Behind the Collection: Steve Contarino’s Automobilia Vintage

This Break/Fix podcast episode features Steve Contarino, founder of Automobilia Vintage, as he delves into his journey of collecting automotive memorabilia. Steve discusses his passion for automotive history, rare artifacts, and vintage racing posters, and recounts his experiences with various car companies and collectible items. Alongside his stories, Steve shares insights into the collector market, the evolution of collecting trends, and offers advice for new collectors; highlighting the importance of preserving automotive history and the joy of collecting.

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00:00:00 Meet Steve Contarino: Founder of Automobilia Vintage 00:01:26 Steve's Passion for Automotive History 00:02:56 Owning Checker Cab, The Company 00:06:56 The Birth of Automobilia Vintage 00:08:55 Collecting Rare Automobilia 00:29:16 The Intersection of Automobilia and Motorsport 00:34:37 Understanding Value vs. Worth in Collecting 00:36:19 The Significance of Fisher Craftsman's Guild Cars 00:38:52 Balancing Quality and Quantity in Collections 00:40:27 Evolution of the Collector Community; Generational Shifts in Collecting Trends 00:56:18 Advice for New Collectors 01:01:22 Future of Automobilia Vintage 01:05:44 Closing Remarks and Gratitude ==================== The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net

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This episode is sponsored in part by Garage Style Magazine. Since 2007, GSM has been the definitive source for car collectors, continually delivering information about Automobilia, Petroliana, Events and more... because after all, what doesn't belong in your garage?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Break Fix podcast is all about capturingthe living history of people from all
over the autos sphere, from wrench,turners, and racers to artists, authors,
designers, and everything in between.
Our goal is to inspire a newgeneration of Petrolhead that wonder.
How did they get that jobor become that person?
The Road to Success is paved by allof us because everyone has a story.

(00:27):
Tonight we're thrilled to welcomeSteve Contarino, founder of Automobilia
Vintage, a one of a kind destinationfor collectors and enthusiasts.
Passionate about automotive historyand memorabilia from rare, classic
car artifacts to vintage racingposters and historic automobilia.
Steve has spent years curating acollection that captures the spirits

(00:48):
of motorsports across generations.
We'll dive into his journeybuilding Automobilia Vintage.
The stories behind some of the mostremarkable pieces in his collection and
what drives his passion for preservingautomotive history for fans old and new.
Whether you're a seasoned collectoror just love the romance of
classic cars, this episode is apit stop you won't wanna miss.

(01:10):
And joining us tonight is returningco-host Don Weiberg from Garage Style
Magazine, one of the many personalitieson the Motor Inc podcast network.
So welcome back, Don.
Thank you.
Thank you, Eric.
Good to be here.
Thanks very much.
And with that, let's officiallywelcome Steve to break fix.
Steve, welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Let's rewind the clock a littlebit and talk about your superhero
origin story in the automotive world.

(01:32):
What inspired you to start AutomobiliaVintage and how did your passion
for automotive history begin?
So the funny thing is, how didmy automotive passion begin?
You know, I've always been so interestedin the automotive industry, how it began.
Boy, aren't we back here again withthe implementation of technology and

(01:54):
what that electric car, so the horseand buggy, there was no way that
automobile was gonna make it becauseeverybody's gonna be riding horses
forever and yeah, it's just gonna bea flash in the pan and it'll be gone.
I like the little bits of history.
So I've loved all thingsmechanical and automobile related.

(02:15):
I remember one time I ran up to a carthat was at a high end auction and I
said, why would there be a Model T here?
And my friend said, bottle T. Well,where do you see what that goes for?
Why?
Why?
What's so special about a red bottle?
TI said, because it's red.
And he said, that's not a model T, that'sa model K. And I said, okay, tell me.

(02:37):
Well, Henry Ford went bankrupt twicebefore he was actually successful.
And that may have beenthree years, I'm not sure.
But just the history of that.
Who knew?
Well, you also have an interestingbackground, or we'll call it career
in the automotive industries.
Little Birdie told me you wereinvolved not only with police
cars, but with Checker cab.
Yeah.
Both being involved with Ford, Dodge,and Chevrolet, and then even a few of

(03:03):
the companies who've actually come andgone in law enforcement, Tesla, they were
in, they're out, they're back in again.
Fisca actually dipped their footin for a little while before the
end, but there's been a lot ofcompanies that have come and gone.
You know, I've always followed automotivedesign and why do they do that?

(03:23):
Why do they do that?
Why do they make it this way?
Why is it that way?
You know, I've been to many automobilefactories and I've always been so
impressed by them taking pieces and parts.
Driving it out the other end.
I, I never knew that most of thesemanufacturers, they don't even own what
we call automobiles or if you're from theNew England area, cars, their assembly.

(03:48):
And I didn't know that.
I said, well, wait a minute.
What's an assembly?
Well, assembly is an automobile,but it has not gone over
that threshold to be sold.
So before it's sold,it's called an assembly.
It's been done for years,decades, forever, and ever.
And a lot of your followersprobably don't even realize this.

(04:10):
One of America's largest automobilemanufacturers is located in
Massachusetts, still to this day.
It's a company called Factory Five.
They make a lot of different models.
They're incredible.
They make automobiles, but they don'tput engines in, so they make assemblies.

(04:31):
You know, I was so interestedin that type of thing.
I said, I wanna do it.
I wanna make an automobile.
I like this checker automobile,but I, I just wanna own it.
I don't know why I restore them.
I have them.
I'm gonna own it.
I got all the intellectual property andpatents and anything that was available.
Making an automobile was very,very difficult and expensive.

(04:56):
It's billions, but legislationpassed that you could build what
was called replica automobiles.
Not knowing that this legislationwas coming along and, and.
Poof.
You can make a small amount ofautomobiles and be successful just
buying pieces and parts here and there,and body being the most difficult.

(05:19):
Everything besides the bodyis easy breezy, but the bodies
were the most difficult thing.
And we had found some companiesthat actually make Camaro Mustang
Bronco bodies, and we just said,Hey, what about a checking body?
And they were on board.
So even the most difficultthing was not that difficult.

(05:41):
Putting it all together was notthat difficult Meeting National
highway transportation safetyrequirement, not that difficult.
EPA came along.
It wasn't that difficult until EPA decidedgasoline powered engines were gonna be
something that would make impossible.
But anyway, that's why it,it stopped where it did.

(06:02):
California Air Resources Bureausaid, let us think about it.
Came back with a roadblock.
That roadblock essentially ended thelegislation that allowed the ability
to make a gasoline powered automobile.
So it all went crashing to an end.
And to this day, everythingis still in neutral.

(06:23):
There's still some companies whowere trying to t trudge forward, but
right now there's legislation, youcan do it, but you can't power it.
But putting an engine in the chassisin that vehicle is what creates what's
called the requirement to be EPAin California Air Resources Bureau.
And that's the stumbling point.

(06:44):
So right now, it's impossible tomeet with any engine and transmission
combination that's available.
So I shouldn't say impossible,just extremely expensive.
It's just not gonna happen.
During your career, during yourjourney, you collected an entire
car company, but then you've morphedthis into collecting things from

(07:04):
the automotive industry as well.
So the birth of Automobilia vintage.
Why don't we switch gearsand kind of talk about that.
Where did that come from?
That's elementary.
If you have a hundred cars,which I did checkers, it was
Restoration Park, whatever youneeded, we had it ready to go.
Took up a lot of space, took up a lotof labor, took up a huge amount of

(07:25):
money, and I said, Hey, wait a second.
I could still do this.
And I could get items that are not sobig and don't take up so much room.
Boy, if I love them, somebody else lovesthem, so I can love 'em for a little while
and turn them onto the next caretaker.
So it's like.
Automobiles but smaller.
I've got quarter scale models.

