Mecum Dallas 2023

[Dakota]

One of my sons and I went to the Saturday session for the Mecum auction in Dallas.    I've watched previous versions on YouTube so I was intrigued to see one "live".    As a onetime experience, it was good, but I don't think I'd go to another one just to be an observer.

The strongest memory I have of the event was actually something I saw and heard after we left the convention center while walking back to my son's car.   A lifted Chevy truck with Mecum show tags on it went by us with a noticeable clunking noise coming out of the back end.   Maybe there's a way to actually drive a car that's being sold there, but it sure seems like buyers can't go beyond checking the appearance before making a bid.   No thank you.

There were maybe 10 vintage e-bodies for sale across the 4 days.   I wasn't there long enough to track all the bidding activity, but scanning through the available auction results this morning, about half of them were sold (same for the modern Challengers that were up for sale).  There were all nice but not particularly special or unique Challengers or Cudas IMO.  I did get some great ideas for routing A/C lines through the wheel well that I liked.  It seemed like every 3rd or 4th vehicle for sale was a Corvette.

The general admission tickets were $30 each.   You have to be a registered bidder to sit at one of the tables up front or in the "Gold" seating section that's behind the table area, separated by the walkway that those of us in steerage used between the car staging area.   That access apparently costs $100 or more per person.   If I was actively looking for one or more cars, spending the extra $ would probably make sense.

The second best part of the day was walking around all the cars.   There were about 1000 in the various halls in the convention center of all makes, models and years.   The best part of the day was spending it with my son talking about our shared passion for cars and life in general.   

[JH27N0B]

I've gone to Mecum auctions for many years, close to 20.
They started not far for me and were local for a long time before growing and doing auctions every month across the country.
Ironically they just moved the Chicago area auction to Indy this year. The big spring auction was near here and moved to Indy maybe 15 years ago.  Now they've abandoned IL altogether it seems.
I don't blame them, I want to flee myself!
Years ago you could lot drive cars, but not anymore.  With Mecum employees assistance you could still start an engine, but I'm not sure that even is still allowed.
It's hard to do your homework to vet a car you're interested in, but imperative to do as lots of sketchy cars sell there.
It's a dilemma for me, I have a very hard time finding a car to buy, or selling a collector car, so sort of feel these auctions are a necessary evil to buy or sell.