05
  But it depends on how you're trying to outfit your collection, right?
• 39:07
  So there's a difference between like what you're doing, you're amassing these
• 39:11
  very unique, very particular things.
• 39:13
  But if I'm trying to outfit, you know, a shrin or a garage Mahal,
• 39:16
  sometimes I have to compromise on the quality versus the quantity of things
• 39:20
  that I wanna put up on the wall.
• 39:22
  Well, yeah, but I always just recently at a location, they had
• 39:26
  a very big auction and it was a combination of all different types.
• 39:32
  And what I mean by types meaning originals.
• 39:35
  Asterisk, which means maybe, and then what they call decorative,
• 39:40
  and those decorative items sold at a different price than original.
• 39:46
  They really did sell differently, but collections are made up of
• 39:50
  what makes people happy, right?
• 39:52
  If you wanted something and you like it.
• 39:55
  That's part of your collection.
• 39:57
  Doesn't all have to be topnotch grade A, and that's why going back to pickers,
• 40:04
  one of the greatest things I like about the show, besides, I like the way they
• 40:08
  do what they do, is they're saving things that may not be number one condition
• 40:14
  and may not be of value to somebody.
• 40:17
  They just feel that it's worth saving.
• 40:20
  You know, that's a whole different way to look at it.
• 40:22
  Different collections are of different types of, uh, levels of quality.
• 40:27
  I want to get your take on how you've seen the collector community evolve over the
• 40:31
  years from, say, when you first started, you know, what trends are you seeing now?
• 40:35
  What trends did you see back then?
• 40:37
  There are sign collectors and then there are car collectors that collect signs.
• 40:43
  And there are a rad of things between them, and what I mean by that is some will
• 40:50
  not allow something that's not original to be part of their car sign collection.
• 40:56
  Sometimes the cars are more important than the signs.
• 41:00
  Sometimes the signs are as important as the cars.
• 41:05
  And I've seen that at all.
• 41:07
  Different public museums, private collections, auctions.
• 41:11
  You always see that, and that's kind of what makes the world go round.
• 41:15
  Some people are very finicky about, it's not real, and others are fine with that.
• 41:20
  Others understand that, you know, the automobiles are the basis of this,
• 41:25
  and these collectibles is decoration, so they look at it differently.
• 41:29
  I try to stay away from things that aren't historically tied to something.
• 41:35
  I do have some things that are in the category of.
• 41:39
  Gotta find out because I just don't know.
• 41:42
  And that could be something simple as a little whittled out
• 41:45
  a piece of wood car and I say, well, I gotta find out about this.
• 41:50
  Is it something that just looks old but is really not that old?
• 41:55
  It's a thing of doing the research to find that out.
• 41:59
  But how has it changed?
• 42:01
  One of the things I needed to see that the automotive collective car industry
• 42:06
  was alive at, well, we went through COVID, we came back and it's different.
• 42:12
  Nobody knows if it'll ever be the same, and your idea of different might be
• 42:17
  different from my idea of different, but one of the things that I noticed is that.
• 42:22
  A lot of car collectors started saying, well, I, I'm, I'm dialing in the back.
• 42:28
  I'm gonna reserve my money now.
• 42:31
  Geez, you know, this whole way, the whole world was that time.
• 42:35
  I don't ever wanna be nervous.
• 42:37
  I want to have a, a lot more money in the bank, less money in the garage.
• 42:41
  I want to collect less.
• 42:42
  And what that did was it really started to make the collective car industry
• 42:47
  and signs and mobilia and everything changed because the demand also changed.
• 42:55
  Because here we were with a culture of older generation doing the buying.
• 43:02
  And after COVID a younger generation coming in, and the younger generation
• 43:07
  happened to appreciate different things.
• 43:10
  What was appreciated wasn't necessarily historic.
• 43:14
  Things that were valuable.
• 43:16
  Before COVID became not quite as valuable after COVID, so
• 43:20
  the values definitely changed.
• 43:23
  The worth is still all over the place, but the values changed this past
• 43:29
  weekend with that Mecca Auction summary.
• 43:32
  The collect the car industry is alive and well.
• 43:37
  The numbers were back to where it should be if it's got the story.
• 43:41
  They were willing to pay some of the numbers that were always really low.
• 43:47
  The automobile was selling well, the automobiles were selling well.
• 43:52
  The crowds that was there.
• 43:54
  Was different.
