TCG Stories

My E30 finally felt weak. After years of having it as turnkey, classic driver that could sit idle for months at a time and be pressed into duty at a moment's notice, I had to admit that compared to some of the other vehicles in my fleet, it felt a touch tired. 

The 325is has been with me longer than another car I've ever owned, going back to 2011 or so. I bought it at a time when I needed a distraction, and my brother was a huge influence in buying the car and subsequently bringing it back to life. Once it was a healthy running and driving car, it came back to Rhode Island and was the catalyst for a relationship with a local shop that has now seen many of my project cars pass through its doors.

In looking back at it, I realized I sank quite a bit into this E30 ten years ago now and haven't spent a whole lot on it ever since. It reminded me that I've abandoned the incremental approach to vintage car maintenance, choosing to go all in (or close to all in) early on - suffer that financial pain - and then get years of enjoyment out of it, hopefully not spending a whole lot in the years that follow. 

Check out my maintenance table here on The Common Gear, where you can digitally track your maintenance and build your car portfolio. It reveals exactly what I thought it would, that I went pretty deep into the car in 2013-2014 and have only made modest investments in it ever since. It seems perfectly fair that it may need another dose of servicing after not getting much beyond whatever needed fixing, or some unnecessary service to address a nice-to-have like air conditioning. 

So what do you think: is the big infusion of resources at one time worth the trade-off of several years' worth of enjoyment, or should we invest in vintage cars on a more staggered basis? I don't think there's a wrong answer but I do I like getting to a point of using a car regularly without concerns of an imminent major mechanical failure due to an area of neglect.

If you don't already know, The Common Gear is a passion project of mine to transform how enthusiasts track their maintenance and investments in a hobby or classic car. I've been fanatical about record-keeping with all of my cars, even the ones barely worth the cost of a tank of gas. I like knowing how the car has evolved in my care, and I really enjoy sharing that story with whoever decides to own it after me. 

Of course, as an entrepreneur, you're constantly wondering if you've made a bad bet or if someone else is going to eclipse you. I've seen this in my corporate work life where good ideas are quickly taken by your peers and passed off as their own. It doesn't typically worry me because my community - my local team - knows where those ideas bubbled up from. There are competitors in this space but I'm not terribly worried about them because flashy apps are often created with little thought given to whether there's a community out there that wants to use it. And as one digital auction site has proven, the community you keep matters more than almost anything else. 

Bring a Trailer often gets lauded with praise for being the ultimate auction site. But many of us remember that is not how the platform got started. BaT is a WordPress site that was basically a glorified craigslist blog. There is no app. Yet according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the digital auction house is now a billion-dollar marketplace. In that same article, one of the well-heeled regular bidders on the site and a current University of Chicago business school professor cites two key reasons for BaT's success: building a community of interest and upending the economics of the auction business. 

And there it is: community. The economics side of it is obvious but it's the social contract that's far harder to create. It's why in-person auctions have always been a thrill for attendees, who go as much to see the cars as to see old friends. Cars & Bids is approaching it from another angle, which is via the following Doug DeMuro has amassed thanks to his YouTube channel where regular "viewers" feel like they're watching a close friend build an auction business. If you didn't see the thousands of congratulatory comments he received when C&B received a sizable investment and he bought his dream car, a Carrera GT, you should. It's powerful stuff. 

For anyone of you reading who knows me personally (or at least feel like you do), I invite you to share your project updates and log your visual records with The Common Gear, or TCG as we call it. We'll keep your data safe and give you a place to go when it's time to sit back and take stock of your project car progress. And when it comes time to sell it, just take your custom URL and drop it into the craigslist ad or the auction listing comments where everyone out there can see first-hand the incredible work you've done. 

The shiny stuff matters, but so do the handshakes, fist bumps, and camaraderie that come standard with enthusiast car ownership. 

One claim we hear an awful lot about these days is the prospect of money laundering on Bring a Trailer, especially in the case of auctions wherein a car or truck sells for far more than expected. Like any entity that becomes the top dog in a given market, it's not long before the lines in the sand are drawn and the knives are sharpened. It's part of the human condition; we must go after the people or things sitting in the position we wish to occupy. 

