After a quiet July, Mecum Auctions staff has geared up for a succession of events starting August 2-4 when it offers around 1,000 collector cars for sale at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.
That sale will be followed August 23-25 by the company’s annual Monterey auction, and on September 7-8 by yet another sale, this one in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Harrisburg sale will mark the fifth annual visit by Mecum to Pennsylvania. Last year, the auction generated $21 million in sales, a remarkable total for what might seem a “small market” location. However, Harrisburg isn’t far from such major metro areas as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City.
So far this year, the theme for Mecum auctions has been a large number of cars coming out of private collections, and that appears to continue at Harrisburg, where four collections will account for nearly 80 consignments. They include:
• The Special Early Bird Offering collection of more than 30 vehicles — ranging from a 1935 Plymouth to a 2014 Maserati Ghibli — to cross the block at no reserve at the start of sales on Friday, August 3.
• The Peery Family collection of 11 vehicles, including a 1963 split-window Chevrolet Corvette coupe, a 1959 Cadillac Series 62 convertible, a 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T, a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville and others vehicles collected by the family that owns the 250 trucks strong Mountain Milk Hauling company in Virginia.
• The North East Collection of 18 vehicles, including several street rods.
• The Prior Barris East Coast Representative’s Collection of 23 vehicles including a 1966 Batmobile, one of five promotional cars by the Barris Group; a 1964 Drag-U-La built by Dick Dean for The Munsters TV show; a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 special-effects promotional vehicle; and a couple of very customized Chevrolet Corvettes.
Other featured consignments include a 2017 Dodge Viper ACR “Dealer Edition,” a pair of four-speed 1963 Ford Galaxie 500s, a 2006 Ford GT, a multi-award-winning 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 with a four-speed and bench seat, and a 1966 Ford Bronco that was among the finalists in the SEMA Battle of the Builders competition.
The auction docket is available at the Mecum website. The auctions will be live-streamed on that website and will be televised by the NBC Sports Network.
There was a 427, bench seat, 4 speed black Galaxie sedan in the Harrrisburg area in 1963. Wonder if one of these is it? We all thought it was some Mennonite car at the time.