• 43:55
  It wasn't like it used to be.
• 43:57
  A lot of internet, a lot of phone, a lot of absentee.
• 44:02
  That's never gonna change.
• 44:04
  It's not gonna come back.
• 44:05
  It's always gonna change.
• 44:07
  So that whole, what was it and what is it?
• 44:09
  What's the future gonna be?
• 44:11
  It's still up in the air, but it was really, really a special moment
• 44:16
  to see that things are back to where, at least somewhat normal.
• 44:21
  Somewhat.
• 44:22
  I mean, let's face it, COVID was what, five years ago you had older
• 44:26
  collectors buying, selling, et cetera, COVID shakes everything up.
• 44:31
  Do we have a larger glut of younger, new collectors in the market now,
• 44:36
  or is it still the same old guard, or is there a merger going on?
• 44:40
  What do you see?
• 44:40
  That's a whole big question, and my opinion of that is the workplace
• 44:46
  changed and the workplace changed from the Bob LUTs and the Lee Cocas,
• 44:53
  you know, the automotive icons.
• 44:55
  They were there and they weren't going anywhere in their thirties and forties,
• 45:00
  and they weren't going anywhere in their fifties and they weren't going
• 45:03
  anywhere, even into their sixties.
• 45:06
  Those days are gone.
• 45:07
  A lot of the, what they call legacy costs are gone.
• 45:11
  Most of the high paying jobs, the younger people, they're not as driven by history.
• 45:17
  They're not as excited by why is it like that?
• 45:21
  It's more to them, well why isn't it this way?
• 45:24
  And that whole working from home thing and that whole being a president of
• 45:29
  a company a lot younger of an age and the way the whole workforce is now,
• 45:35
  where people just, they're hanging onto their money because they feel that,
• 45:39
  you know, they can't be frivolous.
• 45:42
  Yeah, it's definitely different.
• 45:44
  There is definitely some truth to everything you just said there,
• 45:46
  Steve, but I also think there's a slightly different dynamic that's
• 45:50
  occurring in the collector space.
• 45:52
  And I can only speak for my generation 'cause I'm a generation behind you guys.
• 45:56
  And then I can look down the generations behind me.
• 45:59
  And if you think about it, it has a lot also to do with.
• 46:02
  What you imprinted on when you were young.
• 46:04
  And so when I look around my office, I look at things and I'm very grounded
• 46:07
  in the eighties and the nineties, and even in Motorsport, it's like, come
• 46:11
  talk to me about Sena and Schumacher.
• 46:13
  I don't wanna really talk about Vel and Hamilton, and that's past my generation.
• 46:17
  You know what I mean?
• 46:18
  I didn't grow up with that.
• 46:19
  But the thing is, I don't identify as much with the op era of the 1950s and
• 46:24
  the Dolce Vita era of the early sixties.
• 46:26
  Right?
• 46:26
  For me, that's not my time period.
• 46:28
  Just in the same way I appreciate a Packard, am I gonna go buy
• 46:32
  one or stuff related to it?
• 46:34
  Probably not.
• 46:34
  I mean, that's my grandfather's generation, you know, of kind
• 46:37
  of car that they aspire to.
• 46:39
  What I'm getting at though is right now though, the people that are in charge
• 46:43
  of creating new petroliana and new Automobilia are in my age demographic,
• 46:49
  and you're seeing a lot of things that are leaning back into the eighties.
• 46:53
  And it's in markets where you didn't expect them to be.
• 46:56
  Prime example, I keep making the joke, the people in charge at Lego right now
• 47:00
  must be kids of the eighties because everything that's coming out is Nintendo
• 47:05
  and Nigel Mantle and this and that.
• 47:07
  And it's all of that era.
• 47:09
  They're not doing a 1953 Corvette, they're doing a 1984 C four Corvette.
• 47:14
  So they're catering to the market that has the money, which is gonna
• 47:18
  be the kids that are now in their forties and in their fifties.
• 47:21
  So I think you're seeing that shift.
• 47:22
  Now, beyond my generation, and I don't wanna make a gross generalization here,
• 47:26
  there is a minimalist movement where collecting is not that important anymore.
• 47:32
  And so I grew up in an era where we were the last of the analog kids,
• 47:37
  but the first to adopt digital.
• 47:38
  So we're in this weird gray space where we appreciate both, but the
• 47:42
  further you get into the digital generations, the less material things.
