[Old Blue 66]

A ton of Pontiacs. Many of them running Saturday including four 69 T/A's.

[tripower]

Yeah wonder why so many Pontiacs? Yes wish I was there but will be watching some on TV. Maybe we can throw in a few bucks and buy something

[tigercars]

I hope it's not because of the demise of Pontiac, Dana Mecum is thinning his collection thinking they won't be worth as much down the road.

[Scarebird]

Saw a 69 T/A ragtop (or clone ) in the promo shot.

[Brewster]

Thats the real deal 69 ta ragtop and NO clone.

Yeah, makes you wonder why Dana is selling but I sure hope its for other reasons then noted above.

[mike nixon]

Could be that Mr Mecum's got a hunch or insight as to what the economy's going to do. He's not the only one dumping cars this summer. A local guy is auctioning off close to 30 of his collection late this summer. Mostly Ford and most are fully restored. He's owned some for 50 yrs.

Something's up.

[Shift'n Gears]

After watching so many auctions on TV, I have had a desire to go to an auction just to see the atmosphere. Since there are two 70 RAIV ta's, two 73 SD's (1 formula and 1 T/A) four 69 TA hardtops and one 69 TA Convert, and this is completely ignoring all the Judges and Judge converts. So I figured that this was the auction to go to (and like brewster said the 69 TA convert is the real deal). There are a ton of Pontiacs here and many are bringing good money. There have also been some bargains too.. A 69 gto RAIV 4 sp hard top (Yellow with black vinyl top) just SOLD for $53 K. I was shocked. This would have been an 80-90K easy car 2 years ago. But I also saw a 70 TA with the wrong engine (71 455) and more things wrong with it than I can count, sell for $34 K (should have been low 20's) and I know of numbers matching 70 TA cars that are selling at that price so go figure....

BTW - I wish these 2 were in my garage LOL!!!

[PaulatFast]

I was an auction virgin as well. There are alot of great driver type cars here. A Carousel 69 Judge sold for 27k tonight. Wrong motor, weak resto, needed work to be a nice driver... but the body was very solid. Probably a good deal for both the buyer and the seller. Greg's RA IV bid to a no sale at just under 90k, it crossed the block very late to an emptying house. The 69 T/A's range from a feshly painted driver to a decent quality amature restoration. Probably will be in the mid forties to low seventies. Not real high end resto's. That mayfair Maize RA IV 69 was a nice car but not without issues... I thought the bid on it was fair both ways as well.

The most important thing for me was seeing so many friends from within the Pontiac community. Had a blast.

[tigercars]

Just saw the 69 Trans AM convertible No Sale at 1.1 million. Wonder what the reserve was on it?

[Jerry H.]

Originally Posted by tigercars

Just saw the 69 Trans AM convertible No Sale at 1.1 million. Wonder what the reserve was on it?

You didn't notice Dana Mecum tell the seller that they didn't have any real bids? I've got it on DVR. Even though everyone really knows it, it makes the auction company look bad when they bid it up to 1 million dollars and no one else bids on the car. So you really have no idea of the value of the car.

[PaulatFast]

Originally Posted by Jerry H.

... So you really have no idea of the value of the car.

I agree, but "on that day", or "at that auction" must be added to the end of this sentence.

I saw a 69 Judge sell for 71k today that I thought was worth about two-thirds of the winning bid. In my mind that doesn't make it a 71k car. I'll be the first to point out that true value is determined when money changes hands... true value for that day at that auction!

[Shift'n Gears]

Well for anyone that was concerned that the Pontiacs are not bringing good money Check these numbers out...

69 TA Convert 1.1 Mill RNM
70 Judge convert RAIII Auto 127,500 Sold
64 GTO Convert triple black 120,000 Sold
63 Tempest station wagon 421SD 460,000 Sold
71 JUDGE CONVERT 455 HO AUTO 246,000 Sold
68 Firebird RA1 19,00 original miles 90,000 RNM
73 TA SD-455 4sp 140,000 RNM (My sources say that the car was brought to be shown NOT sold and had a crazy high reserve so it wouldn't sell)
70 Judge RAIII Auto convert 150,000 RNM - (This was good money even a year ago)
79 Bandit 400 4sp 160 miles on MSO - 74,000

