Originally Posted by Gene F
I went to the bank and got things squared away, with a block of more than enough money on my checking acct, and got the letter I needed....
I wanted the 27 REO Flying Cloud 5-person sedan. It was Lloyd's touring car, and he had repainted it from "Old Blue" to a two-tone tan in recent years. He freshened up the car overall. I thought perhaps if I could get that car it would be worthy of an entry in The Great Race 2020. 2019 is already sold out. I stopped at $25,000 which was a little more than double the "book" value. I did a lot of value research in addition to value guides. The old guy kept bidding, and he just looked like he wasn't even going to so much as flinch until he said $30,000, which would have left me at $31,000 and that was way more than I wanted to pay. I never try to run up the bid on someone, I think it's dirty, and you never know when your opponent will stop and leave you stranded. I really wanted that car, but I felt like $25,000 with the 8% fee on top of that was a plenty. I told my wife a week before I wanted the car, but I didn't wanna pay more than about $20,000, or $25,000.
I wonder what that old guy thinks he is going to do with it. I mean I look at my collector cars as me just being the caretaker of them. I retired WAY EARLY, but collector cars will live beyond me, and I can still get around quite good. I hate to say it, but that guy is plainly in his late 70s, and can hardly walk. How in the heck is he even going to change the oil, and perform the annual lubrication on that car? The first time the car has a flat tire, the carburetor needs cleaned out, or some other minor maintenance repair the car will simply sit and deteriorate. The only two shops that perhaps work on something of that vintage are not even around here: Hills Restorations in Racine, OH, and perhaps the Studebaker specialty shop over in Duncan Falls, OH.
It sound like sour-grapes, but it's really not. Sure I would have liked to have it though, but I have enough collector cars to keep me plenty busy (both
driving and repairs).
Lets face it, the car is likely in as good a shape right now as it ever will be. I expect never to see it again. Someone said to me, you never know Gene, maybe he will die, and you can buy it from his estate cheaper. Sounds unfriendly to me, but perhaps there is some truth to it. It's more likely that (I kinda hate to even go down this road) by the time the car ever would become available again, it will have deteriorated again to where I would not even wanna fool with it. Lets face it, it's not like my Model-A where parts and resources are plentiful.
Actually, I think the auctioneering team did a nice job. Sometimes I go to auctions (including with my stuff up for sale) and feel like the auction team just don't know what to do. I was at one 12 months ago in Marietta, and it was terrible. The Aires' really
took a beating, and they likely didn't even know it.
Things they did before auction at Lloyd's:
Starting every car before the festivities
leaving the cars unlocked
starting them before each car was offered, went a long way.
I could go on, but your get the idea. You can tell when pre-planning is done.
So bottom line, I hope the old guy enjoys the 27 Flying Cloud. Sure he paid for it fair-and-square, but he also has a little bit of responsibility to the car, and the hobby we all love so much.
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