Mecum and Steve Juliano

[76orangewagon]

Was there any rumors floating around the auction as to who bought the RTS cars and if they are still together ?

I saw a shipping label on the 70 and 71 RTS Road Runners and the custom Dart all were going to the same city in Wisconsin so at least a few stayed together, no clue on the Duster. I was standing next to the guy who bought 2 of the cut away motors (one Hemi and the 440+6) and the Mod Top Barracuda...those three alone cost him over a million $$$

[cuda hunter]

I took a huge amount of pictures and have spent a lot of time trying to sort them.  I'm still not done.
But here is my first album of pictures, more to come later-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/111914442@N04/albums/72157708649706394

absolutely amazing cars!   I'm assuming not all the cars in the pics were his.  Just the mopars?  Or?

That foam green stepside is really cool !! 

Thanks for posting up pics!  Can't wait for more and to go back through the ones you took already! 

[JH27N0B]

There were 2000 cars in this Mecum auction, and Steve's estate cars were a dozen of them.  Along with the RTS cars, the Shelby Cobras on pedestals, the Cheetah, the sunroof hemi Challenger, the V code cuda convertible, the mod top Barracuda, the custom Dart auto show car, and the Opel were from his estate.  Though actually the Challenger and 'cuda were sold to Mecum a few months before Steves passing and belonged to Dana Mecum.

[RzeroB]

Was there any rumors floating around the auction as to who bought the RTS cars and if they are still together ?

I saw a shipping label on the 70 and 71 RTS Road Runners and the custom Dart all were going to the same city in Wisconsin so at least a few stayed together, no clue on the Duster. I was standing next to the guy who bought 2 of the cut away motors (one Hemi and the 440+6) and the Mod Top Barracuda...those three alone cost him over a million $$$

That guy who bought the Mod Top and the cut-aways was on a mission wasn't he? He was not going to be denied on the Mod Top with the way he was bidding! He knew what he wanted although I think he paid crazy money for that Mod Top.

Anyway, one of "The Brothers" was there, and they bought the RTS Duster. With as deep as their pockets are, I was really surprised that they didn't scoop up all of them in order to keep them together? Must of had their reasons for not doing so.

[RUNCHARGER]

Yeah: Crazy not to get them all if you could afford it.

[anlauto]

That's really too bad the cars will be split up. I wonder what the total collection, everything, went for ? How many million? I noticed one Cheetah race car didn't meet reserve 

[captcolour]

We got back last night after spending a few days there and I must admit I saw very little of the car auction because I spent most of my time looking at the Juliano collection and all of yesterday in the Road Art room getting outbid time after time as each individual piece sold for outrageous prices, I get a chance to meet his family and spoke briefly with his daughter just to offer my condolences at the same time the Schwinn bicycles like the Cotton Picker, Grey Ghost and lemon Peeler each sold for $10,ooo and that's before the 23% buyers premium. I did manage to win one item in the Mecum On Time auction but lost several of those as well. The NOS F78 collapsible spare mentioned earlier in another post sold for $4,005 before the 23% premium and 7% sales tax. Here's my single purchase from the auction, a NOS 1971 Alternator, I had Jim Ridge rebuilt mine last year but I might use this one instead after sending it to Jim to freshen it up.

I spent a lot of time in the Road Art auction room on Saturday too.  Yep, stupid money for most items.  Several of the people were buying multiple items for thousands of dollars each.  I was trying to get the Plymouth danglers but not for $1,200 or whatever they sold for.  Then the last cardboard roadrunner which had water damage and wasn't in the book still sold for over $3,000.  I got out bid on most items online.  Did get a deck of cards with the Chrysler logo and a set of two ashtrays.

[RzeroB]

These were the two things that I was interested in ... that is until about a second or two after the bidding began! Should have known better!!

[anlauto]

Do you think the prices went crazy due to the Steven connection, or are the pieces really that rare and valuable ?

[RzeroB]

I thought this was really cool ...




and if you needed NOS tires Juliano had literally dozens of them ...




check out some of these '71 model year accessories ...

I didn't know they had "child seats" back then? My mom and dad certainly didn't know either as I don't even remember them using a seat belt!

Check out the "Pontiac style" hood mounted tach you could have added to you car.

And how about that station wagon "mattress"? Make that wagon a "shaggin' wagon"! Yeah baby!! (bet Austin Powers had one of those in his wagon ...)




and when it's all said and done, what could be better than playing a round of the "Plymouth Drag Racing Game"?

[RzeroB]

Do you think the prices went crazy due to the Steven connection, or are the pieces really that rare and valuable ?

I would say both. Lots of cool stuff combined with Juliano's legacy ... a lot of people wanted a little slice of his pie to call their own ... it was the "perfect (seller's) storm" so to speak.

[6bblgt]

Definitely due to Steven, 95% of that stuff could not be replicated at auction tomorrow

[wingcarenvy]

I live in the same county his collection was housed in. It was such a guarded secret that no one I know in this community knew where it was or how to view it. Such a shame it wasn't open to the public. Well now maybe it will go to a museum where hoards of people can see it and enjoy.

Funny, I know lots of folks who viewed Steven's Collection & I had an invite myself but unfortunately scheduling got in the way.... Talking with Steven he said in all the years living in California he got very few requests to view his collection...  He was always active on various websites, all you had to do was reach out....  He had an incredible collection that he was happy to show but he had a life beyond his collection so he wasn't going to open a museum that would keep him tied down....   

Jay Leno doesn't run a museum either... But lots of people have toured his collection... Same deal, Ask.....

I have never seen Steve around at any of the local shows or on any forum I have ever frequented. Oddly enough I have had a tour of Jay Leno's place by Jay himself but I was with some really VIPs from the Nethercut collection. You need to be invited to see Jays stuff.

[1 Wild R/T]

I live in the same county his collection was housed in. It was such a guarded secret that no one I know in this community knew where it was or how to view it. Such a shame it wasn't open to the public. Well now maybe it will go to a museum where hoards of people can see it and enjoy.

Funny, I know lots of folks who viewed Steven's Collection & I had an invite myself but unfortunately scheduling got in the way.... Talking with Steven he said in all the years living in California he got very few requests to view his collection...  He was always active on various websites, all you had to do was reach out....  He had an incredible collection that he was happy to show but he had a life beyond his collection so he wasn't going to open a museum that would keep him tied down....   

Jay Leno doesn't run a museum either... But lots of people have toured his collection... Same deal, Ask.....

I have never seen Steve around at any of the local shows or on any forum I have ever frequented. Oddly enough I have had a tour of Jay Leno's place by Jay himself but I was with some really VIPs from the Nethercut collection. You need to be invited to see Jays stuff.

Steven was a member on Moparts and a few other sites... He also did attend some LA & San Diego shows, I know one member of Moparts from the San Marcos area who spent time with him pretty regularly... 

I think once his health issues came about it was harder for him to find the time... He still had the passion as many of us do... Just hard to make the cars a priority when life keeps getting in the way...

Can't say for sure but I suspect having his Mod Top Cuda stolen may have caused him to tighten his willingness to displaying his collection as well..

[303 Mopar]

Good to see Mopar represented....