Bruce Weiner Micro Car auction: Day 1 wrap

Yesterday's strong bidding left many attendees in disbelief. As the gavel fell on a 1959 Goggomobil TL-400 Transporter Pickup for the top pre-auction estimate of $125,000, anyone who had dismissed RM's estimates as optimistic was reappraising the situation.

Several people have brought up the legendary $112,000 sale of an Amphicar at Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale sale in 2006. Where the “bad as a car, terrible as a boat” Amphicar had occupied the sub-$15,000 end of the collector car scene prior to the sale, owners were suddenly given a reason to believe that their cars were six-figure investments. It didn't exactly pan out that way, but Amphicars never went back to the bargain basement. Today, they regularly trade hands for just south of $40,000.

Some of the cars that have sold could have been considered well-bought, but it's fair to guess that micro car values in general will see a bump after this sale. As if to drive that point home, a Peel P50 sold for $105,000.

Close observers of the crowd have been able to spot grey-haired eccentrics sneering and prodding their wives during especially frenzied bidding as if to say to their long-suffering companions, “See honey, I told you I wasn't crazy when I bought those old Kabinenrollers.”

RM has been having considerable success in selling these “single-interest” collections lately and this sale is a perfect illustration of why the concept works. While the odd micro car may do very well at a sale like those that take place in Scottsdale or Monterey, the seller is betting that the person or people who are interested in such niche a car will have found there way into the room. With an event like the Bruce Weiner museum sale, the auction house has drawn hundreds of micro car devotees from all over the world. Internet and phone bids are far from rare, but an informal survey gives the impression that most of the lots are finding new homes with attendees. Relentless promotion of the sale on the part of RM has ensured that the right people will be in the room.

According to another journalist, one of the attendees purchased 20 cars in the first day of bidding. According to our source, the bidder said that he recently sold his business for just under $1 billion and decided to get into the micro-car hobby after reading Dan Neil's piece on the auction in the Wall Street Journal. Another rumor suggests that the mysterious bidder plans to display the cars in his chain of retail clothing stores. We'll be digging a little deeper on that guy.

By Rory Carroll