Team Redundancy Team

Le Mons New England 2009

Car Collector's Online Market Journal

Mopar Color Names

Auction Catalog Descriptions

Sebring 12-Hours Endurance Race

Hourly Standings and Time Sheets for Sebring 1964-1967

Rick Carey -- AxioMedia

Automotive History,

Personalities

and Passion

I write about the collector car market, and have been doing so since 1991, which sounds like -- and is -- a long time.

I've been keeping track of the cars I review and their transaction results, along with specifics of the auctions, exchange rates and locations, in a database since I began this process. When I have time I add old auctions to the database from various resources including a box full of Briggs Cunningham's old auction catalogs going back to the dawn of the collector car auction in the mid-1960's that I bought at Christie's Pebble Beach auction in 1992. I recently added one of the Harrah's auctions to the accumulated data, and will add the other two as time permits.

It is remarkable how what goes around, comes around.

These days I'm getting 10-20% repeats, that is cars crossing the block that are already in the database from prior auctions. There is absolutely nothing better than that for figuring out what has happened to the collector car market over time: the same car, in more or less the same condition, sold in two well-publicized public auctions a year or more apart is the gold standard for figuring out what has happened in the marketplace.

I will do custom searches of the database both for specific cars by VIN and for specific models. Price varies with the results and is never very expensive. E-mail me at "inquiry (at) rickcarey.com" and I'll respond as soon as possible. With 80+ thousand transactions the probability of a hit is pretty good.

This is a complex market, and every collector car, even ones as homogenous as VW Beetles, is by now an individual thing. I'll walk you through the process, parse seemingly similar cars and auctions into individual transactions and try to assist in creating an intelligent, balanced perspective of the marketplace. Call, e-mail or write.

Cataloging

In addition to tracking collector car auction transactions I contribute catalog descriptions to the major collector car auctions: RM Auctions, Bonhams, Gooding & Company, Worldwide, Branson and others. It is great work, particularly when it involves unusual, valuable or quirky cars, histories and stories. A bit of sleuthing is frequently involved, which makes it even more interesting, and I've had some significant breakthroughs in uncovering important bits and pieces of histories that have made cars more interesting, intriguing and -- in the end -- valuable.

That's what that "History, Personalities and Passion" is all about.

Other Weird Stuff

A few years ago I got the goofy idea that prompt, entertaining, thorough, timely reports of auction transactions would be valuable to collectors. Hah!

I published Car Collector's Online Market Journal from 2005 through 2007 and never made a nickel. I finally quit abusing myself, but some of the reports are still available here if anyone's interested.

I think they make good reading even if the layout isn't very artistic (I do words, not art direction.)

There's also a section devoted to reproduced timesheets from the 12 Hours of Sebring. That is a really strange subset of obsession, but I think that timesheets communicate the ebb and flow of historic races and suggest answers to many lingering questions about specific cars' and drivers' racing records. Making these publicly available is my small attempt to contribute to re-creating primary data sources. Like old auctions, I add to them as I have time.

Other strange things you can find here include a page of original color names for Plymouths and Dodges in 1970-71. Why? Because when writing my auction reports I could never remember if Plum Crazy was a Plymouth or Dodge color. It's Dodge (Challenger); purple Plymouth 'Cudas were In-Violet. Same color code, different name.

Le Mons

It was inevitable that I'd impinge upon J. Lamm's 24 Hours of Le Mons at some point. Le Mons is a claiming race for cars costing $500 or less [with, thankfully, safety improvements.] We're sacrificing my late mother's 1992 Pontiac Bonneville ("Moby Rick") at Le Mons New England July 11-12 at Stafford Springs, joined by my sons Allen and Michael, my brother-in-law Ray Shockey and his son Carey and Peter Newberry. Peter's a shrink and has his work cut out for him.

There's more Le Mons drivel in the link along the left side of the page. Approach carefully. It's infectious.

There is absolutely n-o-t-h-i-n-g serious about Le Mons.

To search the RickCarey.com site, including catalog descriptions and auction comments, enter your search criteria here:

To search only the auction transactions, enter your search criteria here: 

In both cases results will appear in a separate Google-hosted browser window which perforce includes Google ads. They are sometimes more amusing and intriguing than the information you want. Try "Kurtis". Car guys will recognize it as Frank Kurtis's Indy and sports cars but Google thinks it means Indian handwoven fabrics.

Oh Well, we learn something new every day.

I also write histories, descriptions, articles and stories about cars, collectors, restorers, racers and just about anyone else involved with automobiles. Call, write or e-mail.