Pagodas at Amelia Island Auctions

[ctaylor738]

Today a mostly original 280SL sold at the Bonham's auction for a hammer price of 47K.  

Oregon car, one family owned.  Fender notches preserved during repaint.  Complete, no rust that I could see.  Original fenders, decent paint, new-ish interior and wood, a lot of expensive new chrome, but new grille shell installed without washers.  New soft top with some new seals.  Window jaws OK.  No rust or damage in trunk floor.  Excellent tires and caps.  Hood gaps about as good as they get.  Trunk gaps good, but new seal not glued correctly.  Good solid CLUNK from shutting doors.

Poor engine compartment with a lot of silver spray paint.  50% of original firewall pad remaining.  Frame and inner fender panels clean, but appeared to be brush-painted in slightly different color than body.  Odd mixture of correct and incorrect hoses and clamps.  Black undercoating in wheel wells.

Started easily and sounded OK when driven up to auction platform.

I thought it was well-bought.

[Benz Dr.]

Or poorly sold..........

[cabrioletturbo]

Sweet deal for the lucky buyer. Condolences to the seller.

[Cees Klumper]

Sounds cheap compared to recent price reports.

[GGR]

Sounds cheap compared to recent price reports.

Yup! Let's see which direction the Hagerty curve is going to point now!

[GGR]

In addition, with the Euro going down, sales from to US towards Europe may slow down quite a bit, so prices on the US market may also go down.

[ctaylor738]

Some of it may have been the auction itself.  It was cool and wet and early in the weekend, there were only four older Mercedes (450SL, 2 190SL, and the 280SL).  The 450 went for 27K, one of the 190s went for like $247K, the other for 90K.  There just didn't seem to be a lot of interest in the 280.  A lot of cars sold under their low estimates, and the ones that did really well had two or three determined bidders.  Like the barn find 1963 XKE that went for 101K with buyer's premium.

[Benz Dr.]

That's a strong price on the 450SL. It would need to be ay very nice car to bring that money.

[ctaylor738]

Today at Goodings, a "cabernet" 280SL was reported sold for 135K.  They don't let you into the "sold" area, so I couldn't inspect it, but it was very impressive from 30 feet away.

Also at Goodings, there was a dark green/bamboo 280SL, restored by Tony LaBella, that was about as good as it gets.  Wasn't allowed to open the hood, but looking underneath, you could see restored horns, and replated fittings on the cable holders on the oil pan, all suspension fittings replaced or replated, and even the fittings on the original trans cooler hoses were replated.  In the back, an immaculate rear end, new gas tank, and new MB exhaust.  I could not find fault with the paint, panel fit, chrome or interior.  New and perfect-fitting soft top.  Wheel wells painted body color.  The only issue I could find was the old yellow windshield washer hose, visible through the cowl grille.  Pre-auction estimate was 175-225K.

RM had a 280SL, also dark green, but with a tan interior.  Sorry, no picture.  It had a variety of issues.  Black engine compartment, hoses and clamps were a mess, a lot of engine parts spray-painted silver, shock washers upside down.  Incorrect color horn pad, wood shifter knob (automatic).  Chrome and gaps OK with minor issues, like no cup washers under the grille screws.  It had a lever under the dash that said "Overdrive."  Hmm.  Estimate was 100-125K.

[GGR]

  It had a lever under the dash that said "Overdrive." 

There is a group member who fitted an overdrive on his Pagoda. The car is green. He is from Canada if I remember well. He advertised his car for sale here a while ago.

[ctaylor738]

From the catalog about the 280 with overdrive.  Anyone ever heard of the optional Audiovox cruise control?

