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CORVETTE TODAY #242 - A Preview Of Mecum Kissimmee 2025 Auction With John Kraman
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Jul 12, 2025
Every year, the Mecum Kissimmee show is the largest show that the Mecum Auction puts on. And this year's show will be bigger and better than ever! John Kraman, Mecum's TV host is back on CORVETTE TODAY with your host, Steve Garrett, to overview this upcoming show. John talks about this history of the Mecum Kissimmee show along with significant Corvettes and other collector cars that will cross the auction block. Kraman also previews some of the significant collections (including a collection of '63 Split Window Corvettes) that will be sold at Mecum Kissimmee. Friday, January 10th is Corvette Day at Mecum Kissimmee. Join us for a Meet & Greet with your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett and Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger that day!
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[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
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And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the
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world. A personal friend of mine and a great friend of the show, John Kraman, TV host of the Mikum Auctions is back on
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Corvette today to give us a preview of the largest Mikum show of the new year, Mikum CMI. John, it's great to have you
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back on Corvette today, buddy. Man, it is my pleasure. You know, I just have to give you so much credit, Steve,
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for just the significance of Corvette today. As a lifelong Corvette fan, as you know, you and I are friends as well.
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Owner of three Corvettes myself. Your show really is the gold standard really
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for getting up-to-date information. The relationships that you have made over the years with virtually everybody in
4:22
the Corvette community really pays off for all of us that are Corvette nuts. for me to be included on your show from
4:29
time to time. It is my pleasure and something I really look forward to, my friend. Thanks for having me, buddy.
4:34
Always, buddy. It's an honor and a pleasure. You're always welcome on Corvette today. You just let me know when you can be there and you're on.
4:42
Well, buddy, let's talk about Mikum CMI. Give me some dates, the venue, the location, the times, the weekdays, and
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where you can buy tickets. Yeah. You know what's really crazy, Steve? Over the years since 1988, Mikum
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Auctions has grown to be the world's largest collector car auction by far. But its flagship now going into our 26th
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year in CMI, Florida, which is actually Orlando. Location over the years has changed. It's now our permanent home is
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Ocola Heritage Park. They've done a lot of work there to accommodate what we do
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where we host in fact the world's single largest collector car auction. This year, Steve, it's going to run 13 days
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straight. Almost two weeks straight. Wow. It goes January 7th through the 19th.
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Our target as far as total number of consignments. Are you sitting down? About 4,500 cars as of this morning. I
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checked in with the consignment department for an up-to-date number on where we're at. About 3500 cars already
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consigned. Wow. Yeah. It's crazy. And just to put the icing on the cake and let everybody know
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just how big and important this auction was, we go back to Mikum CMI 2024. That would be January of this year where we
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celebrated 25 years of auctions in CMI by Mikum. We did $270
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million in the sale of collector vehicles. No auction company in the world before or since that has even come
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close to that kind of a number. And hold your breath, cross your fingers. We're looking at exceeding that number as we
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typically like to do. We keep resetting our targets as we move into the new year. Crazy, man. That's awesome, buddy. Now, if somebody
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can't make it down to Orlando CM, where can they watch it on TV? They can watch it on TV. We'll be on
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Motor Trend with our normal crew, myself as the lead TV commentator, analyst. Can you believe it, man? Starting my 18th
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year. Masletoough in the hot seat. Yeah. Thanks, buddy. And then with of course Scott Hope is my
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host. And then three great floor reporters, Bill Stevens, Danielle Prada, and Chris Jacobs. Everybody knows Chris
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from Overhaul. He's a great guy. Really proud of this team and the way we bring the action accurately and with relevance
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to our viewers. And again, man, 18 years of doing it as a lifelong car guy. What an honor and a thrill it is for me. I
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mean, I'm a Corvette guy and a muscle car guy and a 50s car primarily, but we see everything literally from A to Z
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there. So, we kick off 30 hours of television on Motor Trend TV. We also stream on Max, HBO Max. That kicks off
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on January 9th. That auction does start January 7th. So, we'll have plenty of action, plenty of ways for folks to
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watch if they can't make it. And then there's always go to mikum.com and watch the streaming service. Now, it's not the
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TV show. There's no commentary on that, but you see the auction, you hear the auctioneer, you see the cars, you see
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descriptions of the cars, you see multiple camera views, and most importantly, you hear the bidding up to
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the point whether what the high bid is or whether the vehicle sells. Steve, that's 100% free. It's got gavl togavl
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action. All you got to do is go to mikum.com, log into your my mikum account, which is totally 100% free. You
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just need to put in your email address and boom, you are in our system and are able to watch the streaming service.