(07:47):
I've got all different size claymodels from all the manufacturers.
So it's just a way of being involvedin the automotive industry, collecting
automobiles, but in a smaller way.
And it, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun.
Steve, I'm gonna guess you'vebeen collecting for a lot
longer than Automobile Vintage.
Has been in business, been collectingsince you were a kid, or how

(08:10):
long have you been collecting?
I still have things from my young age.
You know, I would say back to when I wasteen 15, 14, I mean, I was working at 13.
The things I, I would always collectwere kind of always automotive related.
You know, I worked at a towing service.
I worked in all kind of industriesthat brought me near something

(08:33):
related to the auto industry.
My wife and I started Adamson Industries.
I was 23, you know, when she was 20.
We were kids.
The things that I saw throughoutmy career, I collected.
It wasn't big, but it grew and grew,grew, grew and, and today, yeah, it's
a thing called automobile Vintage.

(08:55):
Okay.
So how do you go aboutfinding rare automobilia?
Is there something you do specificallyto find what you want, what you like?
Is there something, is there somecriterion that turns Steve on that
says, oh, oh, I've gotta have that?
Or is it just you're walking down anaisle at a swap meet, you see something,
you think, oh man, I gotta have that.

(09:15):
You don't even know what it is.
You never expected to find it.
What is it?
How do you go about finding rare stuff?
It's like.
A lot of car collectors will say, andit, you probably heard this before, the
majority of it finds me the rest of it.
I'm always searching for, there's showsand there's books about finding that
barn find, finding that hidden treasure.

(09:38):
Mm-hmm.
I'm the same way, but I had todial it back a little bit and
automobiles were something that,it took up a lot of the space.
I mean, the scope of Adamson Industries.
Okay.
Just for example, when I had 100 checkers.
It was taken the space of 100 cars.
Adamson in his shoes on any givenday had 300 cars on the ground.

(10:01):
Oh, wow.
You can imagine what it's like when youhave 400 cars, but now you have 300 cars.
It's big.
It's a lot.
Especially when you are inan area where December-ish
things start changing quickly.
When it snows, it's tough.
So you think about, you know, thatamount of vehicles and trying to keep

(10:24):
it so that they're not frozen in time.
That's a monumental task.
Cutting down a hundred cars,it wasn't such a hard decision.
It hurt my heart.
I know a lot of enthusiasts thoughtit wasn't the right thing to do.
You know, I, I did take a, a lotof negative publicity about how
I had no care for these cars.

(10:46):
But I sit here today and I could havea hundred of these small cars and
they don't take up much room and I cankeep 'em under a roof where it doesn't
snow on them, and I can manage that.
It's much easier and much simpler,but it's just as rewarding.
It really is enjoyable.
Alright, so tell us the story behindfinding one of your favorite or your

(11:09):
most unique items in your collection.
I'm passionate.
I really, really am.
I look for a lot of things.
Some days there are days where Igo, well, you know something that
could be my favorite, or, no, that'smy favorite, or that's my favorite.
But I find these things that get closestto my heart just like anybody else.

(11:30):
You're not supposed to have that.
So I have a few Mercedes design studies,and those Mercedes design studies
were of things like a doom buggy.
Mercedes never wanted to get letout that they were even thinking
about making a dune buggy.
So I've got these dune buggies,clay models in three different

(11:55):
versions of a beach type car.
And that's what makes me passionate.
That's what makes my blood boil,because they're things you're
just not supposed to have.
And why are you not supposed to have them?
Well, back then, I mean,these aren't 20, 25 models.
These are clay models from the eightiesvintage, so you know, it's passed the bang

(12:19):
on the door from the legal department.
But to think that somebody somehowcarried them out of there, smuggled
them out of there, who knows?
Don't know.
It's like a concept car.
They're all supposed to be crushed,but yet a lot seemed to appear.
So that's exactly the things I lovethe most are things that you're

(12:39):
not supposed to have that I havethis quarter scale Ford model.
I got a phone call.
Hey, I, I know you're interestedin these quarter scale models.
I, I'm in a bind.
I said, you are in a bind.
What's the bind?
I need this gone within two days.
My office has been closed downin Sterling Heights, Michigan.
I worked for Ford.

(13:00):
Can't tell you any more than that.
You want picked up, meet me at thecorner of such I, I said I, I'm in
Massachusetts, I'm in New Hampshire.
I'm on East Coast.
Well, that's the onlyway you're gonna get it.
I had a call, a friend of mine meetthis guy at the corner of such and such.
He's going to hand you thisbig quarter scale model.
Don't think I'm nuts.
It's a baby car that he's like, what?

(13:21):
I said a baby car.
It's a quarter scale model.
It was just amazingthat that thing existed.
It's amazing that that thing made itpast the security gates or however, and
this is a little later model, this one'sprobably from the, the later nineties.
So it's, it's that stuffthat's just amazing that it

(13:44):
exists and you know, every day.
They're thrown into crushers ordumpsters or however they destroy it.
And it happens.
So it's, it's like anything.
A few squeak out, but the majority don't.
It's interesting, Steve, that you mentionthat, 'cause Don has exposed me to some
really unique pieces over the years.

(14:06):
Like, Hey, I met the designer of thisthing and he had the prototype of this
wheel, or this component or this thing,and those little nuggets, those little
hidden gems are always fascinating.
Those lesser known histories of theseobjects and these things that later came
to production that we take for granted.
And so I wonder in your journey.
In this case, you talked aboutgoing there and knowing exactly

(14:26):
what you're getting, right?
This thing's coming offthe back of the truck.
But was there ever an instance wherein your journey and your collecting
where somebody presented you with abox and until you actually went through
it, maybe you put it to the sidethat something popped out and you're
like, oh my God, this was in the box.
Did they make a mistake?
Is there anything that's eversurprised or shocked you?
Happens all the time, especially whensomeone who's passionate has a collection.

(14:51):
Unfortunately, they don't always makearrangements for what would happen
if something happens, you know?
And that's something being eitheran illness or a death or something.
I'll give you an example.
I, I'm always looking for something.
I'm on this auction site,train auction, like toy trains.

(15:11):
I look and I go, wait a minute.
That's not a toy train,that's a real train.
Real crossing gates.
I couldn't believe that therewas such a, a following who would
collect all this train stuff.
So I started looking at it andyou know, I said, wow, okay.
And then I kept checking back'cause I was kind of interested.
I said, you know, trains,planes, automobiles, right?

(15:32):
So kept looking.
All of a sudden this auction company popsup with 20 lots of Gordon Buring mobilia,
including clay model of a concept.
He had to do a mobile office.
When you wanna do something witha client, we don't want the client

(15:53):
to come to our office, we're gonnabring our office to the client.
He had the start process.
He was gonna make this mobile office.
Now this is long after you know theAuburn and designing all the cars.
And this was later in his career.
And that's an idea he came up with.
And when I found that stuff, I was like.
How does that haveanything to do with trade?