• 47:47
  Are important to collect 'cause they're not bits and bytes.
• 47:50
  So you have that working against the collector market.
• 47:53
  Well, that's absolutely true.
• 47:55
  But you know something, there were three guys, I think it was 1934, and they had
• 48:01
  pencils and they had paper and they said, well, let's write down our thoughts here.
• 48:06
  Let's talk.
• 48:06
  And they said, well what about horses?
• 48:08
  What about buggies?
• 48:09
  What about this?
• 48:10
  And one of 'em said, it's never gonna be like that.
• 48:12
  Nobody keeps horses as pets anymore.
• 48:15
  You know, horses were work animals.
• 48:17
  What you're gonna see is you're gonna see people with yards, with bushes and no
• 48:21
  more horse pastures and all that stuff.
• 48:23
  And the, the one guy who was really, really smart said.
• 48:26
  You know what?
• 48:27
  Someday I'm gonna have a great grandson and he's gonna have a thing called
• 48:33
  a podcast, and his name is Eric.
• 48:35
  They said, how do you know all that?
• 48:37
  I don't know.
• 48:38
  It's a guess.
• 48:39
  Yeah, right.
• 48:40
  That story, it's just, it's gonna keep changing because that's what history does.
• 48:45
  So yeah, you look back and well, they were talking about different
• 48:49
  things than we are talking about here today, and I do, I absolutely
• 48:53
  agree with you a hundred percent.
• 48:55
  But is some part of collecting, preserving history.
• 49:01
  Or some part of collecting just, well, if it makes me feel good again,
• 49:07
  it's like, okay, what drives you?
• 49:10
  How do you see it?
• 49:11
  And I see it as I collect, but I also like to have the history.
• 49:17
  I like the history, but there's other people who say,
• 49:20
  no, I, I want to have this.
• 49:22
  I want to have all blue cars.
• 49:24
  I wanna have all this, or I wanna have all that.
• 49:28
  And so there's different reasons.
• 49:29
  It's like everything else.
• 49:31
  But yeah, I agree with you, Eric.
• 49:33
  You're absolutely right.
• 49:34
  Times change.
• 49:35
  Nobody's collected typewriters anymore.
• 49:38
  They don't understand why you would wanna collect a typewriter.
• 49:41
  Right.
• 49:42
  You know?
• 49:43
  I'm glad you said that.
• 49:44
  Clarification.
• 49:45
  There are people, you know, I collect this because it's blue.
• 49:47
  I collect this because the history, I'm not gonna go too far
• 49:50
  down the trough, but I, I think.
• 49:53
  A lot of collecting in recent years.
• 49:56
  It's almost like you have to qualify it.
• 49:58
  Why do you, oh, well, I, I collect this because William Sykes III
• 50:04
  designed it in 1712, and William Sykes, his father was the architect
• 50:09
  who this building in Brussels and this building fell on a million people.
• 50:15
  I mean, who cares?
• 50:17
  Okay, really?
• 50:17
  Who cares?
• 50:19
  Do you like it?
• 50:20
  Do you like that weird thing hanging on your wall?
• 50:22
  And if it doesn't bring you joy, it's an investment.
• 50:25
  So we're gonna go invest in this stuff.
• 50:27
  I think that was a problem with the eighties, and you remember
• 50:29
  the eighties all too well, Steve.
• 50:31
  Everybody's running around buying Mustangs and Thunderbirds.
• 50:33
  Why?
• 50:33
  Holy cow.
• 50:34
  They were worth a fortune.
• 50:36
  And then what happened in the nineties?
• 50:38
  Oh, oh.
• 50:40
  They leveled out.
• 50:41
  The smart guy in the eighties would've bought as many DeLorean as he could have.
• 50:45
  Right?
• 50:46
  A hundred percent.
• 50:48
  A hundred percent.
• 50:49
  And Chrysler, TCS by Maserati.
• 50:51
  Oh my God.
• 50:52
  So there you go.
• 50:53
  You You know what?
• 50:54
  You're exactly right.
• 50:55
  It's what drives you and Yeah, it does get old Sometimes somebody will talk the
• 50:59
  ears off you about something, you know?
• 51:02
  And, and do you really need to know all that backstory and Yeah, you're right.
• 51:06
  It's absolutely true.
• 51:08
  And, and they go, oh, well why does Roll Royce have that lady on the front?
• 51:13
  It's like, that's weird.
