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Mitchell Car Museum closing, auctioning off cars


mrpushbutton

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Then ask for the $100 and give it back when the person leaves. How many "tire kickers" are going to come prepared for that. Or... move the cars to a bigger venue. I can't help but think its idiotic to risk offending even one potential customer. It sounds to me as if the owners are laboring under the erroneous illusion that all old car collectors are rolling in money and that they have some sort of earth shaking collection on offer.

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If you buy any item, you get your $100 back, so buying that $5 item would be the thing to do! It says so in the fine print.......

Back to the cars, Mitchell cars were of good quality, and early ones are few and far between, so I'll bet they fetch some good prices.

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In this sale, I personally like Don R. Mitchell's custom-trimmed '63 Buick Invicta Wagon, with its plush carpeting, unique leather seats and door panels...

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I wouldn't kick any of the cars or wagons out of my dream garage either, but that '63 Invicta would be a really fun one to have.

TG

Exactly what I'm thinking, but I might need to lengthen my garage! Anyone want to guess what it will go for?

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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm very surprised at the price of the 1911 car, partly because I have one although mine is a pile of parts in my shop. I think they are a very ordinary (I might say pedestrian) car. Mitchell only made that model for two years, 10 and 11, and I suspect there were a lot of problems with it. So many changes were made in manufacturing that the original literature often does not match the product. The 10 and 11 cars are quite different from each other and this is reflected in their 1915 spare parts list. Likely the literature was printed before the cars were built and they discovered that some of their ideas weren't going to work. 1910 was a watershed year for the auto business in that the unceasing demand for cars that had prevailed until then was tapering off because the luxury market was, temporarily at least, saturated. In order to sell cars to the middle class, it was necessary to work to a price and their Model T was priced significantly less than their products had been in the past. It cost $1350 but that price did not include anything extra, like headlights! I like mine well enough but I'm committed to rebuilding all the mechanical components to a much higher standard than was originally applied.

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As a few of us mentioned in previous posts, the 100.00 viewing fee obviously did not affect the bidding. It also goes to prove that not all great auction results come from the big auction companies. Considering the condition of the cars, I think the owner(s) did extremely well.

Edited by motoringicons (see edit history)
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One thing I've learned is that you can rarely trust TV news and print reporters to get the story right.

From Coachbuilt.com, Mitchell-Bentley Corp...."In 1953, Ionia Mfg Co. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of a new firm, the Mitchell-Bentley Corp. The Mitchell in Mitchell-Bentley was Ionia’s founder Don R. Mitchell, the Bentley was Calvin P. Bentley, the owner of the Owosso Mfg Co".

From Coachbuilt.com, Ionia Mfg. Co....."1954’s most important contract was the construction of bodies for Buick’s new all-steel Estate Wagon. Ionia had been building Buick’s wagons since 1949 and were rewarded for their hard work when the Buick contract was renewed. From 1954 through 1964, Ionia manufactured all 139,344 station wagon bodies sold by GM’s Buick division. Ionia supplied Oldsmobile with station wagon bodies beginning in 1957, producing 143,696 station wagon bodies through 1964".

Mitchell-Bentley and Ionia made many things through their various corporate iterations, but are perhaps best known for their wagon bodies. They also built the '46-'48 Nash Surburban bodies, Continental Mark II, the Dodge Granada, some Ford & Mercury wagon bodies, trimmed the Packard Panther, Balboa-X, etc.

In this sale, I personally like Don R. Mitchell's custom-trimmed '63 Buick Invicta Wagon, with its plush carpeting, unique leather seats and door panels...

1783802_0.jpg

1766540_0.jpg

I wouldn't kick any of the cars or wagons out of my dream garage either, but that '63 Invicta would be a really fun one to have.

TG

I actually just saw this car in person today as it came off the transporter at a friend's shop (he's the hauler, not the owner). While it's a really cool car, I was disappointed in its condition. Apparently almost all the cars in the collection at the museum were driven into position in the late '80s or early '90s and just parked with gas, coolant, and batteries in them. This particular wagon had a very long list of needs that would probably add up to a complete restoration--it didn't even roll because the brakes were frozen, there's a lot of filler in the quarters, and the interior is pretty brittle. You could probably get it running and enjoy it as-is, but I don't think it'll ever be worth more than what was paid at the auction.

There were three other cars at this same shop that came from the auction and each of them is going to need brakes, fuel system, and cooling system service. They were all decent cosmetically, but badly neglected mechanically, and there's lots of evidence on multiple cars that they'd had quick "fluff-and-buff" paint jobs at some point.

Given the prices paid, I'm not seeing much upside to any of the cars that were there if they were all in comparable condition. I'm sure some were better than others, but they've all been sitting for 25 years without being drained, prepped, or started during that time. I put in a phone bid on one particular car, but I'm now really glad I didn't win...

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Posts 16 and 17 predicted these kind of issues. I still think the $100 viewing fee was a scam. Imagine the disappointments discovering these issues after paying the fee and decide the cars you were interested in are not worth bidding on.

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