(16:15):
Well, good.
Buring liked trains.
Okay.
This widow sold everything with the trainsand this auction company had the trains.
It's amazing, and not onlydoes it then include that, it
includes some fiberglass cars.
We make it based on Corvettes.
He made like three or four of theseneoclassic Corvettes, all kind of

(16:40):
documents, pictures, literature, cases,and cases of these leather bound.
He in made prospectus that youwould hear into somebody if you
wanted them to back you financiallyor a dealership or something.
That stuff is just amazing andthat it existed, that I found it

(17:01):
at a training auction and that it'savailable now because I've had it.
Now I share it.
So what I say is I love it.
I love the fact of what it is,but there's gonna be somebody
who's gonna love the Gordon Buringconnection and it's available.
So I have that.
And then I have all kind of automotiverelated items that have a story.

(17:25):
And remember, everybody always says it'snot about what it is, it's the story.
Where did it come from?
Why is it unique?
And almost to a negative, I listas much information as I can.
And I talk about not only the item,but why, where it's from, what it is,
what it's made of, why it was made.

(17:45):
And so much of it, it's allrich with automotive history.
It's all very, very exciting to me.
It just, I enjoy it very much.
And Steve, you have all theseitems from that train auction.
I do.
And I was very successful.
On 20 of 20.
Wow.
No, I mean it was out of place.

(18:06):
It shouldn't have been there.
And I see that a lot.
Is that a case of people notknowing what they have or is it just
wanting to get rid of it quickly?
What do you think themethod is behind that?
All of the above.
I think that auction companies,a lot of times, unless you hit
the right one, they're gonna lookat the bulk of what you have.
They don't look at the individuals of it.

(18:27):
If you go to a specialized auction,they'll do the the back work on it.
You know, I bought things atauctions and even some of the most
well-known automotive auctions,they'll have something on a
shelf and they'll say, toy car.
I'll say, well, what kind of toy car?
We don't know.
It's a toy car.
We give you some details.

(18:48):
It's pretty big.
How big?
Well, three feet long.
I'm like, okay.
And in my mind, you know how thatslot machine goes, ding, dinging,
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dinging.
So I'm like, there's no three foot longtoy cars that are made of clay that
I know of, except for concept models.

(19:10):
Right?
And I've done it and I'veseen it and it still happens.
All the time.
It's a toy car.
I mean, I don't know whythey didn't do the back work.
They're auctioning off a hundred cars andmaybe 200 pieces of automobile and that
thing just happened to be, I don't know.
It's a toy car.
It's not a real car.
What are we gonna say?
Toy car.

(19:31):
Okay, so you've mentioned a couple timesauction companies and things of that
where you're going to select things fromyour own collection, or you're maybe
finding those hidden gems that we'vebeen alluding to, but with the rise of
popularity of shows, and some of themhave been around for a long time, like
the Wolf Brothers on History Channel withAmerican Pickers and things like that.
Where do you go pick where areyour best finds and what do

(19:53):
you recommend for other people?
I mean, outside of Automobilia Vintage,they should come to you first, but if they
were going to pick, you know, and go lookfor items, where should they be looking?
That's a very difficult question.
It doesn't really have a go here answer.
You are always gonna havethings on eBay that are listed.
Toy car, you know, there'sa lot of cool stuff on eBay.

(20:16):
Unfortunate, it's like everything else.
It's like looking through the phone bookand trying to find the, a's you know,
there's a lot of, A's in that phone book.
What's a phone book?
Oh my god, I can't believe I said that.
A big book dictionary there.
There you go through that dictionaryand you are looking for the letter as
it's just, there's a lot of 'em andyou've gotta look and they go, oh, wait

(20:37):
a minute, I'm only looking for capital.
As that narrows it down quite a lot.
So yes, eBay, I mean alldifferent place flea markets.
You can find automobilia.
Everywhere you could find thingsrelated to the auto industry
and clay models everywhere.
It's just a matter of having thediligence to keep looking and looking

(21:01):
and realizing, well wait a minute,this is a concept car one 43rd.
Yes, this was, oh, they designed thiscar and I said, no, it's kind of small.
I can't see them bringing that up tothe boss's office and say, boss, listen,
we designed this little car right here.
This is gonna be the car.
So you get the opposite too.

(21:21):
You know you'll get all these, well,this is a real rare Tesla concept car.
So I guess Tesla had this eventand you went to this event in
exchange for going to this event.
They were 3D printing the next.
Type of car they were gonna make.
As you guys know, themodels are S-E-E-X-Y.

(21:43):
There are many versions.
So the SEXY, they were handed outand they were 3D printed models.
But what's happened is theyweren't done well enough that
somebody couldn't copy 'em.
So you gotta make sure youknow what you're looking at.
And the real Tesla models allhad numbers on the bottom of 'em.

(22:05):
They were much better done thanjust somebody 3D printing one
24th or slightly larger model.
That's what you gotta do.
You have to really look and out islike, know what you're looking for.
You've got these large auctioncompanies and they've got what
they call automobilia experts.
That is such a broad statement.

(22:27):
I mean, automobilia can beassigned, it could be anything.
Are they experts on automotiverelated collectibles?
I get a lot of calls about that.
Well, what do you think?
And I, I try to help people out thebest I can, and also to secure that
item so that I can have a chanceto own it for a little bit of time.

(22:51):
It's really a, a learning experience.
And I know there's a lot of companiesthat sell automobilia and individuals
who sell automobilia, but theydon't specialize in that, right?
From the factory stuff.
That's me.
I'm I, I want a stuff thatcomes right out of the factory.
I want the stuff thatwasn't supposed to leave.

(23:12):
Okay.
Here's a perfect example.
I love hood ornaments.
I love mascots.
Okay?
One day perusing on eBay inEngland, there's this flying
lady, the spirit of ny, the famousmascot that's on a Rolls Royce.
This one's root beer, Cullen.
And I said, why is there aroot beer colored flying lady?

(23:36):
So I asked the man about theflying lady, and he replied,
he said, that's a prototype.
And I said, what do youmean it's a prototype?
And he said, well, there was a problem.
Rolls Royce couldn't meet the USApedestrian crash standards with that
rigid hood ornament because if theyhit a pedestrian, it was like a spear.

(23:57):
And this was a prototype.
And I said, well, what doyou mean it'll shatter?
I said, it'll shatter.
They said, yep, it's made of aspecial material and it'll shatter.
And I said, well, how do you know that?
And he said, 'cause I made it.
And I said, you made it?
And he said, yes, I did.
I was involved.
And I said, okay.

(24:18):
Would the purchase of thatitem include your statement?
You know all about it.
Absolutely.
This guy went, nevermind the extra mile.
I got a CD of the testing.
I got the drawings.
I got the drawings of the realone that actually went on the

(24:40):
American make How with the springin it, and I got the whole story.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
I couldn't believe that that had happened.
All it was was a matter of doing alittle bit of research, asking a bunch
of questions, and seeing something that.
It didn't quite look rightin getting the right answer,
getting the right informationthat made that item legitimate.

(25:04):
There's only one other place thatcomes to mind that has a collection
of concepts and clay models andthings like you're mentioning.
So I wonder, have you ever dealtwith a National Museum of Automotive
Design down in the Carolinas?
I have not.
I've heard of it.
It's on my list, but I definitelywant to get there and I do know of it.
Yeah, I, I actually do, but I have no, Ihave not had any interaction with them.

(25:28):
Can you tell us about a memorableinteraction with a fellow
collector or an enthusiast thatmaybe helped shape your journey?
You mean a lot of people, andI'm gonna say a name and, and you
know him, Don, you know him verywell, and his name is Gary Wales.
Oh yes.
So you know what he did before he was.
A mad scientist of the creatorof these monstrous automobiles.

(25:53):
Right, right.
That's amazing.
I spent a lot of time talking to himabout his experiences and whatnot.
And I'm gonna tell you, uh, I met Gary atone of the, uh, garage style garage tours.
Now you understand why you use so manyvoices Because no matter where I turn,
I'm getting blamed for everything.
You know, here he is blamingme for meeting Barry Whale.

(26:16):
It's not my fault.
He just happen to be at the sameplace and I'm getting blamed for it.
Mm-hmm.
Gary amazes me 'cause hejust keeps going his mind.
You ever say, boy, I'd love tosee the window into that mind.
And every time I see his, one ofhis creations, it's just amazing.
But Gary, he's got a lot.

(26:36):
Of that automobilia and allthose kinds of cool things.
But yeah, I, I, I gotta tell you, he'sone of the guys, you know, I met Bob
Lutts and spent some time talking to him.
You bumped into a lot.
Really, really do, there's a lot ofgreat automotive icons out there.
Tell us a little bit about Jerry.
Oh, Jerry.

(26:57):
So Jerry was real dear friend Jerry andI met about, God, I wanna say 40 years
ago, I had a passion for Rolls Royce's.
Jerry was the Rolls Royce aficionado,one of America's top automotive
appraisers, collector of all thingsautomotive and encyclopedia of

(27:21):
anything to do with automobiles.
He's the one who said, that's about okay.
And I'm like, oh.
It is these conversations that Jerry andI had, they were well into the night.
After walking all day, it shows whetherit be Hershey or Monterey or Seaman in

(27:41):
Las Vegas, Scottsdale, or any of it.
I mean, we talk about design.
Did you see the, the rear end of that car?
Did you notice that way?
They painted that so it looked likeit was longer, all that type of thing.
So Jerry and I, like Isaid, it was a 40 year run.
He was 30 years older than me.

(28:02):
I was always accused of beinga son, and Jerry would laugh.
He was a big collector of, uh, automobile.
He only had a few cars.
I've always had a few more than him.
But Jerry was just a wealth ofknowledge, a great cheerleader too.
And that's what everybody needsis a cheerleader and a friend
to always keep them going.

(28:24):
You know, that's one of the thingsJerry, he was my cheerleader.
As many of our listeners know,Don is the yin to my yang, right?
But we both cherish the collecting part ofthe automotive world, and as people see in
the behind the scenes videos, the studiohere, I've got racing memorabilia all
over the place, but it's very differentthan classic car memorabilia where

(28:44):
people will outfit their garages likeyou would see on Garage Style Magazine,
Hey, I'm a Hudson guy and I bought allthe Hudson stuff I could possibly find.
Or you know, the Hemi Hideout orwhatever it is when they focus in on the
cars that they have in their garages.
Whereas Motorsport, I thinkwe're more about the driver.
It's like, if it's got ton's nameon it, I'm probably gonna pick it
up and buy it, or you know, havea copy of it or whatever it is.

(29:05):
I noticed even behind you, you've gota vintage sign that says auto races
today, you know, which was probablypart of some dirt track in New England
somewhere, you know, that kind of thing.
Pointing the spectators towhere they needed to go.
Let's talk about the balance andthe relationship of Automobilia and
preserving the history of Motorsport.
I think it's really important because,you know, again, being a New Englander,

(29:28):
you know, I oftentimes get to go toNewport, and a matter of fact, the
Newport Concourse is coming up andyou go out to Monterey and it's all
about the races, the vintage races.
Well, that just happened tobe a place where it landed.
But you know, you think about going toNewport, Rhode Island, what does that have
to do with the automobiles and automobile?

(29:49):
Yeah.
And all that.
It was a stopping point beforethey created the Cape Cod Canal.
You couldn't go to Bostonby ship from New York.
You had to go to Newport and catchthe train from Newport to Boston.
Well, Newport became theplayground of the rich and famous.

(30:10):
That's the Vanderbilt, the Rockefellers.
You've heard 'em all.
But remember they had to have thefirsts, the first automobile, the
first of all, and those automobiles inthat richness of that area resonates.
And why?
Well, it got competitive.
It wasn't competitiveof just, I have a car.

(30:30):
You have a car.
Then it became racing.
And what the Vanderbilt cup.
So, you know, you talk aboutmotor sports, it's like.
Always evolving.
You've got this trend.
People wanna follow nasfa,now it's F1, and they do the,
uh, the alternative fuels.
And then there's vintage racing.

(30:51):
It's kind of the foam that comes out fromthe top of the auto automotive world.
Racing and automobiles go side by side.
That's just something you can't look over.
I mean, there's so manylevels of automobilia.
You mentioned pickers, and you lookat what they go after and they go
after such a broad range of items.

(31:13):
It's basically anything that'sold, don't take that as a, okay.
Anything that's old is not exciting.
It is.
It's just that it's a lot.
That now means old everything.
Old furniture, old items.
Well, the automotive industry.
Although it's old, it'snot really that old.
You look at any of the, uh, the showsthat follow early times Boardwalk Empire.

(31:40):
Well, the Gilded Age is the new one.
Yes, exactly.
I was gonna say Gilded Age.
But Gilded Age is a spinoff of Bridgeton.
So here we are, Bridgeton, they'reriding horses and carriages, and
then the Guild at age, what happened?
They're in New York City.
What is that thing?
Making all that noise?
It's the motor car.
There's a lot of people whodon't even realize car motor,

(32:01):
car, motor, carriage, carriage.
It's the evolution.
What came with that evolution,we call it motor sports.
My horse is faster than yourhorse goes back to the chariots.
Right.
Well, okay, let's go back that far.
My chariots faster thanyour chariots, right?
That's right.
Dave, you do know when thefirst race took place, right?

(32:23):
You heard that story, how the veryfirst motor car race took place.
You heard when that happened, right?
I did.
Yes.
Yes.
It it happened when thesecond car was built.
That's right.
A absolutely.
And that's something interestingthat Don is foreshadowing.
My next question in the sense that Iwanted to ask you about the historical
significance of some of the pieces.

(32:45):
'cause we've been talking aboutthat basically this entire time.
And so what's funny is when you'relooking at a piece and we're
talking about picking, we're talkingabout, you know, building our
collections and things like that.
If you and I went to a swap meettogether and came across a Hain
Valvoline, maybe a Texaco sign, I don'tthink we would have the same opinion
of it because I'm thinking Texaco,Kmart, IndyCar, Mario Andretti, or

(33:07):
I'm thinking Valvoline A or Junior.
You know, something like that andyou're going, well, isn't this a
nice porcelain, you know, whateversign, where is that intersection?
How do you create a balancebetween the stories?
Or do you just self-identify with thepiece and it means something to you?
At the end of the day, differentpeople are gonna look at different
items in a different way.

(33:27):
You are gonna look at that Hal Leansign, and you're gonna think about
racing and motor sports and what thingsthat are your passionate, I'm gonna
look at it and I'm gonna think about,wow, isn't it amazing that they had to
come up with a company to create thislubricant and fuel for automobiles.

(33:47):
Someone else was gonna look at it andgo, wow, I remember seeing that sign when
I was a little kid going to fill up mybicycle, you know, the air and the tire.
So everybody's gonna see somethingfrom a different point of view, and
that's what makes us all different.
That's what makes us all unique andthat's what makes us all able to

(34:07):
see things from a different angle.
And that's what it comes down to.
You know, it's human trait to beable to see things differently
and you're exactly right.
The reason I brought that up isbecause I think it changes our
perspective on the value of the item.
And so when I look at that sign, maybe I'mgoing, well, it wasn't signed by Andretti,

(34:28):
but if it was, it'd be worth more.
And you're looking at it going,no, you don't understand.
It was made in 1963 and it was donethis way and using this paint, and
it is worth what they want for it.
And so how do we settle those argumentsabout what something is worth?
You know, the memories of the memorabiliaversus the aesthetics of the memorabilia.
How do you draw a balance whenyou acquire something, what you

(34:50):
should be paying for that item?
I gotta go back to what myfriend Jerry used to say.
You can do an appraisal and youcould do an appraisal for value and
you could do an appraisal for worth.
Although both words sound the same,they're very far from the same.
What the value of something could be.
One thing, what something'sworth is a lot different.

(35:13):
That could be anything for any reason.
It could be a connection, it couldbe a family connection, it could be,
uh, an automotive type connection.
That's something that I've seenhappen with everything I've ever
done related to the automobile.
Different feelings fromdifferent people because.

(35:33):
What it's worth is different.
What it's valued at may not bebecause a value is something that
you compare other things, okay?
Let's say a Volkswagen Box.
Volkswagen Box is very, very valuable.
Okay?
What's it worth?
Well, it's worth what this otherVolkswagen bug is worth 25,000.

(35:56):
Why does one sell for 125,000then because somebody had more
worth to that vehicle than value.
Same with automobile, same with allof the different things that I have.
If somebody's got a personal connectionto it, that worth could be anything
that price paid could be satisfaction.

(36:19):
One of the particular categories Iwanna say that I have is a category
called Fisher Craftsman's Guild Cars.
You will very rarely see me sell those.
The reason I very rarely sell those isbecause not only are they part of General

(36:40):
Motors history, because General Motorscreates this contest where young adults
are gonna create these automobiles.
They have no computers, they have no TVs.
They have.
Time to put a thousand hours here incarving or creating this futuristic
type automobile that's easy.

(37:02):
Kids got nothing to do.
So they did it and whatwere they doing it for?
Grand Prize, a college scholarship,second prize, a trip out to
General Motors headquarters anda tour of the plant and a trophy.
And you know, third Pro.
So they had all these levels andthese cars are all works of art.

(37:25):
Even the ones that you look at and go,that was made by a kid, but some kid took
the time to be able to put it into that.
Item, and those items are really,really worth a lot to me, and they're
worth a lot to me because, A, they'rerelated to the automotive industry,

(37:45):
but B, some persons did that work.
It wasn't a designer whowas getting paid to do it.
It wasn't somebody who expected to win.
They hoped they win.
They didn't expect to win.
Those Fisher cars areworth a lot more to me.
Are they valued a lot more?
Probably not, because it's very hardto value the Fisher cars because some

(38:11):
of the more higher value ones are moreintricate and more complex, but yet the
ones with the history from A to Z. AndI mean the person's name, the awards
they won, where they placed, writtendossier, or how the whole thing was
done and why, and maybe the son wroteit because their father told them.

(38:38):
How about if it was somebodywhose grandfather told the father
and the father passed the itemdown to the son, the grandson?
I mean, that's different.
Those particular cardsare worth a lot to me.
I think there also becomes a point atwhich there's maybe a little bit of
guilt when you're collecting, and Iknow I've had this conversation with

(38:59):
Don before where it's like, well, Icould spend 200 bucks for the real
thing, or 20 bucks for the repop.
But it depends on how you're tryingto outfit your collection, right?
So there's a difference between likewhat you're doing, you're amassing these
very unique, very particular things.
But if I'm trying to outfit, youknow, a shrin or a garage Mahal,
sometimes I have to compromise on thequality versus the quantity of things

(39:20):
that I wanna put up on the wall.
Well, yeah, but I always justrecently at a location, they had
a very big auction and it was acombination of all different types.
And what I mean bytypes meaning originals.
Asterisk, which means maybe, andthen what they call decorative,
and those decorative items sold ata different price than original.

(39:46):
They really did sell differently,but collections are made up of
what makes people happy, right?
If you wanted something and you like it.
That's part of your collection.
Doesn't all have to be topnotch gradeA, and that's why going back to pickers,
one of the greatest things I like aboutthe show, besides, I like the way they

(40:08):
do what they do, is they're saving thingsthat may not be number one condition
and may not be of value to somebody.
They just feel that it's worth saving.
You know, that's a wholedifferent way to look at it.
Different collections are of differenttypes of, uh, levels of quality.
I want to get your take on how you've seenthe collector community evolve over the

(40:31):
years from, say, when you first started,you know, what trends are you seeing now?
What trends did you see back then?
There are sign collectors and then thereare car collectors that collect signs.
And there are a rad of things betweenthem, and what I mean by that is some will
not allow something that's not originalto be part of their car sign collection.

(40:56):
Sometimes the cars are moreimportant than the signs.
Sometimes the signs areas important as the cars.
And I've seen that at all.
Different public museums,private collections, auctions.
You always see that, and that's kindof what makes the world go round.
Some people are very finicky about, it'snot real, and others are fine with that.

(41:20):
Others understand that, you know, theautomobiles are the basis of this,
and these collectibles is decoration,so they look at it differently.
I try to stay away from things thataren't historically tied to something.
I do have some things thatare in the category of.
Gotta find out because I just don't know.

(41:42):
And that could be somethingsimple as a little whittled out
a piece of wood car and I say,well, I gotta find out about this.
Is it something that just looksold but is really not that old?
It's a thing of doing theresearch to find that out.
But how has it changed?
One of the things I needed to see thatthe automotive collective car industry

(42:06):
was alive at, well, we went throughCOVID, we came back and it's different.
Nobody knows if it'll ever be the same,and your idea of different might be
different from my idea of different, butone of the things that I noticed is that.
A lot of car collectors started saying,well, I, I'm, I'm dialing in the back.

(42:28):
I'm gonna reserve my money now.
Geez, you know, this whole way,the whole world was that time.
I don't ever wanna be nervous.
I want to have a, a lot more money inthe bank, less money in the garage.
I want to collect less.
And what that did was it really startedto make the collective car industry
and signs and mobilia and everythingchanged because the demand also changed.

(42:55):
Because here we were with a cultureof older generation doing the buying.
And after COVID a younger generationcoming in, and the younger generation
happened to appreciate different things.
What was appreciated wasn'tnecessarily historic.
Things that were valuable.

(43:16):
Before COVID became not quiteas valuable after COVID, so
the values definitely changed.
The worth is still all over the place,but the values changed this past
weekend with that Mecca Auction summary.
The collect the carindustry is alive and well.

(43:37):
The numbers were back to where itshould be if it's got the story.
They were willing to pay some of thenumbers that were always really low.
The automobile was selling well,the automobiles were selling well.
The crowds that was there.
Was different.
It wasn't like it used to be.

(43:57):
A lot of internet, a lot ofphone, a lot of absentee.
That's never gonna change.
It's not gonna come back.
It's always gonna change.
So that whole, what was it and what is it?
What's the future gonna be?
It's still up in the air, but itwas really, really a special moment
to see that things are back towhere, at least somewhat normal.

(44:21):
Somewhat.
I mean, let's face it, COVID waswhat, five years ago you had older
collectors buying, selling, etcetera, COVID shakes everything up.
Do we have a larger glut of younger,new collectors in the market now,
or is it still the same old guard,or is there a merger going on?
What do you see?
That's a whole big question, andmy opinion of that is the workplace

(44:46):
changed and the workplace changedfrom the Bob LUTs and the Lee Cocas,
you know, the automotive icons.
They were there and they weren't goinganywhere in their thirties and forties,
and they weren't going anywhere intheir fifties and they weren't going
anywhere, even into their sixties.
Those days are gone.

(45:07):
A lot of the, what theycall legacy costs are gone.
Most of the high paying jobs, the youngerpeople, they're not as driven by history.
They're not as excitedby why is it like that?
It's more to them, wellwhy isn't it this way?
And that whole working from home thingand that whole being a president of

(45:29):
a company a lot younger of an age andthe way the whole workforce is now,
where people just, they're hanging ontotheir money because they feel that,
you know, they can't be frivolous.
Yeah, it's definitely different.
There is definitely some truth toeverything you just said there,
Steve, but I also think there's aslightly different dynamic that's

(45:50):
occurring in the collector space.
And I can only speak for my generation'cause I'm a generation behind you guys.
And then I can look downthe generations behind me.
And if you think about it,it has a lot also to do with.
What you imprinted on when you were young.
And so when I look around my office,I look at things and I'm very grounded
in the eighties and the nineties, andeven in Motorsport, it's like, come

(46:11):
talk to me about Sena and Schumacher.
I don't wanna really talk about Vel andHamilton, and that's past my generation.
You know what I mean?
I didn't grow up with that.
But the thing is, I don't identify asmuch with the op era of the 1950s and
the Dolce Vita era of the early sixties.
Right?
For me, that's not my time period.
Just in the same way I appreciatea Packard, am I gonna go buy

(46:32):
one or stuff related to it?
Probably not.
I mean, that's my grandfather'sgeneration, you know, of kind
of car that they aspire to.
What I'm getting at though is right nowthough, the people that are in charge
of creating new petroliana and newAutomobilia are in my age demographic,
and you're seeing a lot of things thatare leaning back into the eighties.

(46:53):
And it's in markets whereyou didn't expect them to be.
Prime example, I keep making the joke,the people in charge at Lego right now
must be kids of the eighties becauseeverything that's coming out is Nintendo
and Nigel Mantle and this and that.
And it's all of that era.
They're not doing a 1953 Corvette,they're doing a 1984 C four Corvette.

(47:14):
So they're catering to the marketthat has the money, which is gonna
be the kids that are now in theirforties and in their fifties.
So I think you're seeing that shift.
Now, beyond my generation, and I don'twanna make a gross generalization here,
there is a minimalist movement wherecollecting is not that important anymore.
And so I grew up in an era where wewere the last of the analog kids,

(47:37):
but the first to adopt digital.
So we're in this weird gray spacewhere we appreciate both, but the
further you get into the digitalgenerations, the less material things.
Are important to collect 'causethey're not bits and bytes.
So you have that workingagainst the collector market.
Well, that's absolutely true.
But you know something, there were threeguys, I think it was 1934, and they had

(48:01):
pencils and they had paper and they said,well, let's write down our thoughts here.
Let's talk.
And they said, well what about horses?
What about buggies?
What about this?
And one of 'em said, it'snever gonna be like that.
Nobody keeps horses as pets anymore.
You know, horses were work animals.
What you're gonna see is you're gonnasee people with yards, with bushes and no
more horse pastures and all that stuff.

(48:23):
And the, the one guy who wasreally, really smart said.
You know what?
Someday I'm gonna have a great grandsonand he's gonna have a thing called
a podcast, and his name is Eric.
They said, how do you know all that?
I don't know.
It's a guess.
Yeah, right.
That story, it's just, it's gonna keepchanging because that's what history does.

(48:45):
So yeah, you look back and well,they were talking about different
things than we are talking abouthere today, and I do, I absolutely
agree with you a hundred percent.
But is some part ofcollecting, preserving history.
Or some part of collecting just,well, if it makes me feel good again,

(49:07):
it's like, okay, what drives you?
How do you see it?
And I see it as I collect, butI also like to have the history.
I like the history, butthere's other people who say,
no, I, I want to have this.
I want to have all blue cars.
I wanna have all this,or I wanna have all that.

(49:28):
And so there's different reasons.
It's like everything else.
But yeah, I agree with you, Eric.
You're absolutely right.
Times change.
Nobody's collected typewriters anymore.
They don't understand why youwould wanna collect a typewriter.
Right.
You know?
I'm glad you said that.
Clarification.
There are people, you know, Icollect this because it's blue.
I collect this because thehistory, I'm not gonna go too far

(49:50):
down the trough, but I, I think.
A lot of collecting in recent years.
It's almost like you have to qualify it.
Why do you, oh, well, I, I collectthis because William Sykes III
designed it in 1712, and WilliamSykes, his father was the architect
who this building in Brussels and thisbuilding fell on a million people.

(50:15):
I mean, who cares?
Okay, really?
Who cares?
Do you like it?
Do you like that weirdthing hanging on your wall?
And if it doesn't bring youjoy, it's an investment.
So we're gonna go invest in this stuff.
I think that was a problem withthe eighties, and you remember
the eighties all too well, Steve.
Everybody's running aroundbuying Mustangs and Thunderbirds.
Why?
Holy cow.
They were worth a fortune.

(50:36):
And then what happened in the nineties?
Oh, oh.
They leveled out.
The smart guy in the eighties would'vebought as many DeLorean as he could have.
Right?
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
And Chrysler, TCS by Maserati.
Oh my God.
So there you go.
You You know what?
You're exactly right.
It's what drives you and Yeah, it doesget old Sometimes somebody will talk the

(50:59):
ears off you about something, you know?
And, and do you really need to know allthat backstory and Yeah, you're right.
It's absolutely true.
And, and they go, oh, well why doesRoll Royce have that lady on the front?
It's like, that's weird.
She looks like, she'slike, cut these wings.
That's not real.
They don't wanna know that wholebackstory and all that stuff.

(51:22):
And that's perfectly fine.
Then there's some 17-year-old onYouTube presenting it as if it's
new information all over again.
Right, right, right.
And that's just it.
There's a, there's an amazing story.
You're right.
And I know you know it, Steve.
There's an amazing storybehind the spirit of ecstasy.
I mean, it's the stuff that movies aremade of really is, and when you learn
it, I think that adds to the allure.

(51:43):
Look, when I was a little kid, oneof my very first cars, aside from
DeLorean, was Rolls Royce and I, Ijust thought they were fascinating.
I thought it was amazing that somebodywould take eight to nine months.
To build a car.
I mean, that, that just blew my mind.
The paint was five feet thick.
The car weighed over 5,000 pounds.
It was honestly just astonishing to me.

