Mecum Auctions has a long history with sales in Las Vegas. It’s motorcycle division — formerly MidAmerica Motorcycles — staged its first Vegas vintage bike sale in 1991. In 2015, some 3,000 people attended Mecum’s auction of the Jim Rogers Classic Car Museum collection in Las Vegas.
From November 16-18, Mecum Auctions will be back in Las Vegas for the first of what figures to be annual collector car sales.
While Mecum’s motorcycles auctions — in January and June — are held at the South Point hotel and casino complex south of famed The Strip, the collector car sale will be staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“We were concerned that where we normally have the motorcycle auctions wouldn’t have enough space,” explained Dave Magers, Mecum Auctions chief executive.
“We’re going to have more than a thousand cars in Las Vegas,” he said, adding, “Typically, we like being in a convention center. It takes about 500,000 square feet of space for our (car) auctions and there’s nothing near that at South Point.”
But, he quickly continued, “South Point fits very well for the motorcycle auctions,” and two are on the 2018 Mecum calendar at that venue.
“We expected and have had some pretty strong reaction to the Las Vegas (car) event,” Magers said.
The auction will feature cars from several collections, including those of Les Quam, Barry Walston, William Wortman, Kevin Collins, Barry’s Van & Muscle Car and a 50-vehicle Las Vegas collection. Nearly half of those “Vegas” cars are convertibles, primarily from the 1950s and ’60s.
Quam’s cars going to the auction include nearly a dozen cars, five of them Dodge Vipers, as well as a 2006 Ford GT. Of the six Walston cars, four are 1930s street rods. Wortman also is sending six vehicles, primarily muscular products of Detroit. A dozen cars from Collins’ collection includes five Ford or Mercury products, plus a Ford-powered 1065 Sunbeam Tiger.
Barry’s Van & Muscle Car grouping of 30 vehicles features customized Ford and Dodge vans, from a 1978 Dodge B200 to 1986 Ford Econoline.
The docket also includes a 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster, 1965 Shelby 289 Cobra, 1968 Yenko Chevrolet Camaro, a 1969 Shelby GT500 Ford Mustang and a 2017 Ferrari F12TdF.
The full docket is available at the Mecum website.