Mecum’s short two day June auction in Seattle includes a lot of cars and trucks from the 1980s. As always, I’ll concentrate on the cars and trucks that actually sold (remember that this is not a no reserve auction) and add some of my opinions. Where I have covered the specific year and model of a car in this blog, I link to it.
Friday:
- 1989 red Cadillac Allanté convertible with 23,000 miles—$11,500 hammer price.
- 1981 gray/blue two-tone Chevrolet El Camino custom truck—$9,000
- 1982 black Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible—$7,500
- 1987 white Buick Regal Turbo-T coupe with 39,000 miles—at $20,000 the first vehicle in this auction to meet my criteria for serious 1980s collectability of original cars or trucks: selling for equal to or above its original base list price. I’ll mark these vehicles in bold green.
- 1986 copper GMC custom pickup truck—an ouch! at $5,750
- 1988 red Ferrari Testarossa coupe with 17,000 miles—$45,000
- 1984 white Cadillac Eldorado convertible with 40,000 miles—$16,000
- 1987 Bright Red Chevrolet Corvette convertible—$6,500
- 1985 white Ferrari Testarossa coupe with 13,000 miles—$57,500 buys you the Miami Vice look, but is the dreaded major service just around the corner?
- 1985 burgundy Cadillac Eldorado convertible—$7,500. What, other than indeterminate miles, made this go for less than half what the white 1984 did on the same day? And, by the way, why are eighties Eldorado convertibles suddenly showing up at auction?
- 1984 silver Mercedes-Benz 300D limousine—$11,500. Who buys this car and what would their intentions be for it?
- 1988 Gray Pearl Mercedes-Benz 560SL convertible with 36,000 miles—$25,000. Not nearly what they cost new, but holding at least some value.
- 1987 orange Land Rover Defender 90 SUV—$43,000
- 1989 orange Porsche 944 Turbo coupe modified for racing—$11,000
- 1986 Iris Blue Porsche 911 Carrera coupe—$23,000. Perhaps the declared 148,000 miles drove the price down …
- 1982 white Toyota SR5 pickup truck with 63,000 miles—$8,000
Saturday:
- 1981 yellow Chevrolet K10 custom pickup truck—$18,000
- 1988 red Porsche 911 Targa coupe with 57,000 miles—$30,000
- 1987 white Avanti II convertible—$18,000. Mecum listed this as a Studebaker Avanti convertible, but of course this is not correct. This is one of the “continuation” square headlight Avantis built by a series of relatively unsuccessful entrepreneurs in the 1980s. This one has a 305 cubic inch Chevrolet V8 engine under the hood.
- 1984 “Blurple” Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet very custom convertible built for Sir Mix-A Lot and featured on the back cover of his Mack Daddy album—at $30,000, can you get more eighties than this?
What do you think of this auction’s results?
Eighties Cars 