I am not an expert on how the truly wealthy spend or hide their money. I am confident there's some aspect of money shuffling or money hiding that helps them escape some level of tax burdens the rest of us sack up and pay each year. But a commenter on a recent auction wherein a W124-chassis Mercedes-Benz E320 sold for an eye-watering amount (north of $150,000) made a prolific point I'll not soon forget:

"I’m happy for the result and for all parties involved and viewing. It helps to provide any casual observer that passion is not dead for these cars! Well done by all. A few points to consider… There are several banks paying 5% on CDs today. There are 3300+ billionaires in the world now. 10 times more than in the year 2000. $1,000,000,000 x 5% = $136,986 interest income for ONE DAY! Do you think none of these individuals have and drive cars? Everyone reading this post could have wood or linoleum countertops in their kitchens. But you don’t, do you? It’s all relative. Don’t be quick to judge others under your own circumstances."

I don't think I live under a rock but I'll be honest - I never considered just how much money a billionaire makes while their money sits in the bank. Collecting enough interest in one day that easily outpaces many annual salaries is a truly impressive spectacle, but it also happens far more than we think - and that says nothing about the "mere" millionaires who still clear a very respectable amount in interest, certainly enough to warrant more than the occasional fun money purchase on Bring a Trailer. 

For years, two things happened: we only saw car auctions through the lens of Mecum and Barrett-Jackson, and we never gave non-collector cars in outstanding condition an opportunity to shine in an auction-style format. Bring a Trailer made the large auction house result possible for non-collector cars and trucks and opened up the specialty vehicle marketplace to anyone, any time, anywhere. 

While it's tempting, and perhaps, comforting to think that these auction results are the stuff of financial hijinks, there's an equal possibility that we're simply peeking behind the curtain for the first time of how the world's elite spend their money. 

Tell us we're right without telling us we're right. The need for documentation, particularly among high-end collector vehicles, is more important than ever - especially as the premier vehicle auction services move to increasingly digital formats. You're buying a car that potentially costs north of six figures, so leaving any stone unturned is a major risk. 

Porsche recently announced the debut of its Porsche Vehicle Documentation service. This is a two-pronged offer, which focuses on the Porsche Product Specifications (PPS), which contains "....your vehicle's original production card specifications, including optional equipment, exterior and interior color, engine and transmission type, production completion date and manufacturer's suggested retail price when available."

The second tier of the service is Classic Technical Certificate (CTC). The CTC "....includes original vehicle data at the time it was delivered, such as date of production, exterior and interior color, interior material, and option equipment."

Porsche is addressing the fact that owners want to know more about their cars, and they want it in an electronic format. While the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) has been offered for years, it's a fairly manual process. By taking the simple step to move these services into an online, all-digital format, Porsche is signaling how critical digital documentation is to the future of collector and vintage vehicles. 

As a startup, we routinely have to come face-to-face with limitations: time, money, and energy, among other finite resources. There are only so many hours in the day; only so many ways to discuss the problem we are trying to solve. But one thing is clear: you're not going to simply "CarFax" the vintage car records problem. 

I spotted a sponsored post on Facebook from a company going by the name of "Bumper." The ad made it sound like you could simply punch in your VIN number (while also providing a credit card after your free trial runs out) and unlock years' of mystery surrounding your 1976 Chevy Nova. There's even an antique car from the 50s in the Facebook ad. 

Of course, you can imagine the firestorm in the comments. Everyone with a VIN number from a car older than 1981 finds out at the same time that no, a magical solution still doesn't exist for vintage vehicle histories. The simple fact is it takes a lot of work to build a digital history for a vehicle over a certain age. Or even for vehicles tracked by CarFax but serviced by a specialist shop that doesn't use CarFax, the same problem exists. 

We espouse an approach that is driven by the owner of the vehicle in question, or from The Common Gear itself, as we'll come out and document your entire collection. Once we have a significant number of end users, we'll begin to build a nationwide repository of significant, milestone events in the lives of vintage cars and trucks. 

It's hard work - and time intensive - but we'll all be glad it exists once the heavy lifting is done. 

