If I had to use one word to describe the Ford Brewington auction it would have to be "memorable". Others might describe the entire event as intense. Still others might wish they hadn't come. This auction began as a one page advertisement in the February ALPCA newsletter suggesting this was going to be an exciting one. The sale of the decade. But, after talking to a few top name collectors in the area, those hopes quickly faded - apparently Brewington was an accumulator than an organized collector. In other words he more of a pile of junk than a stunning collection. Moreover, the only good news I was hearing was coming from the auctioneers themselves - that alone should tell you something.
Still, I decided to make the 300 mile trip (each way) to watch it unforld and see what the big fuss was all about. At least now I was not going in with high expectations, and could write it off as an interesting adventure and an excuse to get away for the weekend. Dick Yourga told me "go there for the entertainment".
I needed
to take the Friday off work in order to get down in time for the preview.
25,000 is a lot of plates to go through, and I wanted to get a good idea
what was in the boxes, figuring that was how they would auction off a lot
of it - by the box! When I finally got to the convention hall, it
was quickly apparent the veteran collectors were right - there wasn't
anything spectacular at all in this accumulation, er I mean collection.
When I saw what was on the tables, I almost wish I stayed home. Wayne
Tyler, a serious dealer of plates for YOM use at car shows, and I had a
good chuckle at the basic lack of quality plate here. Who needs hundreds
of what basically is the same plate in some cases, or common plates by
the box in rusty condition? No one. I met other familiar faces,
but most had not travelled that far - New York City being about the farthest.
300 miles is a long ways to come - but I had not come the furthest, supringsly
enough. A couple from the Detroit area had travelled 10 hours to
attend this - Dan and Judy Landino who themselves are auctioneers.
And a bulk dealer from Ohio. No doubt the social aspect was going
to be the best reason for coming.
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| How many white/blue ('71 base) and red/white ('76
base) Maryland plates do you need?
It wouldn't be so bad if there were many nice natural pairs - but that was far from the case. Most of this was obviously gathered when the base-plates came off the cars, so most of the blues were dated '75 and the reds dated '80. I planned to be elsewhere when these would be auctioned off. Does it really pay to go around to everybody's garbage digging out expired plates when in the end, collectors will hardly want the stuff? We'll see tomorrow! |
Any collector who has been around for even a short
period knows that annual Ohio plates in the post-war years are hardly collectible.
Do you realize how many cars were registered in that heavy industrial state? That's right, several million. |
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Even the porcelains were a disappointment. While these Delaware porcelains are valuable plates in half-way decent condition, you can barely recognize these. |
| Florida and Pennsylvania plates. Again, how many do you need? There were just too many of the same date/base. And as usual, the old stuff was usually a pile of rusty beat-up junk. |
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It
was obvious during the preview that this collection was heavily cherry
picked. I could not find the 3-digit Delaware plates that Steve Raiche
mentioned. In fact there appeared to be very few plates that would sell
individually for over $100 on eBay. I quickly learned that Ford had
been selling off his collection during his years of declining health and
that the best items were quickly sold off to the established collectors.
No wonder there was nothing stellar here. Perhaps the best plates
around were the early Delaware stuff. I met, for the first
time in person, Ron Allen, veteran collector from Delaware whom I've known
on the Internet. He assured me that the better Delaware plates would
not go cheap. He would be proven right the next day alright.
But that was the best part - certainly a lot of the other parts of this
collection were going to go cheap!
Rusty New York plates by the pile. (The stuff platesusa.com is trying to sell as bar decor)
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Ross Day and Mike McEnaney of NYC peruse through a box. |
I'll
drink to that. Here
is the man who will hopefully take care of much of the problem - selling
the 25,000 plates to willing buyers! He's Larry Summers of Ohio -
famous for buying in bulk. Care to share a beer with him? Ha,
ha, you'd have to be drunk to want all that bulk. What's strange
is that he actually flew in and rented a car. I asked him "and
you expect to make back your airfare by reselling what you buy here?"
"I'm here for the social aspect" he replied. Junky plates
- whatever sinks your boat I suppose. And then I said "How are
you going to bring anything you buy back to Ohio" (I was thinking
in mind this man's gonna need truck, and I have just the truck
for the job!) Well, knowing him, he'll be back!
And knowing me, I'll be waiting with my truck to give him a hand.
As Larry and I drive back to Columbus, I make a slight detour to Weirton.
By the time he realizes we are off course, I will have pulled up to the
dock of Weirton Steel to dump the load, for melt-down, with proceeds going
to help ALPCA (and I offer to pay gas both ways on my truck - I'm all heart
you see). My truck may not go much over 50, but it can compact a
load and clean up the hobby.
No doubt about it, the collectors of good plates (Steve Raiche, Len Harris, Don Merrill, Eric Anderson, etc.) were glaringly absent. Well, what are we waiting for? On with the show ! ...
Page created Mar 28, 2003
Page updated Apr 9, 2003