Already in 2021, despite any potential coronavirus-related hesitancy, Mecum Auctions can proudly proclaim that two separate live auction events cracked the $100 million mark—a record for the collector car industry. For anyone keeping an eye on the collectible market, Mecum's success further suggests just how much Covid-19's unlikely contribution to boom times in the enthusiast community may continue surging post-pandemic.

The uptick in demand, values, and sales throughout the past year-plus became so noticeable that even the New York Times felt obliged to cover the trend, while insurance provider-turned-lifestyle brand Hagerty released an official "Hottest Cars of the Pandemic" list. But much of the coverage surrounding collector cars and enthusiast activities tends to focus on the rise of online auction sites, typically Bring a Trailer and the flood of imitators looking to cash in on similar fortunes.

Mecum's recent Indy 2020 event reached a startling total of $107.8 million in sales after January's Kissimmee 2021 sales figures notched an unbelievable $141.2 million. With thousands of cars at each event and bidding reaching new frenzied heights, I recently spoke to Mecum Auctions Chief Operating Officer Sam Murtaugh to ask how Mecum can keep the momentum rolling amid both a receding pandemic and the increasingly digital auto auction landscape.

Mecum Auctions Chief Operating Officer Sam Murtaugh

Sam Murtaugh Mecum Auctions
via Mecum Auctions Inc

Murtaugh joined Mecum almost 14 years ago and worked his way up through most aspects of the auction business until stepping up to the COO role about four months ago.

"I was appointed Chief Operating Officer by our CEO, Dave [Magers]," Murtaugh told me, "Just to dive into all that spectrum of the business, not just focused on marketing but focused on all the different aspects of the business. Taking my experience working with everyone here and being part of the major growth we’ve had for the past decade and just keep the company growing. I’ve spent the majority of my time building and running the marketing team here. Going back probably to 2008 or 2009, we brought all of our marketing efforts in house. We had been outsourcing things, media and various marketing initiatives we had outsourced—I was tasked with bringing that in-house and building our own team."

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Mecum's Pandemic Response

Mecum Auctions Indy Record
via Mecum Auctions Inc

Murtaugh may have taken over as COO just as the collector car industry—and the nation as a whole—began to emerge from lockdowns and restrictions, but I had to ask how the entire Mecum team took on the unprecendented challenges that a massive event company faces when, all of a sudden, most large gatherings become forbidden nationwide.

"When everything started shutting down in March of 2020, we had an auction going on in Glendale, Arizona," Murtaugh recalled. "We were right in the middle of it when everything started closing up fast, when the NBA announced their shutdown... Spring training started shutting down all around us. At that point, nobody really knew what was happening, we were just wanting to get that auction finished and get home."

"It was a challenging time to try and strategize what we were going to do when nobody knew what was going to happen. Our management team here consists of about eight to ten people, so we met daily, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for four or five hours, just continually talking strategy every day."

Throughout the nationwide lockdown, which lasted from the end of March through June, Murtaugh and Mecum rescheduled events, keeping an eye on local regulations while working with venues and partners to stay as far ahead of the curve as possible. As the hits kept coming, Mecum's leadership role within a massive industry that goes well beyond simply the automotive transactions provided extra motivation.

"We’re in the business to have our customers buy and sell cars," Murtaugh said. "It’s a hobby for a lot of people but it’s not a hobby for everyone—people do this for a living. And we were committed to making sure we did everything in our power to be able to provide that platform for people to continue to do business and maintain their livelihoods. That was really a driving factor for us."

"We did a few online-only timed auctions for memorabilia and road art, things like that, during the two months we were not having any live events, just to keep active and keep people engaged with our brand. But as far as car auctions itself, we were able to get back into the swing of things at the end of June with a private collection out of North Carolina."

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An Eye On The Rise Of Online Auctions

Mecum Auctions Indy Record 4
via Mecum Auctions Inc

Of course, the collector and enthusiast industries were already on the up and up when the pandemic ground the world to a halt—but whether attributable to boredom, government stimulus spending, or social media, the boom began to seem almost unbelievable. There's no doubt in anybody's mind that the internet, including social media and online auction sites, contributed mightily to that rising tide, so from Murtaugh's perspective, the pandemic represented a renewed reminder for Mecum to focus on the company's online presence.

"We were already in the process, pre-pandemic, of overhauling or retooling our online bidding system," he revealed. "We’d already started that and then after March, we put that at the top of the priority list to focus on that solely, holistically, to make sure that it was robust and as good as it can be to withstand an uptick in usage."

"We’ve always had an online platform, for the last ten years or so. But it’s never been a focus, we’ve never really encouraged folks to bid that way—we’ve always wanted people to come in person. We had it there for necessity, for some folks out there we have that as an option out there if they wanted it. When the pandemic hit, we brought that option to the forefront almost as equal as coming to the live events in person and started to promote that option as a viable option to participate."

I asked Murtaugh if he could reveal just how much online bidding contributed to the recent record-setting events here in 2021.

"We’ve seen tremendous growth in that piece of the business," he replied. "We might have had 100 people bid online pre-pandemic and during the pandemic and now, coming out of it, at Indy for example, we had close to 1,500 people bidding online. So huge growth in that."

And deeper in the numbers, Murtaugh discovered a surprising little detail that perhaps should provide guidance for the entire auction industry moving forward:

"What we found was the majority of the existing customers that participated live still did," he said. "And the majority that participated with us online were new. So we added and we grew and subsequently, our sales percentages have increased. Obviously the bidding activity on each vehicle has increased, which just moves the needle across the board."

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Impressive Results At Indy 2021

Mecum Auctions Indy Record 5
via Mecum Auctions Inc

At Kissimmee 2021 in January, seven cars hammered for over $1 million, led by Carroll Shelby's personal 1965 Shelby 427 Cobra, which reached $5.94 million. At Indy, six cars cracked the seven-figure mark, with a 1930 Duesenberg Model SJ Rollston Convertible Victoria leading the charge at a final gavel of $2.97 million. Meanwhile, 1,715 cars sold out of 2,057 offered, for an impressive sell-through rate of 83%. I wondered aloud to Murtaugh if he had a personal theory on why the market reached this heat level despite the pandemic.

"There’s a number of factors at play," he speculated. "It’s really hard to pinpoint one specific thing. I think collectibles in general are a hot ticket right now, whether it be collector cars or trading cards or cryptocurrency or the stock market or you know, anything collectible from an investment perspective, anywhere people can put money. The housing market is crazy right now."

"It’s not just the cars—but the cars are no exception. I think the pandemic created a lot of reflection for society in general, that life’s short and the 'You Only Live Once' attitude. I think you see a lot of that, people who have always wanted to get their hands on a specific car that they’ve been dreaming about owning, they say 'Let’s go get it, let’s do it.'"

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Four Ford GT Examples In The Top 10

Mecum Auctions Indy Record 2
via Mecum Auctions Inc

Out of the top 10 at Indy, five wore Ford's Blue Oval badge—the legendary Parnelli Jones "Big Oly" Bronco and four different examples of the Ford GT supercar. I presented my own theory, that perhaps the 2019 Matt Damon and Christian Bale biopic Ford v Ferrari could have contributed to the recent rash of hugely successful sales across the brand's long and storied history.

"I think the Ford v Ferrari movie brought to life Carroll’s story and the story of Le Mans," Murtaugh responded, "And brought that to the mainstream... Because it is a good story, his life is great and his history and legacy is great. Anyone who was a car person may have understood that story to a certain extent but even some that weren’t necessarily Ford people or Shelby folks became a fan of those brands because of that movie. I don’t think it was 100% the reason that the Flying Mustang or Carroll Shelby’s personal Cobra sold for the price that they did—those were highly significant cars in their own right regardless of the movie, but it definitely introduced those stories to the masses."

Of course, I know that a Hollywood production doesn't massively sway the needle but still, all the Cobras and Mustangs and GTs out there, to me, seem like a craze that goes beyond, for example, the limited number of modern-day GT supercars that have passed their two-year no-sales-clause timeframe.

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Big Oly And Off-Roading Enthusiasm

Mecum Auctions Indy Record 3
via Mecum Auctions Inc

Murtaugh himself sees the market from the big picture, which the story of Ford v Ferrari does fit into but still doesn't entirely define. And he knows just as much as any automotive enthusiast just how much our proclivities can change over time—as epitomized by the Big Oly auction.

"For a long time, I was into Shelby Mustangs," Murtaugh said. "And then after that, I fell in love with Porsche and what those are about. For me, coming up through the marketing of things here at Mecum, I enjoy a great story and history is intriguing to me, so when I learn something that I didn’t know before and I learn how deep the roots go, that’s what trips my trigger."

"Even Big Oly, for example, we sold that at Indy and the off-road community that’s connected to that truck and Parnelli Jones... I’m not an off-road racer by any means but learning about that truck and what it did and it’s importance and what it means to that community is intriguing to me. And I sort of went down that rabbit hole."

Of course, who could blame him? Throughout my own personal coverage of hardcore factory off-roaders like the revived Bronco, Ram TRX, Wrangler 392, all of a sudden I've got a Mitsubishi Montero and I'm heading out to hit trails on the regular. Coincidence?

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Keeping The Momentum Rolling With "Daisy"

Ford-Shelby-Cobra-Concept-Daisy-5
via Mecum Auctions

Selling thousands of cars at an auction requires massive logistical coordination, which Murtaugh now oversees, but plenty of his job includes making sure that Mecum helps to keep the industry's momentum rolling. And judging from the slate of cars set for auction at Mecum's coming events, like alongside Monterey Car Week in August, the heavy hitters clearly still believe the market will bear some higher values. Perhaps the biggest standout—for now—is a V10-powered Cobra concept car Ford (again, Ford) built in concert with Carroll Shelby himself and nicknamed "Daisy." As much as a car with such provenance can undoubtedly sell itself, Murtaugh and Mecum still have a job to do.

"In the case of that Cobra concept that’s going to Monterey, there’s a story to tell with that car," Murtaugh explained. "It’s not something that you’d just throw up at auction, that car has a story that needs to be told and you need to have enough time to tell that tale and let people understand the car for what it is and where it fits into the history and legacy of either Ford or Shelby, or both. It’s a car worthy of the international stage, which is what Monterey is. People come to Monterey for various events and various auctions, and to our event specifically, so that seemed like the best fit in particular."

The stories behind the car and how those stories latch onto our imaginations—that's what leads to the kinds of frothy market trends we're all seeing today. And even as people step back outside, away from their computers and smartphones, their minds will undoubtedly mull over the day-dreamy car content seeded in their minds throughout the past year. Yes, economical considerations come into play, as well, but the real question remains whether we'll prioritize our collective automotive stories to the same extent in the near future.

"That’s the intriguing part, once you dive into somewhere in this automotive world, there’s so many roots and so much legacy and history behind everything. I don’t really see it slowing down as the pandemic continues to recede."

Sources: mecum.com, imdb.com, bringatrailer.com, and montereycarweek.net.

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