This 1969 280 SL, finished in compelling Dark Olive Green, or Dunkeloliv (DB 291), over a fresh Cognac leather interior with a tan soft-top, was recently cosmetically restored following an earlier mechanical restoration by a Canadian Mercedes-Benz collector who had owned the car for many years. The car’s snug-fitting soft-top was outfitted in correct German fabric. The interior was completely retrimmed from an MB Tex interior to correct-style Cognac full-grain leather throughout, and it was fitted with a new headliner and carpeting. The wood trim was refinished, and even the original clock was restored and is still functioning. At the same time, aging chrome, rubber body moldings, and the wheel covers were replaced. Even though this 280 SL already features a four-speed automatic transmission and rare optional Audiovox cruise control, it has been further upgraded with a keyless remote door and trunk operation, adding to the car’s ease of use. It is also important to note that the car is riding on proper color-matched steel wheels that are wrapped in correct Michelin XZ whitewall tires.

[GGR]

I think this is the car: http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=7532.msg47737#msg47737

[Panzer82]

I watched some of the Gooding sale online yesterday. The first car to cross the auction black was a red 1970 280SL described to be a complete restoration. David Gooding announced that it received '99.7 points at a recent MBCA concours'.... which leads me to believe it must have been a national MBCA event because I don't know any local sections that hold serious concours events with a points system... maybe some do. In any case, it must have been pretty near perfect in terms of correctness and presentation if the judges knew what they were doing. It hammered sold for $130,000 + buyer's premium brings the total up to $143,000 which sounds like a lot.. but considering what other 'almost perfect' 280SLs regularly bring at Gooding and RM, and brought in AZ 2 months ago, I think $143k is a very good buy, plenty of people pay $150k and $175k or even more. Estimate was $125k - $175k so it did sell right in the middle.

Several factors at play?
First car to cross the block. (I'd never want to have the first car across the block, people are still arriving, finding seats, etc.)
Maybe 99.7 points at an MBCA concours doesn't mean all that much or = a 'great example'
I call it well bought.

A few cars later was a 1980 450SL, black hard top, white body, bundt wheels. Just 12,000 original miles. Hammered sold at $42,000 (so, $46,200 real money) against the estimate of $50k - $60k.... big money for a 450SL, but it's a super low mile time capsule. Nice to see excellent original R107s being appreciated by collectors.

[mdsalemi]

The LAST one to cross the block at Goodings was one done by Tony Labella. I spoke with him about this last week, and he was none too pleased about having the last spot--probably worse than the first spot.
However without reserve, it crossed at $220,000--good, strong money but I'll believe Tony's assessment to me for certain.

http://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1970-mercedes-benz-280-sl-6/

[W113SL]

I saw both the red and the green one (DB291) at Goodings

Both done correctly to MBCA concours restoration standards.  The red one  was unortunatey the first car up and Tony's car was the very last.  In my opionion the differnce of almost $80K was not justified.  In other woards the red car prepared by Bud' Benz should have brought a good deal more.  In this case it was all about positioning in the auction and perhaps the bidders found the dark olive green car more appealing. 

As for the red car being judged at 99.75 points, I believe it was done at a recent Peactree MBCA concours where they do use the MBCA 100 point scoring system.  I did see the car over a year ago and it is very strong.

But the car that sold for $47K the day before looked like the deal of the weekend for a Pagoda.


W113SL

Pete Lesler

[Raymond]

RM Auctions had a dark green one estimated at $90K to $125K with no reserve.  I don't know what it sold for.  

[mdsalemi]

Anyone ever heard of the optional Audiovox cruise control?

Sure...Audiovox is/was? a maker of low to medium quality audio accessories, FM converters, CB radios, etc. This was, my best guess, one of those "glue the magnets on the driveshaft" type of vacuum-operated cruise controls available in the 70s when very few factory options existed and surely none from MB. I think I had something similar on another car once...works OK if the magnets don't fall off. Modern cruise controls from the factory are infinitely superior of course, even on the cheapest of transportation appliances. I think Jim Villers had one, maybe not Audiovox but similar, on his Pagoda.

[RonB]

A little off the orogonal topic - I have a Audiovox cruse control since 2002.

Works flawless - would not give it up fore anything. Really make those long cruises a pleasure.