Beautifully restored car collection and fabulous neon signs

[Guest Texas Old Car Guy]

If you appreciate great collections, beautifully restored cars and neon signs, you will enjoy watching this short video about the Dingman Collection which was auctioned off last year for $16.7 million. With buyers fees included, the 2012 auction totaled the following for signs and nostalgia $9,880,117 and vehicles $6,830,450. Total $16,710,567 (good weekend for RM Auctions too).

There will probably never be another collection like this one!

Watch and enjoy!

Fred

The Dingman Collection 2012 - YouTube

Edited February 22, 2013 by Texas Old Car Guy (see edit history)

[Guest Texas Old Car Guy]

After watching the video I'm sure you'll wonder how this man was able to afford all the wonderfully restored cars and the vast array of neon signs. Thanks to our friends at Google we did a little digging and were able to determine what his background is and how he was able to afford to amass such an exotic collection.

Dingman previously was chairman and chief executive officer or president of several major U.S.-based industrial corporations, including Wheelabrator-Frye Inc., Signal Companies Inc., AlliedSignal Inc. and its Henley Group Inc. spinoff. The $1.2 billion Henley public offering in 1986 was the largest in history at the time. He was a wildly successful businessman and investor. Dingman spent 21 years as a member of the board of directors of the Ford Motor Company, and 24 years at Time Inc., and then Time Warner Inc. He has served as a director of Mellon Bank Corp., Temple Industries Inc., Temple-Inland Inc., Continental Telephone Co. and Teekay Shipping Corp. Mr. Dingman is now president of Shipston Group Ltd., a diversified international holding company based in Nassau, Bahamas. Dingman first set his sights to offshore opportunities in the 1990s, first in Russia and other countries in the former Soviet Union. Shipston joined a consortium investing in OAO Sidanco, one of the country’s largest oil companies. Parlaying the experience that had earned him a reputation as a company turnaround expert in America, Dingman invested his own funds, skills and energy to renovate noncompetitive, outdated companies in the Czech Republic. Spurred by his son, Jamie, Dingman shifted Shipston’s focus to China. The company is now heavily invested in mainland China, focusing on its internal growth and consumption. Drawing on local partnerships formed in recent years, Shipston continues to invest in a range of industries. With offices in Nanjing and Beijing, the company has acquired a portfolio of businesses in education, medical technologies and heavy industry.

As you can see from his credentials above, he was able to afford the best of the best. Good for him! Meanwhile, the rest of us can just keep buying lottery tickets I guess.

Wikipedia quotes a New York Times article indicating that Mr. Dingman has renounced his U.S. citizenship so as a resident of the Bahamas he owes no U.S. federal income taxes on the proceeds from his $16.7 million auction.

Fred

Edited February 22, 2013 by Texas Old Car Guy (see edit history)