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Gabble to gavvel in addition obviously to what we do on the television side. Buddy, I love watching that. If you're
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not on Motor Trend, I'm watching on mikum.com. Right. Me too. The only thing we're missing is you and Scott and everybody else, but it's
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always fun to watch it if you're not on Motor Trend TV or on Max. Right on, brother. Let's talk about the history of CM. How
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many cars you've got consigned right now? I know you said you're at 3500. What's your target for CMI?
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Well, we always put an aggressive target. We always raise the bar. And just because we put a target or a number
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out there doesn't mean that either we're going to hit it or it's possible we could go over it. We just set a target.
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So for Mikum CMI 2025, the published target of number of consignments is a
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record whopping 4,500 cars. Wow. We've never set a target like that
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before, but as of today, and we're still quite a ways out, as of today, we are just a few cars over 3,500 entries, and
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we know from history that the last 30 days of our massive consignment department, they're literally in a
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process of working overtime to get everybody into that auction that wants to participate. So, certainly, we're
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going to be well north of 4,000 and we may even be very close to our aggressive target at 4,500.
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Amazing. How many years have you guys been doing Mikum CM? Well, you know, keep in mind Mikum has
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been in business since 1988. This our 26th year in CM. And it's funny, Steve,
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how it's grown to be our single largest auction. And we do a lot of internal reflection on why that is. Why is CM so
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big? And we've got venues, as you know, all over the country. We do about 16 auctions a year, and we make it
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convenient for everybody that wants to buy or sell or spectate to make them auction from a location standpoint. But
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there's something very special about Central Florida in January after the holidays where we're getting multiple
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demographics. Now, we know there's a lot of folks in Florida that are car folks, mikum fans. So, we've got a, you know,
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pretty strong built-in car nut population there, but what's astonishing is so many people come from two of our
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biggest areas. They come down from the Northeast and they come down from the Midwest in droves. And I'm not kidding.
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They bring their families. They bring motor homes. They come down for a couple weeks. They come here as part of a vacation plan with obviously all the
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things there is to do with kids and grandkids and everything else. So, it's evolved as time goes on. It's evolved
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into a major automotive happening. The crowds, the layout, the volume of the cars, the quality of the cars, just the
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overall general excitement of Mikum CM honestly Steve must be experienced to be
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believed. It is a celebration of the automobile extraordinaire.
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And once somebody goes and they experience the magic of it, the excitement of it, it's something that
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they want to go to every year. Absolutely. I know. I came last year, had such a blast. We're coming back down
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again this year for Corvette Day on Friday, January 10th. We're going to have Corvette today and a meet and greet
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with me and Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. So, that'll be fun. Oh man, so glad to have you, brother. So
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glad. I'm looking forward to it. Just like you said, Florida in January sounds pretty darn good, John.
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Indeed indeed. Tell me about consigning a car for Mikum CMI and how you can either consign or
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become a buyer. Right. It is very straightforward. You know over time we've streamlined and made our consignment and our bidder
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process very easy and seamless. And I think you know Steve part of that comes from the fact that going back to the
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originator back to 1988 Dana Mikum had a vision to have a collector car auction company. He's still our president
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heavily involved in our company today. his four sons are involved and all have very prominent roles in the management
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of our company as well. But my point is it's a family organization and it's a Midwestbased organization. Our corporate
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offices in Worth, Wisconsin. I say that to sort of make the beginning to answer your question of we're very trusting. We
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believe in honor and doing business on a handshake. So we make it very simple for
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folks to either sign up as a bidder or sign up as a consigner. We'll start with a consigner process first because that's
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really what we are, Steve. or consignment machine. Nothing at all happens within our mikum organization
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without getting the inventory, the consignments, you know, having, you know, the food on the shelves at the grocery store, so to speak, right?