When we talk about the importance of receipts and invoices in the world of collector and vintage cars, we often hit on the value these records provide when proving you've made a certain level of investment in a vehicle. However, there's also a side to this that provides some comfort your shop of choice is performing the work as promised, or as described. I have a tale of caution that comes from a shop relationship that went sour, and how the lack of invoices for work performed was a major red flag.

The vehicle in question was a 1986 Isuzu Trooper that, quite honestly, was a bit of a fright pig. It ran, drove, and stopped, but it needed plenty of fine-tuning. I had a shop in Jamestown, Rhode Island with a small vintage/hobby car operation lined up to install a lift kit and fine-tune the jetting on the carb. Your first red flag is how long it takes the shop to actually pull your rig into the garage; in my case, it was about six months after it arrived on their property. 

The first wave of work focused on the lift kit install, which was nothing ridiculous. Now, the truck did run decently, but it would occasionally cut out and stall. So, once the suspension was sorted out (and this occurred without issue), they turned to the carb issues. Supposedly, all was resolved and I paid my bill. However, I didn't receive an invoice of any kind; I was simply told that the carb needed some new O-rings or other miscellaneous hardware and the suspension install was clearly done based on visual inspection. 

Here's when things get screwy: when I went to pick up the truck, I was told the stalling issue had come back and I likely needed new valve seals. At the same time, it was suggested that they do some paintwork to preserve the unique patina on the roof (clear-coating it, essentially.) I didn't care about the paintwork but it seemed like a reasonable thing to do given the shop had an excellent reputation for bodywork. But I ended up paying another bill - with no invoice - and the truck supposedly still didn't run right. All told, for someone who prides himself on being astute in my record-keeping, I was blinded by the fact that no other shop wanted to work on this truck. I willingly gave the shop quite a bit of air cover and should have been demanding printed records if for no other reason than to have them stand behind the work they claimed they were doing. 

Invoices and shop receipts are not just a nice-to-have when it comes time to sell a car. They are also critical for having your shop in question put some skin in the game to confirm both parties agree with the quoted work being completed to a satisfactory level. 

For a short time, the impressive reach and results of Bring A Trailer auctions made some pundits question whether the large, booze-fueled in-person car auction was dead. Mecum, Barrett-Jackson, and all the rest were immediately seen as dinosaurs in a tech-laden age, no doubt helped by co-mingling restrictions ushered in by COVID-19.

That's all but done now, and as the upcoming Amelia Island exhibit shows us, those same pundits were a little too quick to begin pouring the dirt around the gravemarker they made for the showy auction circuit attended by well-heeled collectors, who show up in force both to buy cars and to rub elbows. In fact, it may be more of the latter that is meaningful for a larger portion of attendees who never actually come home with new garage art.

Amelia Island looks to return in force, and Hagerty Insurance once again appears to have threaded the needle perfectly, as their online auction platform known as Broad Arrow Group will have a sizeable, in-person presence at the event. That's a claim Bring A Trailer cannot make, and as such, many collectors don't see the digital upstart as a lifestyle brand as Hagerty is quickly becoming. 

Does it matter? It's hard to say, but I don't think it's possible for BaT to have the same sort of cache as a week-long event in a gorgeous setting like Amelia Island and surrounded by beautiful millionaires and billionaires. When Hagerty bought Broad Arrow and launched its auction business, I didn't necessarily see the point given they were entering into a now-crowded space. A year later and with a significant presence in an arena BaT cannot play, I feel differently. 

While the auction landscape has certainly changed, the number of colleagues that are attending Amelia tells me that the in-person auction is far from dead, and in fact has plenty of room to mature into a week-long escape that rivals the likes of the parties depicted in The Great Gatsby. And if your auction platform only exists in the digital world as opposed to the real one, the playing field may be more level than we thought. 

Adam Levine, frontman for the pop-rock band Maroon 5, is learning the hard way how a classic car can be misrepresented at even the highest levels of the hobby. Various outlets reported this week how Levine is suing a renowned collector dealer for selling him a Maserati Ghibli drop-top with fudged ID numbers in exchange for two very-real Ferraris, a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 and a 1968 Ferrari 365 GTC.