• 51:15
  She looks like, she's like, cut these wings.
• 51:17
  That's not real.
• 51:18
  They don't wanna know that whole backstory and all that stuff.
• 51:22
  And that's perfectly fine.
• 51:24
  Then there's some 17-year-old on YouTube presenting it as if it's
• 51:27
  new information all over again.
• 51:28
  Right, right, right.
• 51:30
  And that's just it.
• 51:30
  There's a, there's an amazing story.
• 51:32
  You're right.
• 51:32
  And I know you know it, Steve.
• 51:34
  There's an amazing story behind the spirit of ecstasy.
• 51:36
  I mean, it's the stuff that movies are made of really is, and when you learn
• 51:40
  it, I think that adds to the allure.
• 51:43
  Look, when I was a little kid, one of my very first cars, aside from
• 51:46
  DeLorean, was Rolls Royce and I, I just thought they were fascinating.
• 51:50
  I thought it was amazing that somebody would take eight to nine months.
• 51:53
  To build a car.
• 51:55
  I mean, that, that just blew my mind.
• 51:56
  The paint was five feet thick.
• 51:58
  The car weighed over 5,000 pounds.
• 52:00
  It was honestly just astonishing to me.
• 52:03
  This car, the real wood inside, are you kidding me?
• 52:06
  I grew up in LTDs.
• 52:07
  We had nothing but fake stick together, wood in our interiors.
• 52:10
  It was, it was something else, but these rolls had real wood.
• 52:13
  That really impressed me.
• 52:14
  It amazed me.
• 52:15
  As time rolled on, I learned more and more about the company.
• 52:19
  It made me like it more.
• 52:20
  It made me like the car more.
• 52:22
  It made me like the hood ornament made me like everything about the company more.
• 52:25
  Something dawned on me while you guys were talking about the trends in
• 52:29
  the collector market and things like that, and I think the point at which
• 52:32
  everything shifted, sort of that event horizon, and we've talked about this
• 52:36
  on break fix before we actually have episodes dedicated to the linkage and
• 52:41
  the crossover between the music industry.
• 52:44
  In the automotive world and how one influences the other.
• 52:47
  And if you think about it collecting changed for everybody almost everywhere
• 52:52
  simultaneously, when you could no longer really buy an album, when music went
• 52:59
  digital and you were paying 99 cents a song from Apple or Spotify or whoever it
• 53:04
  was, you're no longer rushing off to Tower Records or Waxy Maxis or whatever it was
• 53:09
  to buy that new CD where only two out of 14 songs were any good on that album.
• 53:15
  That's when collecting change.
• 53:16
  'cause if you think about what you talked about, Steve, with all the history and
• 53:19
  the minutiae, people knew that stuff about record albums and the vinyl pressings
• 53:24
  and where the album was recorded and when it was recorded, and what John Lennon
• 53:27
  was thinking when they wrote the song.
• 53:29
  Like all this immense detail.
• 53:31
  And you saw that in other forms of collecting.
• 53:34
  And once music changed, I think the rest of collecting changed along with it.
• 53:38
  You are right.
• 53:39
  It's definitely trends.
• 53:41
  Think about this, how many people still collect stamps?
• 53:45
  I remember when I was young, that's a big thing, collecting stamps, you don't
• 53:50
  really hear much about that, but yet there's a whole other arena of stamp
• 53:56
  collectors, stamp collector shows.
• 53:58
  It's nowhere near what it used to be, but yet it still exists.
• 54:03
  It's just on a smaller scale.
• 54:05
  So yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 54:07
  Popularity definitely changes as time goes on.
• 54:11
  The automobile, I think, is with us to stay for a a while.
• 54:16
  I mean, I, I don't quite see the flying car taken off literally yet.
• 54:20
  Here we are stuck with technology and well, yeah, we do it differently today,
• 54:26
  but it's the same, but it's trends and it's always gonna be that way.
• 54:30
  Collecting will always be a trend.
• 54:33
  And, and you know, one of the things that I was surprised that crossed over
• 54:37
  this particular year was a whole group of collectors of travel agent Mobilia,
• 54:44
  not Expedia, that's not a travel agent.
• 54:47
  So all these travel agents, okay, they got all these like promotional
• 54:52
  items from the airlines, planes and little statues and all kind of goodies.
• 54:58
  There's a whole different arena of collectors that.