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So, very simple. You've got basically one of two choices. It's very easy to go online, look at all the data and the
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entry information that's online. There's a form you can fill out online that's very straightforward about your car and
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the information of it, and you send that in and get an immediate response back. or even better, my personal individual
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preference is to call and talk to somebody within our consignment department, which are springloaded at
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all time to take folks calls. And you know, the conversation typically revolves around one of two things.
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Number one, no shocker, what's my car worth? Yeah. And number two, what auction do I bring
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it to? And so the good news is the consignment department being full-time and heavily experienced and
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knowledgeable on how to talk to folks about their cars, how to help them look at what the value of the car might be
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realistically, what we think would be a realistic target, a reserve price, which we are a reserve auction where folks are
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able to put a protected or reserve price or they can sell no reserve. They have options and I'll talk about that in the
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commission structure here in just a few moments. Big decisions. I just have to tell you it's low pressure. Nobody is
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pressured into it at all. And I'll tell you why. Selling a collector vehicle or a collection, more about collections in
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a moment. Selling a vehicle is an emotional decision. We get that. And not everybody when they first contact us are
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ready to sell their car or cars that they've had for a long period of time. We understand that and we get that. And
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we never try to talk somebody out of selling their car. They have to make that personal decision on their own. But
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once they've made that decision, Steve, once they've crossed over and they've decided, yes, I either want or need to
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sell the car, that's when we go into high gear. And that's when we kind of shift people over into our what we call
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our hot list where we need to make sure that we're providing as much information as we can to that potential consigner so
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that he feels comfortable understanding all the nuances of, I guess we'll call it, all the pluses and minuses of
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consigning the car and actually bringing it to the auction. So, here's how it works. Very simple. You can sign a car
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to make them auctions. You pay an entry fee. You pay a set fee. And the set fee depends on the auction, the day,
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actually the time of the day, and the value of the car. And we do that because we call it inventory management. We want
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to make sure that we've got positions available that are affordable for folks of a collector car of all values. You
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know, we talk a lot about the high-end cars, and you and I are going to talk a bit about that here in just a few moments. Sure. some of the moments where
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we really rang the bell on cars. Some of the upcoming cars coming to Cassini that are really expensive, but the reality
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is, you know, the average price of a car that we sell at a Mikum auction is about $50 $52,000.
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That's kind of in the affordable sweet spot, which meaning there's plenty of cars under that number. Entry fees start
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at $350 to get your car into the auction and they go all the way up to $1,500
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with some steps in between that. And you get different things. You get different things for those different steps. All
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that of course is explained on the website and from a consignment agent. So you pick your day and your time based on
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the value of the car. You pay the entry fee and boom, you are in the auction. The second level of fees that get
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incurred are if the vehicle sells. And it's Steve, it's simple. If it sells, the gabble drops, we sell your car, we
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collect 10% of the hammer price. If it does not sell on the block, we sell
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about 70% of the cars on the block, by the way. Then you just take your vehicle home or it still may sell. We have
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what's called the bid goes on process which is six guys full-time that are there that continue to work that roughly
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30% of vehicles that don't sell on the block and that represents about another 10% of our sales. That could be the same
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day, the next day, 3 4 days later. But bottom line is if it doesn't sell, you just take your vehicle home. You've not
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signed over the title. You've done nothing at all to mar the ownership of your vehicle. kind of like bringing it
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to a car show. You showed it off, you've given it a shot. No harm, no foul. You take it home and everybody lives to see
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another day. So, it's a very straightforward, easy to understand process. I mentioned no reserve. All of
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those variables are the same with no reserve with one big exception. Instead of that 10% fee that you pay, we only
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collect a 6% fee on a vehicle or a collection that goes no reserve absolute sale. It takes a lot of soulsearching.