Hemi cuda's were struggling to get 170K. Other than the Shelby Mustang Cobra's and Shelby GT's, The pontiacs were bringing some serious $$ The "Premire car was the Harley Earl Corvette which only made it to 925,000 and the 69 TA eclipsed that. Yes you could get a 70 Ta for 32K or a 87 TA for 7,500 BUt the rare stuff was getting the money. Which is bad news for me getting my dream car, but good news for the owners of the Rare cars - Brew you should have no probely with your Herd of 73's - LOL. The white car in the auction that went up to 140K did not have the matching# tranny and although it was real nice, not close to your 4 sp.

Here's the birds eye view.....

[Brewster]

Any ideas what that crazy reserve was for the stick sd car ? also what kind of restoration did it have and or condition ?

[Ron Landis]

Originally Posted by Brewster

Thats the real deal 69 ta ragtop and NO clone.

Yeah, makes you wonder why Dana is selling but I sure hope its for other reasons then noted above.

I heard him encouraging a seller to take the money and lift his reserve as "the market is going soft"...as he put it. I know it's his job...but you gotta wonder. I cannot believe that these RA IV cars are selling so cheap! Getting back to the "real world", I believe.JMHO

[Ron Landis]

a quality resto on a rare AND desireable car will still draw the bids. These "high dollar" cars previously listed were most likely still just in the neighborhood of their actual restoration costs...barring the documented race cars. Remember...the last SD wagon Scott Tiemann did had a $185K resto bill. There's a difference between putting a couple of months into freshening up a car and putting 2,000+ hours in a nut-and-bolt resto with everything correctly replated and done right...and the prices reflect that. I'll bet the black '64 GTO ragtop did not show much profit. Some of these cars are done using NOS parts and some with repop stuff. The Raven Black Boss 429 original car that Dana convinced the owner to take $220K for was purchased for $235k just two years ago! So...is that "good money" or a sob story? Remember...it IS TV! Believe half of what you see and NONE of what you hear! JMHO

[cruze69gto]

I think this auction had only one goal. To run the market values out the roof on Pontiac. Most of the Pontiac cars where rare, but it will reflect to the market value.
Just my thoughts,

[David Jones]

Pontiac values could stand to move back up a bit. Ask most folks who have tried to sell one lately

[6 Grrrs]

My DVR locked up and I missed all of it. I could not be home to watch it. There is one car that I really wanted to see go across the auction block.

I see that Rob Lozin's Baby Blue '63 SD did not sell. What kind of bids was it getting?

Anybody have an idea what 'real' money is on this car?

I first saw it at the 1985 GTO Nats in Michigan (when Dimitri Toth owned it). Always loved that car since. I was only 15 at the time, but I thought it was the coolest car in the world then. I took tons of pics and spent most of the weekend oogling it. Unfortunately all of the pics were lost in a house fire. I did get to see it again at the 2009 CoVention and was happy to see it still exists. Funny thing is about 10 minutes before I saw it in Dayton, I asked my dad "I wonder whatever happened to the Blue SD that Dimitri Toth owned", as we were walking past the other SD cars. I'm not kidding, 10 minutes later - I heard an open header, rumpety rump sound, looked outside, and two guys pulled up in this car. I am assuming one of them was Rob Lozins. Of course I asked if it was the old Dimitri Toth car and he said yes.

Again, glad to see it is still around. I'm assuming it is unrestored? It looks exactly as I remember it with the exception of the 'Aluinum Do No Touch" stickers.

[65WJ]

High bid was 140,000
PY member gregsgto2 drove it across the block.
Thank you for clarifying it was Dimtri Toth. I remember when it was finished.
Bill Petriko (sp) from triple a enterprise's had just finished the window sticker and showed me. I was stoked.
Very cool car.

patrick

[70Steve]

Hi Tod,

I can't help with details of the auction but I think this same car featured in the November 1989 Hot Rod. It features in an article on the Factory Lightweight collection of Ed Burden. It mentions that it was originally sold by Royal, and looks pretty much the same as the pics you posted, bar some Royal Bobcat stickers on the front guards and an old style roll bar.

Maybe if you can score a copy of the mag somewhere it might help replace some of your lost pics from that period?