Now for the best part.
This car was for sale for over 2 years at Motorcar Portfolio in Akron, Ohio (a vintage car dealer with over 50 cars for sale most of the time). I loved it the first time I saw it, but my wife does not drive stick shift and is too old to learn now, so we tried to forget about it. (Her newly painted 280SL is automatic, and she is happy with that car). The asking price for this 220 SEb was $29.9K firm, and for some reason it never sold. When the dealer does not sell a car, he later runs it through his auctions (one auction in the spring and one in the fall). In the spring 2012 auction in Akron, Ohio, it made it close to $25,000, but did not meet the reserve. The next auction was the Glenmoor Gathering auction in September of 2012. We didn't buy anything, but stayed late, and this car was put up very late in the sale. Looking around, most everyone else had gone home - either running out of time, money or storage space. We like to stay at these auctions to the very end (Golden opportunity time I call it).
We were just ready to leave, when the car was put up on the auction block. It looked so great and since we already had some interest in the car, we took notice of course. There was only one other bidder and the bidding was stuck at $9,500. Then unexpectadly they removed the reserve.
"The reserve is off - the reserve is off! " the auctioneer shouted. Usually when this happens, the bidding starts up again and often increases substantially. My son had the bidder's pass and was seated behind me. I looked at him and he looked at me and instantly raised his hand to bid $10,000. More pleading and more time trying to get another bid (it seemed like forever), then.....
SOLD. (Add 8% buyer's premium comes to $10,800)! I know the market has been soft, but I consider this one of our better buys. The interior is perfect, there is absolutly no rust, perfect paint, perfect chrome (except door handles and mirror stem which we had plated). The car already had new whitewall tires and it runs perfectly. Later we discovered that the front disk brakes needed a LOT of work, which we had professionally done. A really nice clean low mileage car. I later bought an original jack, but adding up everything, have under $15,000 total in the car, which is ready to drive anywhere if the snow ever melts.
The day after the auction, I talked to the owner of Motorcar Portfolio, who is a very good friend of mine, and he admitted to having over $25,000 in the car, but said that he can only keep them so long, thus removed the reserve. He was really glad that I was the buyer, as he knows that my son and I take very good care of our cars and we have purchased many other cars at his auctions over the years. I plan to drive this car on weekends this spring and summer, as the air conditioning even works (very cold). I really like this car and am so happy that we stayed to the very end of the auction in September. Sometimes you get lucky. (Car is not for sale. We have a car museum in Canfield, Ohio and we buy and never sell). See
www.tipcars.us Neither of our Mercedes are listed as yet, but will be once we get them outside for some pictures.
Fritz