• 55:01
  That's what they collect is old travel agent stuff and all Pan Am signs
• 55:07
  and the Pan Am plane and it changes.
• 55:10
  It's always changing.
• 55:11
  What do you collect from Expedia?
• 55:13
  You know, I don't know.
• 55:15
  Who knows?
• 55:16
  But yes, you're absolutely right.
• 55:18
  It is gonna change.
• 55:19
  Who's to say the future of automobile seems to be like it's gonna
• 55:24
  travel with the, uh, automobile.
• 55:27
  Then maybe it'll go up when there are no automobiles anymore,
• 55:32
  whatever that thing might be.
• 55:34
  The Jetsons, we all watch the Jetsons, but yet you never saw a Texaco gas
• 55:40
  pump in the little car landing area.
• 55:43
  And you never saw George show you his collection of
• 55:47
  famous SNH Green stamp things.
• 55:50
  They forgot all that.
• 55:52
  Right?
• 55:52
  Well, what happened to all the cars?
• 55:54
  You know, where did they all go?
• 55:56
  Where's all that Mobile and Exxon and all those gas pumps and where?
• 56:01
  Where'd all that stuff go?
• 56:02
  Oh, the car's gone.
• 56:03
  Did we get the Jetson mobile?
• 56:05
  There's no history.
• 56:06
  Where did it all go?
• 56:07
  Could that be a future?
• 56:09
  We sure thought so.
• 56:10
  We were little kids, didn't we?
• 56:12
  For sure.
• 56:13
  Which for me, I started collecting very, very early.
• 56:16
  'cause I was just psychotic.
• 56:17
  Basically.
• 56:18
  Let's say somebody's getting into the Automobilia thing.
• 56:21
  They've been lightly interested in it.
• 56:23
  They don't know where to start.
• 56:24
  They don't know what to do.
• 56:26
  Aside from telling them, you know, Hey, check out Automobilia
• 56:30
  Vintage to see what we've got.
• 56:32
  What advice would you give them?
• 56:33
  I mean, how would they start?
• 56:35
  Where would you tell 'em to start?
• 56:37
  You buy what you like.
• 56:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 56:38
  What I like might not be what you like.
• 56:41
  That's why if you take a look at the things that I offer for
• 56:44
  sale, they're all over the place.
• 56:46
  I have different things.
• 56:47
  I don't specialize in one particular thing.
• 56:50
  It's all over the place.
• 56:52
  So I always say it and you know, and that's like right back to the, the
• 56:55
  story of what we were talking about.
• 56:57
  What's worth, what's value.
• 56:59
  So buy what you like.
• 57:00
  That's the advice I give somebody.
• 57:03
  You know what, if you like it.
• 57:04
  It's always gonna be worth more, right?
• 57:08
  If you really like something and you say, oh, I like that because whatever
• 57:13
  the reason, you could have a reason.
• 57:15
  And that reason is what this is all about.
• 57:19
  Why do I come down here in my garage every day?
• 57:22
  Why do I do this?
• 57:23
  'cause it makes me happy.
• 57:25
  You know?
• 57:25
  Why do you wanna drive around in an old car that's gonna break
• 57:28
  down on the side of the road?
• 57:29
  Well, because when it's not broke down, it makes me happy.
• 57:33
  So that's what it's all about.
• 57:34
  It's our happiness.
• 57:35
  And there's some people who are perfectly fine sitting in front of a keyboard all
• 57:40
  day and going, I like watching the stock.
• 57:42
  So that makes them happy.
• 57:44
  And there's other people who say, I like look on my bank
• 57:46
  book and that makes me happy.
• 57:48
  It's all about that.
• 57:50
  It's that happiness and it's about, okay, what does it take to say.
• 57:56
  I really like that.
• 57:57
  And that's what I say, don't buy something because I say it's valuable.
• 58:02
  Don't buy something because you saw it on this podcast and I say, well,
• 58:07
  over the next 10 years you are gonna appreciate it 50% per year and I
• 58:13
  guarantee that all your money back.
• 58:15
  It's not about that.
• 58:16
  It's, that's why they sell gold and silver in places and it's overpriced.
• 58:21
  That's in the back of magazines.
• 58:23
  So people buy things sometime because of that.
• 58:26
  But no, don't do that.
• 58:28
  Buy what you like.
• 58:29
  And I know plenty of people who've bought those gold things and Sova,
• 58:34
  Don likes those Franklin mint cars.
• 58:36
  Well, guess what?
• 58:37
  If you bought 'em a little while ago, probably really happy right now.
• 58:41
  Right?
• 58:42
  So, I mean, you know, it, it's just what makes you happy and different people.
• 58:47
  We'll see something through their own eyes.
• 58:49
  Could there be five people that see that?
• 58:52
  Yeah.
• 58:53
  Most auctions involve two.
• 58:55
  Sometimes it involves more than two.
• 58:57
  Sometimes it could be 10.
• 58:59
  That's when you'll see the crowd going wild.
• 59:02
  When 10 people really see the worth in something, not the value.
• 59:09
  And that's conversations that you'll always have with somebody
• 59:13
  who shares the passion that you have, like all three of us do.
• 59:17
  In fact, you share that passion.
• 59:19
  It's a common ground.
• 59:20
  It makes us as humans compatible because we could talk about
• 59:25
  something that we all like.
• 59:26
  So you know, you do what you like, buy what you like, look at something
• 59:30
  and say, you know, I like that.
• 59:32
  And when it becomes worth 10 times the amount of money that
• 59:36
  could make you very, very happy.
• 59:38
  But it also could be something that never is worth more than the day you bought it.
• 59:43
  But it still will make you very happy.
• 59:46
  And I've seen that a lot.
• 59:48
  I've seen it a lot with the things I sell.
• 59:50
  I see it a lot with the cars I've sold.
• 59:53
  I saw it a lot, especially with checker.
• 59:56
  Owning Checker brought a lot of people to me, people who said, I remember on
• 1:00:02
  the way to the hospital in the back of a checker, my son was born in a snow storm.
• 1:00:07
  And, and I'd be like, oh, okay, that's great.
• 1:00:10
  But see, that's something they relate to.
• 1:00:13
  I have people call me up and they go, well, my father, he had
• 1:00:17
  a Fisher Craftsman's car, and I wish I could find that it really
• 1:00:21
  meant a lot when I was young.
• 1:00:23
  So there's different stories you're gonna hear and different reasons why
• 1:00:28
  different people will do different things.
• 1:00:30
  But you know what it's like they say different strokes are different folks.
• 1:00:33
  So buy what you like.
• 1:00:35
  If you feel like you like that.
• 1:00:37
  That's how you do it.
• 1:00:38
  Don't go to a book and go, oh, wait a minute, that's $25.
• 1:00:42
  And I only see it in the book at 20.
• 1:00:45
  If you really like it, pay the 25.
• 1:00:48
  You'll be happy.
• 1:00:49
  See, Steve, you remind me of that, that lady that was on Netflix, Marie Kondo.
• 1:00:53
  If it brings you joy, keep it.
• 1:00:54
  It's the same idea, right?
• 1:00:56
  At the end of the day, not everybody's always happy.
• 1:01:00
  Just having a bunch of happy things doesn't make a happy person, and
• 1:01:04
  that's what life's all about.
• 1:01:05
  You know, learning what things make you happy, and sometimes saying, I
• 1:01:10
  don't think I'm ever gonna be happy again, but then maybe sometimes some of
• 1:01:14
  this stuff just does help, doesn't it?
• 1:01:17
  All this Automobilia philosophizing brings us to Steve.
• 1:01:22
  Where do you see Automobilia Vintage going, your new company?
• 1:01:27
  What projects are exciting about it?
• 1:01:29
  What's next for Steve?
• 1:01:30
  What's up for Automobilia Vintage?
• 1:01:32
  You know, it's like with any startup of any company.
• 1:01:36
  Not necessarily bigger, but definitely better.
• 1:01:40
  Definitely a more easier and a more streamlined approach to this whole thing.
• 1:01:47
  You live and you learn, and you learn.
• 1:01:49
  You make your mistakes and don't we learn by them, so, you
• 1:01:53
  know, I wanna make it better.
• 1:01:55
  I want to make it easier for our clients to deal with.
• 1:01:59
  I want to be able to offer a service instead of putting
• 1:02:02
  that stuff with the trains.
• 1:02:04
  I'm not famous enough yet to help with that.
• 1:02:08
  I would like to be able to help with that so that those automobile related
• 1:02:13
  items, that automobile gets into the right channel to go to the right place.
• 1:02:19
  Because I, I don't know what would've happened, 20 outta 20.
