Mecum Denver 2017 Report

Mecum Denver 2017 Report

We always head up to Minnesota at least once every summer to visit my wife's family and escape the Texas heat. This year we decided to fly to Denver to visit Branelle's sister and her husband and then road trip across South Dakota. I'd never seen Mount Rushmore and we thought we'd try a car trip with our 2-year-old, Samantha. I "accidentally" planned it to coincide with the Denver Mecum Auction.

I'll get to the cars in a minute, but first a few notes. This was my first time at Mecum Denver, and I believe the 2nd year they've held an event here.  The Colorado Convention Center is a great facility for this kind of event.  It was a little tricky to find and park for, primarily because they don't offer any help or signs, but once you figured it out it was pretty simple.  The center is in downtown Denver but the traffic was light - as long as you have a Toll Pass.  

It was also the first time we've taken Samantha to an auction.  She loves to help me inspect the cars. She was actually pretty good with the "look but no touching" rule.  I would never suggest taking a two-year-old to a car auction, but she was with us so if Nel wanted to go Sammy Cat was going as well.  

We got her headphones for the noise, but they weren't really necessary.  It wasn't as loud a venue as some can be.  In fact, the place really was great. The noise was minimal and they had plenty of room. The temp was even perfect.

Samantha was a trooper...and then a napper!  It was a three day auction but Thursday didn't go off without issue.  We got there at 8:00am to inspect cars before the 10:00am start.  Unfortunately Mecum hadn't updated the website to reflect the 1:00pm start time change so we had plenty of time to kill. We actually went to the downtown aquarium to entertain Sam.  I think they were short cars so they just decided to start later.  It made for a long day.

With regard to pricing, the Denver auction seemed to be geared to the lower end of the collector car market - which is great by me.  I enjoy cheaper fun cars you can drive more than the high end pieces of art that I have to cover in my own garage.  I focused my attention on a number of very affordable classics and came home with a couple new additions to the family that we can certainly enjoy this winter.

Things We Didn't Buy:

1975 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible

I've always wanted one of these big Eldos, and there were three in Denver. None of them were particularly nice though. The pricing reflected the condition and none went for unreasonable money, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on one. I still want one but I want a really nice one.

1979 Datsun 280ZX

Similar to the Eldorado's, there were three decent old Z cars.  I've wanted one of these for some time now as well, and this blue example was my favorite of the three.  I thought they all went kind of cheap, and I probably should have bid on this one as it sold for only $8000.

1979 Dodge Li'l Red Express

I certainly wasn't looking for a Li'l Red Express Truck, but I loved this one and it was in great shape. It was literally the 2nd car sold at the entire auction and I bid on it but it's a little hard to buy a car right away (which is why you can get great deals early).  I almost went home with this quirky Dodge - and I really wish I had.

1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

This generation of Camaros and Trans Ams has really been on my radar lately. For one thing, they're fun to drive. For another, they're kind of from my high school days so I'm sure they appeal to my generation more than others (my wife, who's much younger than me, doesn't get these at all).  My first car was almost an IROC-Z.  

1990 Ford Bronco XLT

I fell in love with this Bronco. I should have bought this Bronco. It sold for $10K, which was right on the money, but it was better than that.  In Houston, this would have been 50-100% more than it went for in Denver.  I regret not bringing this one back.

2011 Jeep Rubicon

This was a custom Jeep, which isn't really my thing, but that doesn't tell the story. You can't see it very clearly here, but it had been built for SEMA to promote Call Of Duty and it had NINE guns mounted on it. My Jeep driving friend Michael back home said it was "overkill".  

1982 Jeep Cherokee Laredo

Sticking with the Jeep theme, this was my favorite vehicle of the entire auction...and a lot of other peoples as well unfortunately.  It brought something north of $30K, which is crazy money for one of these, but I had already bought two cars and didn't want any more so I didn't even watch it just in case.  I wouldn't have gone anywhere near $30K so I'm glad I didn't wait for it.

1984 Tucker Sno-Cat

As with most auctions, you get some local weirdness.  I'm not sure a Sno-Cat is really all that odd in Denver, but I've never seen one at an auction before.  It was in great shape too!

Anything Pink!

Since I wasn't targeting any specific cars really, I asked our daughter what she wanted. "Something Pink" was her reply (sigh). There was only one option - this Thunderbird. It didn't happen for her but I'm pretty sure she forgot what she asked for 5 minutes later anyway.

Things We DID Buy:

1973 MGB

I was actually interested in the little Alfa behind the MGB here which went right before it but no one was bidding on the little orange Brit so I snatched it up for basically nothing.  It's hard to beat a small, simple convertible for fun.  This one has been restored and looks great.

It was making a strange noise right before going across the block and that may have kept the price down.  I've already gotten it fixed - it was just a compressor switch that no one knew about on the center console.

An added bonus to going the "small & cute" route is that Nel is a big fan.  She likes just about any small car it seems, and if the top goes down that goes double.

We had to ship the cars home. They actually beat us there by about a week as we were just getting started on our travels.  I barely got a chance to look over our new toys before handing the gate releases over to the shippers. While putting the top up I noticed a little spring that could have scratched the paint so I borrowed some forceps, of all things, and removed it.  We used Mecums own shipping company for our cars and they were great, but not cheap.

1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible

Our 2nd purchase came on Friday. I had met the owners of this fantastically restored Galaxie the day before - they had a little dog that caught Sam's eye. I don't know much about Galaxies, and I wasn't looking for one, but the restoration work on this car really drew me to it.  

I wasn't paying that much attention but when I noticed it was on the block I darted around the corner and bid a couple times until it was mine (I'm in the maroon shirt).  I used to think there's no way the ring men could miss a bid...until it happened to me in Houston earlier this year. I had no trouble getting their attention this time.

I haven't actually even driven the Galaxie yet, but I'm looking forward to dropping the top and heading out for a spin. I'm thrilled with our Denver purchases and I enjoyed the auction as well. It was an odd crowd. Not odd people, but odd fluctuations between being full and then kind of sparse...and then full again. It was almost like a tide - if you timed it right there wasn't much competition for cars. I'll certainly consider coming back to Mecum Denver in the future.

 
Samantha (and Bunny) were clearly excited to be here as well.