(52:03):
This car, the real woodinside, are you kidding me?
I grew up in LTDs.
We had nothing but fake sticktogether, wood in our interiors.
It was, it was something else,but these rolls had real wood.
That really impressed me.
It amazed me.
As time rolled on, I learnedmore and more about the company.
It made me like it more.
It made me like the car more.
It made me like the hood ornament made melike everything about the company more.

(52:25):
Something dawned on me while youguys were talking about the trends in
the collector market and things likethat, and I think the point at which
everything shifted, sort of that eventhorizon, and we've talked about this
on break fix before we actually haveepisodes dedicated to the linkage and
the crossover between the music industry.
In the automotive world andhow one influences the other.

(52:47):
And if you think about it collectingchanged for everybody almost everywhere
simultaneously, when you could no longerreally buy an album, when music went
digital and you were paying 99 cents asong from Apple or Spotify or whoever it
was, you're no longer rushing off to TowerRecords or Waxy Maxis or whatever it was

(53:09):
to buy that new CD where only two outof 14 songs were any good on that album.
That's when collecting change.
'cause if you think about what you talkedabout, Steve, with all the history and
the minutiae, people knew that stuff aboutrecord albums and the vinyl pressings
and where the album was recorded and whenit was recorded, and what John Lennon
was thinking when they wrote the song.
Like all this immense detail.

(53:31):
And you saw that in otherforms of collecting.
And once music changed, I think the restof collecting changed along with it.
You are right.
It's definitely trends.
Think about this, how manypeople still collect stamps?
I remember when I was young, that's abig thing, collecting stamps, you don't
really hear much about that, but yetthere's a whole other arena of stamp

(53:56):
collectors, stamp collector shows.
It's nowhere near what it usedto be, but yet it still exists.
It's just on a smaller scale.
So yeah, you're absolutely right.
Popularity definitelychanges as time goes on.
The automobile, I think, iswith us to stay for a a while.
I mean, I, I don't quite see theflying car taken off literally yet.

(54:20):
Here we are stuck with technology andwell, yeah, we do it differently today,
but it's the same, but it's trendsand it's always gonna be that way.
Collecting will always be a trend.
And, and you know, one of the thingsthat I was surprised that crossed over
this particular year was a whole groupof collectors of travel agent Mobilia,

(54:44):
not Expedia, that's not a travel agent.
So all these travel agents, okay,they got all these like promotional
items from the airlines, planes andlittle statues and all kind of goodies.
There's a whole differentarena of collectors that.
That's what they collect is old travelagent stuff and all Pan Am signs

(55:07):
and the Pan Am plane and it changes.
It's always changing.
What do you collect from Expedia?
You know, I don't know.
Who knows?
But yes, you're absolutely right.
It is gonna change.
Who's to say the future of automobileseems to be like it's gonna
travel with the, uh, automobile.
Then maybe it'll go up whenthere are no automobiles anymore,

(55:32):
whatever that thing might be.
The Jetsons, we all watch the Jetsons,but yet you never saw a Texaco gas
pump in the little car landing area.
And you never saw Georgeshow you his collection of
famous SNH Green stamp things.
They forgot all that.
Right?

(55:52):
Well, what happened to all the cars?
You know, where did they all go?
Where's all that Mobile and Exxonand all those gas pumps and where?
Where'd all that stuff go?
Oh, the car's gone.
Did we get the Jetson mobile?
There's no history.
Where did it all go?
Could that be a future?
We sure thought so.
We were little kids, didn't we?
For sure.

(56:13):
Which for me, I startedcollecting very, very early.
'cause I was just psychotic.
Basically.
Let's say somebody's gettinginto the Automobilia thing.
They've been lightly interested in it.
They don't know where to start.
They don't know what to do.
Aside from telling them, youknow, Hey, check out Automobilia
Vintage to see what we've got.
What advice would you give them?

(56:33):
I mean, how would they start?
Where would you tell 'em to start?
You buy what you like.
Mm-hmm.
What I like might not be what you like.
That's why if you take a lookat the things that I offer for
sale, they're all over the place.
I have different things.
I don't specialize inone particular thing.
It's all over the place.
So I always say it and you know, andthat's like right back to the, the

(56:55):
story of what we were talking about.
What's worth, what's value.
So buy what you like.
That's the advice I give somebody.
You know what, if you like it.
It's always gonna be worth more, right?
If you really like something and yousay, oh, I like that because whatever
the reason, you could have a reason.

(57:15):
And that reason is what this is all about.
Why do I come down herein my garage every day?
Why do I do this?
'cause it makes me happy.
You know?
Why do you wanna drive aroundin an old car that's gonna break
down on the side of the road?
Well, because when it's notbroke down, it makes me happy.
So that's what it's all about.
It's our happiness.

(57:35):
And there's some people who are perfectlyfine sitting in front of a keyboard all
day and going, I like watching the stock.
So that makes them happy.
And there's other people whosay, I like look on my bank
book and that makes me happy.
It's all about that.
It's that happiness and it's about,okay, what does it take to say.

(57:56):
I really like that.
And that's what I say, don't buysomething because I say it's valuable.
Don't buy something because you sawit on this podcast and I say, well,
over the next 10 years you are gonnaappreciate it 50% per year and I
guarantee that all your money back.
It's not about that.

(58:16):
It's, that's why they sell gold andsilver in places and it's overpriced.
That's in the back of magazines.
So people buy thingssometime because of that.
But no, don't do that.
Buy what you like.
And I know plenty of people who'vebought those gold things and Sova,
Don likes those Franklin mint cars.

(58:36):
Well, guess what?
If you bought 'em a little whileago, probably really happy right now.
Right?
So, I mean, you know, it, it's just whatmakes you happy and different people.
We'll see somethingthrough their own eyes.
Could there be five people that see that?
Yeah.
Most auctions involve two.
Sometimes it involves more than two.

(58:57):
Sometimes it could be 10.
That's when you'll seethe crowd going wild.
When 10 people really see theworth in something, not the value.
And that's conversations thatyou'll always have with somebody
who shares the passion that youhave, like all three of us do.
In fact, you share that passion.

(59:19):
It's a common ground.
It makes us as humans compatiblebecause we could talk about
something that we all like.
So you know, you do what you like,buy what you like, look at something
and say, you know, I like that.
And when it becomes worth 10times the amount of money that
could make you very, very happy.
But it also could be something that neveris worth more than the day you bought it.

(59:43):
But it still will make you very happy.
And I've seen that a lot.
I've seen it a lot with the things I sell.
I see it a lot with the cars I've sold.
I saw it a lot, especially with checker.
Owning Checker brought a lot of peopleto me, people who said, I remember on
the way to the hospital in the back of achecker, my son was born in a snow storm.

(01:00:07):
And, and I'd be like,oh, okay, that's great.
But see, that's something they relate to.
I have people call me up andthey go, well, my father, he had
a Fisher Craftsman's car, and Iwish I could find that it really
meant a lot when I was young.
So there's different stories you'regonna hear and different reasons why

(01:00:28):
different people will do different things.
But you know what it's like they saydifferent strokes are different folks.
So buy what you like.
If you feel like you like that.
That's how you do it.
Don't go to a book and go,oh, wait a minute, that's $25.
And I only see it in the book at 20.
If you really like it, pay the 25.