• 1:02:23
  It's a good batting average, but it also makes me think, well, what
• 1:02:27
  if I was the only, I believe I was.
• 1:02:31
  And when I went to pick it all up and, um, the auctioneer said, I'm so
• 1:02:35
  glad it's all gonna stay together.
• 1:02:37
  And, and I thought.
• 1:02:38
  Oh my God, that's quite an honor.
• 1:02:41
  But you were running an auction.
• 1:02:43
  You could have put this as one lot.
• 1:02:45
  Well, no, we, we thought it would be better if somebody wanted
• 1:02:47
  this or somebody wanted that.
• 1:02:48
  And I said, well, I, I'm gonna keep it together.
• 1:02:51
  If it's available, it will be together so that if somebody has, you know, a
• 1:02:56
  reason to want it all, they will have the opportunity to purchase it all.
• 1:03:01
  That's what it comes down to.
• 1:03:03
  Right?
• 1:03:03
  Making it better, making it be better known.
• 1:03:07
  However that becomes, can go as fast as possible and get up higher faster.
• 1:03:12
  So that's what it's all about.
• 1:03:14
  Right?
• 1:03:14
  We give a better experience and that's one of the things, all of my
• 1:03:18
  seven businesses that I've ever had.
• 1:03:21
  I always want to offer a better experience.
• 1:03:24
  Everybody can do what you do, but you could give them a better experience and
• 1:03:29
  is that not something that's lost today?
• 1:03:32
  Try to call somebody at eBay.
• 1:03:34
  Try to call somebody at Expedia.
• 1:03:36
  Try to call somebody at UPS.
• 1:03:39
  I can give a better experience.
• 1:03:41
  You call it goes to my cell phone.
• 1:03:43
  You can contact me and Steve, to be clear, automobilia Vintage is not an auction.
• 1:03:49
  It's a place to go to purchase direct.
• 1:03:52
  Is that right?
• 1:03:53
  It is.
• 1:03:53
  I really feel like an auction is a place where you can go and you, you
• 1:03:58
  have to control your emotions, right?
• 1:04:01
  You have to.
• 1:04:02
  It's like anything else.
• 1:04:03
  If you are there and you, there's no sky, you could be
• 1:04:06
  pretty high without a parachute.
• 1:04:08
  So what I try to do is I try to offer the unique items.
• 1:04:12
  You know, one of the things that I don't do is say I'm firm,
• 1:04:16
  I put a price on something.
• 1:04:18
  But if somebody calls and says, you know, I, I, I am very reasonable.
• 1:04:24
  Most of the time it ends up being the freight.
• 1:04:26
  You know, sometimes it could be less.
• 1:04:29
  But I, I try to give everybody that same opportunity I got.
• 1:04:33
  And unfortunately I feel like, you know, an auction, it doesn't
• 1:04:37
  give everybody a fair shot.
• 1:04:39
  I mean, somebody's gotta be a winner.
• 1:04:41
  Well, what's that?
• 1:04:41
  Make the guy who wasn't a winner, first runner up.
• 1:04:45
  Okay.
• 1:04:47
  And we also give everybody a star for effort.
• 1:04:51
  Ricky Bobby said, if you ain't first, your last.
• 1:04:53
  Right.
• 1:04:54
  So that's what I'm trying to say.
• 1:04:55
  I like the auction, but I, I, I'm not crazy about, I'm not sold on that
• 1:05:00
  idea quite yet because I just don't like that fact of putting someone
• 1:05:04
  who wants something in that position.
• 1:05:07
  I mean, if it's a disposal situation, which a lot of auctions are, they
• 1:05:11
  just gotta get rid of this stuff.
• 1:05:13
  That's different.
• 1:05:13
  But to say, oh, well, hey, look, today we're gonna offer something as
• 1:05:18
  buyers, we don't like that, right?
• 1:05:19
  What if you went in the grocery store and said, Hey, here's your steak.
• 1:05:22
  Oh, wait a minute, $5, $6, seven.
• 1:05:25
  Do I hear 8, 9, 10, 12?
• 1:05:27
  Oh, Don, you're not eating tonight.
• 1:05:29
  Eric, you are the winner of this steak.
• 1:05:31
  Don hit the road.
• 1:05:32
  So, I mean, we don't like being put in that position, and I don't wanna
• 1:05:36
  put my clients in that position.
• 1:05:38
  You know, I'm trying to make it just what it is.
• 1:05:40
  Fun, happy part of an experience.
