MICROCAR NEWS Online

against the high winds and damage caused by collapsed tents and poles falling at the 2010 Russo & Steele Auction in Scottsdale AZ.  I was wondering why this car had not crossed the block.
The original listing for this car is HERE -  More photos of damaged cars here
(not for the faint of heart, but no other microcars…)

Auction results:
This 1961 Autobianchi Bianchina apparently sold at RM Auctions in Scottsdale AZ on Friday Jan 22 for $60,500
(don’t know if that is hammer price or if it include’s Buyer’s premium)

Link to RM Auctions listing for more info and pics

This 1957 Bubble Window Isetta sold Friday Jan 22 at RM Auctions in AZ for $33,000 (don’t know if that is hammer price or price with buyer’s commission yet…)

Note this is NOT a cabrio like the one at Russo & Steele

Link to the listing for the car.

This 1956 BMW Isetta Bubble Window cabrio just sold in Scottsdale AZ at the Russo & Steele auction for $42,000.

This was an ALL RESERVE auction (as opposed to Barrett-Jackson which is all NO Reserve) and the reserve was off at $39,500.  Bidding was at $39,500 and the reserve was not met and they rolled the car away and were on to the next car when the seller apparently changed his mind and they went back to it for another $2500.

This was restored by Greg Hahs and I think I know who the guy in the hat was that bought it. We will see if it shows up in his collection, I don’t think he had a Bubble Window cabrio.

The results from this auction were from watching the Live Feed, the official Russo & Steele Auction site does not yet have result from this auction.   This car was not touched by the damages caused by high winds that caused some tents there to collapse.

This 1936 FIAT Topolino just sold at Russo & Steele Scottsdale AZ 2010 auction for $14,000 (hammer price)

This was an ALL RESERVE auction (as opposed to Barrett-Jackson which is all NO Reserve) and the reserve was off somewhere around $10,000.

Where it is from I don’t know, where it is going, I don’t know.

The results from this auction were from watching the Live Feed, the official Russo & Steele Auction site does not yet have result from this auction.

“Terminally Cute” is how the announcers describe it, but for awhile on Tuesday, this car had the top sales spot (along with a Messerschmitt KR175 at $40,000) and probably annoyed some sellers of cars selling in the $20K range.
Expect a Behind the Scenes story of what it is like to sell a car at Barrett-Jackson from Richard Lewis (the restorer and seller) in a future issue of MICROCAR NEWS magazine.  If you look *really hard* you can see Richard standing on the left side (our left) of the Auctioneer podium.  He is wearing a dark jacket and baseball cap.  He says that as soon as the car was brought out someone dragged him away from the car and plopped him there.  Apparently standard procedure so everyone knows who the seller is and it prevents you from bidding on your own car.

This car had a “hammer price” of $43,000
SpeedTV’s own online “magazine” referred to the sale price as $47,300
but they also showed a photo of a different car when mentioning it.
and the NY Times said it sold for “nearly $50,000”

Wow, the price just keeps going up even though the auction has ended.

Here is a list of Microcars offered at this year’s Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction.

Check if you get Speed Channel or SpeedTV and you can watch these cross the line on the days they are listed:

Tuesday January 19 2010:
(click pics to go to detailed listings for cars)

1972 HONDA Z600 $25,000

Lot# 52 1956 MESSERSCHMITT KR175 $40,000

Lot# 74 1956 BMW ISETTA $43,000

Wednesday January 20 2010:

Lot# 420.1 1957 HEINKEL 200 $25,000

Thursday January 21 2010:

Lot# 630 1962 KING MIDGET III $14,500 for the pair	Lot# 630.1 1958 KING MIDGET MODEL III sold with Lot 630	Lot# 711 1951 CROSLEY HOOK AND LADDER FIRETRUCK $100,000
Lot# 737 1957 BMW ISETTA 300 CONVERTIBLE $29,000	Lot# 741 1962 TROJAN 200 $40,000	Lot# 741.1 1957 BMW ISETTA 300 $22,000

Friday January 22 2010:

Lot# 919 1958 BMW 600 $30,000

One of the more desireable and elusive Microcars is the Goggomobil Transporter.
Built from 1955 to 1964 by GLAS in Germany, the Transporter was apparently built off the Goggomobil Coupe chassis but reinforced with stronger coil-over shock suspension to accomodate a greater load. It had an option of 250 or 300 cc engines in Germany and 400cc engines for export models. It is a Uni-body construction (like the Goggomobil Coupe and Limo/sedan), the body is basically bolted onto a lower pan that consists mostly of 4 wheel wells connected by a stiff center tube that runs from back to front.
3-4000 were built with at least 2000 of those going to Deutschepost (German Post Office). The rest were work trucks and most all of them got “used up” and then discarded. Less than 100 remain worldwide. This is a condition affecting all Microcar-based trucks so any that remain become that much more desireable.

They do not change hands often and most owners do not want to part with them for any price.
So imagine the buzz when one appears on German eBay.
An un-restored example that is on the Goggo Transporter Register.
The German Goggomobil Forum lit up when this showed up, but after a few days the seller apparently cancelled the eBay listing when bidding reached 10,500 Euros. This left some people thinking it SOLD for that price especially when someone came onto the forum announcing that it did sell for 10,500 €. (I can’t remember if it was someone claiming to be either the buyer or the seller). Whether the thing sold at all is still unclear, sometimes people like to put stuff on eBay just to see what kind of reaction they can get and then yank the listing.

Update: Now someone else has come onto the Goggomobil Forum claiming the vehicle was sold privately for more than 50,000 €

Update 2: It did not sell for 50,000 €, but it did sell privately for a good chunk of change according to the Buyer who provided the details.  The vehicle will stay in Europe but NOT Germany!
(note: Buyer is a member of The Vintage Microcar Club who has been looking for one of these for a long long time…)

Bunch of Microcars up for auction over Labor Day Weekend in Auburn IN at
KRUSE AUBURN 2009

The online catalog is not particularly easy to navigate through, but you can get an idea of at least which DAY each car will be auctioned. Plus there the official “catalogue” shows a few more cars than appear on the website, (more…)

We last wrote about Spare Parts Collections in the letters section of Microcar News Issue #3 2008

Since then we have heard a smattering of other stories from people about their experiences with this “company” in Uruguay.
They have a nice website and a nice eBay page as seller : SPAREPARTSCOLLECTIONS
Attempts to get any comments from Martin Corbo or anyone else regarding the complaints we had been receiving were met with very defensive and hostile email responses that among other things claimed

“in every case we have resolved the issue even if it would involve compensation to the client for the inconveniences (that is another of our policies, for your record).”

At the time, this was counter to what I was hearing from The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum which has apparently now filed a lawsuit against Martin Corbo, Fabian Scavone and Plinio Gani, who all represent SPARE PARTS COLLECTIONS.
I guess they have some “unresolved” issues….

The lawsuit was filed on July 13 2009 and other than being about Breach of Contract, details will probably have to remain under wraps until a judgement is rendered.

We do have a bit more background on Spare Parts Collections and eBay (more…)

$41,000 “hammer Price” plus Buyer’s premium = $45,100

But which Isetta was sold?

This is the car that was submitted by the seller : David A. Goldenberg Enterprises:

This is the car that was actually SOLD:

thanks to Burt Richmond for the pic

Notice anything different? Is this the same car?

(more…)

After squashing a previous rumor that they were closing, the UK-based Bubblecar Museum sent out announcements that there was to be a large Auction of Bubblecars and related parts at the Bubblecar Museum and yes a number of the microcars in the Museum would be sold.

??? So what is it?  They are closing?  They are not closing?

They are selling all the contents?  They are not?

Turns out they ARE CLOSING….but they close EVERY YEAR at this time until the Spring…when they….RE-OPEN.

This time is a little different since they are moving and are “downsizing” the Museum collection and focusing more on British Cars.  While a number of the cars in the recent Auction were from the Museum Collection, the Auction also had Microcars and spares from other people as well mixed in.
There were 186 “Lots”.  About 86 were Microcars.
You can find a list of Auction Results HERE.  

 In another world; Microcar Collectors and Enthusiasts have their own community.

Like Airplane Enthusiasts that can be part of a community that has a Runway as the main drag so you can park your Plane in the garage, taxi out and take off, the Microcar Community has homes with Garages as the centerpiece of the house and sleeping quarters upstairs or out back.

Vehicles that can exceed 55 mph are banned and tickets are regularly given out for vehicles that are not going slow enough or emitting enough blue smoke.

Every home has a microcar enthusiast in it.  They may own a microcar, they may own several or they may WANT to own one.  Many have tools to work on their cars, some have no tools or no mechanical expertise to do so.

But the neighborhood is friendly and what good is a friend if you cannot borrow their tools?

So a great swap goes on continuously, the same tools are loaned out to neighbors again and again, no one has to own every single special tool needed, they can just go next door or down the block and BORROW it.  As long as it is returned in a reasonable period of time, everything works out well. (more…)