(01:00:48):
You'll be happy.
See, Steve, you remind me of that, thatlady that was on Netflix, Marie Kondo.
If it brings you joy, keep it.
It's the same idea, right?
At the end of the day, noteverybody's always happy.
Just having a bunch of happy thingsdoesn't make a happy person, and
that's what life's all about.
You know, learning what things makeyou happy, and sometimes saying, I

(01:01:10):
don't think I'm ever gonna be happyagain, but then maybe sometimes some of
this stuff just does help, doesn't it?
All this Automobiliaphilosophizing brings us to Steve.
Where do you see AutomobiliaVintage going, your new company?
What projects are exciting about it?
What's next for Steve?
What's up for Automobilia Vintage?

(01:01:32):
You know, it's like withany startup of any company.
Not necessarily bigger,but definitely better.
Definitely a more easier and a morestreamlined approach to this whole thing.
You live and you learn, and you learn.
You make your mistakes anddon't we learn by them, so, you

(01:01:53):
know, I wanna make it better.
I want to make it easier forour clients to deal with.
I want to be able to offera service instead of putting
that stuff with the trains.
I'm not famous enoughyet to help with that.
I would like to be able to help withthat so that those automobile related

(01:02:13):
items, that automobile gets into theright channel to go to the right place.
Because I, I don't know whatwould've happened, 20 outta 20.
It's a good batting average, butit also makes me think, well, what
if I was the only, I believe I was.
And when I went to pick it all upand, um, the auctioneer said, I'm so

(01:02:35):
glad it's all gonna stay together.
And, and I thought.
Oh my God, that's quite an honor.
But you were running an auction.
You could have put this as one lot.
Well, no, we, we thought it wouldbe better if somebody wanted
this or somebody wanted that.
And I said, well, I, I'mgonna keep it together.
If it's available, it will be togetherso that if somebody has, you know, a

(01:02:56):
reason to want it all, they will havethe opportunity to purchase it all.
That's what it comes down to.
Right?
Making it better, makingit be better known.
However that becomes, can go as fastas possible and get up higher faster.
So that's what it's all about.
Right?
We give a better experience andthat's one of the things, all of my

(01:03:18):
seven businesses that I've ever had.
I always want to offera better experience.
Everybody can do what you do, but youcould give them a better experience and
is that not something that's lost today?
Try to call somebody at eBay.
Try to call somebody at Expedia.
Try to call somebody at UPS.

(01:03:39):
I can give a better experience.
You call it goes to my cell phone.
You can contact me and Steve, to be clear,automobilia Vintage is not an auction.
It's a place to go to purchase direct.
Is that right?
It is.
I really feel like an auction is aplace where you can go and you, you
have to control your emotions, right?

(01:04:01):
You have to.
It's like anything else.
If you are there and you,there's no sky, you could be
pretty high without a parachute.
So what I try to do is I tryto offer the unique items.
You know, one of the thingsthat I don't do is say I'm firm,
I put a price on something.
But if somebody calls and says, youknow, I, I, I am very reasonable.

(01:04:24):
Most of the time it endsup being the freight.
You know, sometimes it could be less.
But I, I try to give everybodythat same opportunity I got.
And unfortunately I feel like,you know, an auction, it doesn't
give everybody a fair shot.
I mean, somebody's gotta be a winner.
Well, what's that?
Make the guy who wasn't awinner, first runner up.

(01:04:45):
Okay.
And we also give everybodya star for effort.
Ricky Bobby said, if youain't first, your last.
Right.
So that's what I'm trying to say.
I like the auction, but I, I, I'mnot crazy about, I'm not sold on that
idea quite yet because I just don'tlike that fact of putting someone
who wants something in that position.

(01:05:07):
I mean, if it's a disposal situation,which a lot of auctions are, they
just gotta get rid of this stuff.
That's different.
But to say, oh, well, hey, look,today we're gonna offer something as
buyers, we don't like that, right?
What if you went in the grocery storeand said, Hey, here's your steak.
Oh, wait a minute, $5, $6, seven.
Do I hear 8, 9, 10, 12?

(01:05:27):
Oh, Don, you're not eating tonight.
Eric, you are the winner of this steak.
Don hit the road.
So, I mean, we don't like being putin that position, and I don't wanna
put my clients in that position.
You know, I'm trying tomake it just what it is.
Fun, happy part of an experience.
Alright, Steve, well we've reached thatpart of the episode where I'd like to

(01:05:48):
invite our guests to share any shoutouts, promotions, thank yous, or anything
else we haven't covered thus far.
Well, how can I not?
Thank you, Eric.
You gave me an opportunity to tell allof your wonderful listeners exactly how.
I see things, it's all opinion.
It's all based upon things that I'vehad in my 62 years of experience.

(01:06:09):
And that's it, right?
I mean, I can't tell you that I went tothe School of Automobilia 'cause I didn't.
And I can't tell you that I graduated witha degree in Automobilia because I didn't.
And again, I can never forget my friends.
So I can't forget Dawn.
And, you know, I can't forget the firsttime I picked up this WOW magazine called

(01:06:32):
Garage Style and met the man behind it.
I, I just thought it was so fabulous.
And you know, I, I have to tellyou all the years of knowing
Dawn, Dawn's been there for me.
So I have to say thank you to Dawn.
I, I'll never forget it.
And there's just so many other peopleI've met through Dawn as well, you

(01:06:52):
know, that are just fantastic car guys.
Car girls.
It's wonderful.
And that's one of thethings I enjoy the most.
That's why I say.
Thank you for coming toAutomobile Your Vintage.
We've hoped you had a great experience,and that's what it's all about.
You're too kind, Steve.
Thank you.
Well, thank you Don, andthank you Eric, both really.

(01:07:13):
It does mean a lot to me fromuncovering rare treasures to preserving
the rich history of Motorsport.
Steve gave us a look into thepassion, the dedication, and the
stories behind every collectiblein his extraordinary collection.
So be sure to check out AutomobiliaVintage [e-mail]

(01:07:34):
for more insights, rare finds,and ways to connect with Steve's
world of automotive history.
You can also follow him on socialmedia for updates and highlights
from the collection via Instagramand Facebook at Automobilia Vintage.
That's right Don and Steve, I can'tthank you enough for coming on Break
Fix and sharing your story, yourpassion, and your incredible insights

(01:07:58):
into the world of collecting with us.
And we wish you the best of luck on yournew startup, your new adventure that
you're going on with Automobile Vintage.
So good luck and Godspeed.
Thank you both.
You know, it's, it's wonderfulto be here with both of you.
Besides all of the love for carsand the love for automobile and
the love for history and allthat, it's about the friends too.

(01:08:22):
Dawn and I have been friends and, um,you know, I, I could never forget my
friends and not that I ever would,but I just wanna say that's a big part
and I want to thank both of you guys.
And now, Eric, guess what?
Welcome to a long friendship.
Oh, thank you very much.
Thank you for tuning in, and we'llsee you next time for more stories to
celebrate the spirit of cars racingand the people who make it all happen.

(01:08:50):
Since 2007, garage Style Magazine has beenthe definitive source for car collectors,
continually delivering information aboutAutomobilia Petroliana events and more.
To learn more about the annualpublication and its new website, be
sure to follow them on social media at.
Garage Style magazine or log ontowww.garagestylemagazine.com because after

(01:09:17):
all, what doesn't belong in your garage?
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