Hello everyone,
I managed to escape the CT winter and met up with Ross and Greg Giacchi in Kissimmee, Fl for the auction of the St Ives Z car Collection. This collection was begun and kept by a Datsun dealer in Berkley, Mass that accumulated a number of interesting Z cars. The story can be seen at:

https://www.mecum.com/articles/st-yves- ... ollection/

I got there in time for the cars to be in the staging area about 3 hours before they went on the auction block, and got to see them up close. The cars in general were very nice but not particularly cleaned or detailed for the auction which was surprising. They actually did quite well anyway, here are my notes:
Lot 141 81 280ZX Turbo sold for 150K
Lot 142 78 280Z Black Pearl sold for 110K
Lot 142.1 80 280ZX 10th anniversary sold for 95K
Lot 143 79 280ZXR sold for 110K
Lot 143.1 84 300ZX 50th Anniversary sold for 80K
Lot 144 77 280Z ZZZAP sold for 38K
Lot 144.1 73 240Z sold for 46K
Lot 145 70 240Z sold for 42K
Lot 145.1 70 510 sold for 27K

It was great to see Ross again walking around as if nothing happened but really still recovering. After the auction of the Z cars I walked around and ran into our friend Wayne Carini, who had 3 cars to sell at the auction. Very nice day here today in the relative warmth of central Florida!

I have a lot more pictures, let me know if you want me to post more.

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Wow! I forgot about this event. Glad you could check it out and meet up with Ross and friends. Surprised the early Z's went so cheap.

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner

Good reporting, PreZ; thanks for flying our colors at that international event.
Good to zee Wayne and Ross, too. Did Scotty Cole, Jimbo Fredrick, or Carl Beck show up?

Disappointing numbers for the early S30s. Perhaps the current administration has effected everything people need or want to do, right down to the classic car hobby.

Price for my modified 1970 240Z remains at $1,000,050.
Frank

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1970 240Z

Thanks Juan for posting this. Retirement has allowed me to cross some items off my "bucket list". Attending a Barrett Jackson or Mecum auction has always been on that list. The recent Mecum event was beyond belief for me and my son. More than 4,000 cars being auctioned over ten days or so. The massive tents of vehicles were literally an eighth of a mile long each and there were likely ten or so of them. I splurged and bought the "Gold" package, which allowed my son and I to be on the bidding floor and go just about everywhere else.

The auction brought in $275 million in sales! Mecum's take on that is 20% (10% from the buyer and 10% from the seller). Plus they get admission income from all the attendees.

Frank - to answer your question I do not believe Jim Frederick, Carl Beck or Scotty Cole attended. They might have but I didn't see them during my week there.

Overall it was an awesome experience and I would encourage any of you that have never attended to do so someday.

Sincerely,

Ross

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Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles