Mecum Auctions is relatively new to Las Vegas, but they’re established, respected auctioneers in the collectible car industry. Mecum has held 17 auctions across the country this year, including two featuring motorcycles in Las Vegas. They sell vintage pickup trucks in Texas, muscle cars in Florida and racecars in Indianapolis. They come to Vegas straight from an auction of treasured tractors in Iowa, and will have an estimated 1,000 vehicles being put on the block during three days at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “Right now we’re putting a lot of marketing muscle and a lot of dollars behind the Las Vegas market because of the success we had in our first year,” says Dave Magers, CEO of Mecum. “Last year, in November, we had our first-ever car auction in Las Vegas at the Convention Center, and it was probably 100 percent beyond my wildest imagination of what I would have labeled success. The crowds were huge. The cars were great. It was a great sale.”
Magers says Mecum didn’t really know what to expect from Las Vegas for their inaugural auction, but they saw a good cross section of just about everything, including road art, and expect the same kind of representation this year. “There’s a high concentration of ’60s and ’70s muscle cars,” says Magers. “There’s a great number of Corvettes, but probably more important is there’s a significant collection of prewar and European cars that are coming to Las Vegas as well, and that’s … probably what I’ve seen now in the lineup in the last two weeks is probably one of the most diverse and eclectic lineups that I’ve seen before.”
Doors open at 8 a.m., and the auctions start at 10 a.m. A car runs across the block every two minutes until 7 p.m. This year, there are five sources for special collections, including the Ardell Brown Estate and the Academy of Art University Collection. The Brown Estate Collection includes beautiful models from the 1940s, immaculate ’60s and ’70s muscle cars, classic convertibles, a 1916 Model T Touring car and a 1969 American Lafrance Pumper Fire Truck.
The Academy’s “San Francisco Automobile Museum” features a 1941 Cadillac Series 60 Special Fleetwood, 1923 Citroen 5CV Torpedo “Cul De Poule” Tourer, an elegant 1935 Pierce-Arrow Eight Sedan and a stately 1929 Stutz Model M Vertical 8 Town Car among its fleet of 45 cars heading for Vegas.
Mecum experienced a sell-through rate in the high-70th percentile for its 2017 Vegas auction, which Mager cites as “the high end of success” for a reserve auction and a reason to evolve it into one of its premier events. “There are no-reserve auctions, and then there are reserve auctions, which is what we are,” says Magers. “You give the seller an opportunity to put a minimum sale price on their car, so unless the bid gets to that minimum price, the car doesn’t sell. … We’ve decided that is one of the auctions we’re going to build on and hopefully become one of those four-, five-, six-, seven-day auctions with 2,000, 3,000 cars in the future.”
Las Vegas Convention Center,8 a.m. Nov. 15-17, starting at $30 plus tax and fee, age 12 and under free. mecum.com