Of course, the internet sneered at Levine, seemingly basking in the afterglow of a rich guy getting screwed (guess what - he has more than enough money to weather the indignity of driving a doctored Maserati.) The bigger issue is that the selling dealer provided authentic documentation that matched a real-deal factory convertible living overseas; the obvious fly in the ointment was that Levine noticed after the purchase transpired that the VIN, build plate, and various stampings on the car had been altered after the fact to match the documentation. The devil was in the details as the font style on the stampings and plates didn't match what Maserati used in 1971, but Levine took the seller's word that the car was a genuine, factory-built convertible without checking those details against what the factory was using. 

The real oversight here was that the Maserati was apparently pulled from an auction in 2015 over concerns that it was misrepresented. This, to me, is where Levine and his people should have aborted the transaction, or at least greater due diligence when a high-profile car like this which would undoubtedly have many suitors leaves a major auction circuit under a cloud of suspicion. 

We see time and again how a lack of digitization and deep paper trails of high-dollar cars can lead to unfortunate situations like these. As collectors and enthusiasts, we should all have higher standards, especially of dealers that make a good living selling cars like the one in question. 

As you likely have figured out, we love documentation here at The Common Gear. The idea of documentation, of course, goes well beyond just maintenance records; documentation also includes details like build sheets, competition history, and of course, the official invoice from AMG when you fork over the cash to turn your sedate W124 sedan into a real-deal Hammer. 

The upcoming Amelia Island auction will feature one of the elusive AMG "Hammer" sedans based off of a standard Mercedes-Benz 300E. In addition to plenty of cosmetic tweaking to make the car look quite a bit more aggressive than the standard production model, the biggest transformation came under the hood. The silky inline-six was removed and a 5.5L V8 from the S-Class was dropped in, albeit with a twin cam, four-valve setup good for 355 horsepower, and just under 400 lb-ft of torque. 

In addition to being completely restored by renowned Mercedes tuner Renntech, the one-of-30-made 300E "Hammer" also comes with supporting documentation that shows how these special cars are ordered by high net-worth customers with the means to have the likes of AMG build the exact car of their dreams. The original owner of this Hammer was Don Byerly, who owned a food manufacturing and distribution operation in Minnesota. The invoices from AMG reveal that after spending roughly $40,000 in 1987 money for the standard 300E, Byerly coughed up an additional $98,000 for his car to receive the high-performance treatment. With a tick over 32,000 miles on the clock, the car is fresh out of reconditioning by RENNTech, the North American service facility for AMG cars, to the tune of $79,000. 

The best part about the history file of this special German performance sedan is four simple words on the sales invoice: Build into a Hammer. The 1980s were special times, indeed. 

In 2022, Barrett-Jackson organizers heralded a return to normalcy as one of the highlights of the first major in-person event held by the famed auction house. The numbers suggested attendees were riding high as well, as Barrett-Jackson notched record total sales to the tune of over $203 million in automobile and automobilia sales. 

Early reports seem to indicate 2023 was a year for cooling, as total sales rang in at just over $184 million. You can always tell when the results aren't what was expected, as there's next to no news coverage about the total sales. Just three cars eclipsed the million-dollar mark, with those honors going to a modified Ferrari F40, a Porsche Carrera GT, and a Ford GT, the latter two cars being among the soundest investments you can make on four wheels these days.

Now, I don't know if this was a big year for automobilia - metal signs and such - but generally speaking, if the results for automobiles are off, people buying garage art are likely to run cooler as well. 

Like Bring A Trailer, the big auction houses will continue to see strong money among the most well-heeled of collectors, so I don't expect to see much of a drop among buyers who can swing a seven-figure purchase. The concern is the middle of the market and "upper middle" where you suddenly see folks pulling back. Low six-figure cars and upper fives were a very meaty part of the pack over the last two years, and I suspect those buyers are going to keep the brakes on until some level of confidence returns across the overall economy. 

For the top-tier earners, however, there's likely to be some big-ticket bargains coming as the buying power shifts in their favor.