• 1:05:44
  Alright, Steve, well we've reached that part of the episode where I'd like to
• 1:05:48
  invite our guests to share any shout outs, promotions, thank yous, or anything
• 1:05:51
  else we haven't covered thus far.
• 1:05:53
  Well, how can I not?
• 1:05:54
  Thank you, Eric.
• 1:05:55
  You gave me an opportunity to tell all of your wonderful listeners exactly how.
• 1:06:02
  I see things, it's all opinion.
• 1:06:04
  It's all based upon things that I've had in my 62 years of experience.
• 1:06:09
  And that's it, right?
• 1:06:10
  I mean, I can't tell you that I went to the School of Automobilia 'cause I didn't.
• 1:06:16
  And I can't tell you that I graduated with a degree in Automobilia because I didn't.
• 1:06:22
  And again, I can never forget my friends.
• 1:06:24
  So I can't forget Dawn.
• 1:06:26
  And, you know, I can't forget the first time I picked up this WOW magazine called
• 1:06:32
  Garage Style and met the man behind it.
• 1:06:36
  I, I just thought it was so fabulous.
• 1:06:39
  And you know, I, I have to tell you all the years of knowing
• 1:06:42
  Dawn, Dawn's been there for me.
• 1:06:45
  So I have to say thank you to Dawn.
• 1:06:47
  I, I'll never forget it.
• 1:06:48
  And there's just so many other people I've met through Dawn as well, you
• 1:06:52
  know, that are just fantastic car guys.
• 1:06:55
  Car girls.
• 1:06:56
  It's wonderful.
• 1:06:57
  And that's one of the things I enjoy the most.
• 1:06:59
  That's why I say.
• 1:07:01
  Thank you for coming to Automobile Your Vintage.
• 1:07:03
  We've hoped you had a great experience, and that's what it's all about.
• 1:07:08
  You're too kind, Steve.
• 1:07:09
  Thank you.
• 1:07:10
  Well, thank you Don, and thank you Eric, both really.
• 1:07:13
  It does mean a lot to me from uncovering rare treasures to preserving
• 1:07:17
  the rich history of Motorsport.
• 1:07:19
  Steve gave us a look into the passion, the dedication, and the
• 1:07:24
  stories behind every collectible in his extraordinary collection.
• 1:07:28
  So be sure to check out Automobilia Vintage online@automobiliavintage.com
• 1:07:34
  for more insights, rare finds, and ways to connect with Steve's
• 1:07:38
  world of automotive history.
• 1:07:40
  You can also follow him on social media for updates and highlights
• 1:07:45
  from the collection via Instagram and Facebook at Automobilia Vintage.
• 1:07:50
  That's right Don and Steve, I can't thank you enough for coming on Break
• 1:07:54
  Fix and sharing your story, your passion, and your incredible insights
• 1:07:58
  into the world of collecting with us.
• 1:08:00
  And we wish you the best of luck on your new startup, your new adventure that
• 1:08:05
  you're going on with Automobile Vintage.
• 1:08:07
  So good luck and Godspeed.
• 1:08:08
  Thank you both.
• 1:08:09
  You know, it's, it's wonderful to be here with both of you.
• 1:08:13
  Besides all of the love for cars and the love for automobile and
• 1:08:18
  the love for history and all that, it's about the friends too.
• 1:08:22
  Dawn and I have been friends and, um, you know, I, I could never forget my
• 1:08:26
  friends and not that I ever would, but I just wanna say that's a big part
• 1:08:30
  and I want to thank both of you guys.
• 1:08:32
  And now, Eric, guess what?
• 1:08:34
  Welcome to a long friendship.
• 1:08:36
  Oh, thank you very much.
• 1:08:37
  Thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you next time for more stories to
• 1:08:41
  celebrate the spirit of cars racing and the people who make it all happen.
• 1:08:50
  Since 2007, garage Style Magazine has been the definitive source for car collectors,
• 1:08:55
  continually delivering information about Automobilia Petroliana events and more.
• 1:09:01
  To learn more about the annual publication and its new website, be
• 1:09:06
  sure to follow them on social media at.
• 1:09:08
  Garage Style magazine or log onto www.garagestylemagazine.com because after
• 1:09:17
  all, what doesn't belong in your garage?
• 1:09:20
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• 1:09:24
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• 1:09:26
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• 1:09:29
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• 1:09:37
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