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It's a lot of money, especially if you got an expensive car or a big collection. A lot of money to be saved
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by going no reserve. And again, that's best that's a strategy best discussed with the consignment agent. You and I
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could do a whole show on just that topic alone. Absolutely. And buddy, you know, for me watching so many meum shows on
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television, I noticed that a lot of cars are sold over the phone or over the internet. Talk about that because that's
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very prominent now with your auctions. Right. Ever since the pandemic, our online bidding has exploded. And we've
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got a very good program set up to allow somebody to either, we call it absentee bidding, but it's either via telephone
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or by the internet. Pre- pandemic, it only used to represent somewhere between 3 and 5% of our total bidding activity
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was on either the telephone or the internet. But what's happened is with the pandemic and with us actually
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fine-tuning and improving our hardware and our software to make it a more seamless experience, the participation
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is in the 20 to 25% range. Wow. So, a lot of our biders are really anxious to take advantage of that. We're
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accommodating that. And I think it's important, Steve, and I'm glad you asked that question because we know that there's auction companies out there that
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are operating online only. The reality is is we think that the excitement of a
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live auction, but also being able to offer the online opportunity as well as telephone opportunities gives us a
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greater depth. We're still obviously playing on our passion of the excitement of a live auction, a televised live
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auction, even better. But yeah, for those folks that either don't want to come or can't come, we make it good for them as well. We feel like it's the best
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of all worlds. And with the kind of growth, frankly, Mum Auctions has seen consistently over the years, I think
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that our strategy is really, really working well. Not bragging, but it is what it is, brother.
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Yeah, it's really working well because I watch and you see so many people buying over the phone or on the internet. It's
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really become an integral part of every make them auction. Yes, indeed, buddy. Let's take our first break. When
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we come back, we're going to talk about highlights from the Mikum auction for 2024. That's coming up next on Corvette
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call 833-639-4231. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me is
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my pal John Kramerman from the Mikum Auctions. We're talking about everything Mikum CMI. John, 2024 has been a record
22:16
year for the Mikum Auctions. Talk about the shows that you've done this year. How many cars have been sold? And what's
22:21
Mikum's revenue number again? Well, the good news is, Steve, again, I mentioned earlier $270 million, a new record at
22:28
our Mikum Cassimi auction, which kicks off our new calendar year. Our fiscal
22:34
year ends the end of February. So, if we go back to last year, so this would be
22:40
our target that we're looking forward to in the new year, this would be post CMI 2025, by the way, was $785
22:48
million in the sale of collector vehicles. Now, let me just say that that includes collector vehicles and includes
22:54
everything that we do at Amum auction, which also includes what we call road art. That's our memorabilia department.
22:59
But that's a massive part of what we do because so many car collectors love memorabilia. They love to dress their
23:05
man caves and garages up and have a much more affordable piece to take home with them at a mink auction. So, we load mum
23:10
auctions up with a ton of that stuff. It's a great service. But $785 million
23:16
is going to be our sales rate from last year. We're going to know the new number obviously sometime probably within the
23:23
first week or 10 days or so in March. But based on the success that we've had so far of virtually all of our auctions
23:30
either being record auctions or second best auctions of all time as we kind of
23:35
go back in history of all the auctions that we've had so far. Knock on wood and I'm doing it here man. We are poised to
23:42
once again have a record year as we're approaching. We're not there yet at 785
23:48
million as we're approaching the $1 billion mark. That's what we're hoping
23:54
for. That's an aggressive goal, but man, it's there. It's in our sights. It's
23:59
going to be major party time. It's not if, but when we hit that magic milestone, brother.
24:05
Pretty amazing, buddy. Indeed. Are there shows from this year that really stand out in your mind that were record setters or revenue setters or
24:12
things like that from 2024? You know, I got to mention one auction, Steve, and I got to mention two particular vehicles
24:18
from that. On behalf of Mikum Auctions, I do a lot of speaking to various groups, car clubs, business meetings
24:24
where I talk about the history of Mikum Auctions and kind of fine-tune it to obviously to the group. I just have to
24:30
say that this year it was all about our smallest auction in total car count, but
24:36
our largest individual auction as far as per dollar car amount. That's our Mika
24:41
Monterey auction held during Monterey Historic out in Monterey, California. It's the world celebration of cars. It's
24:47
not even a week anymore. Goes on for like 11 days now. Mikum's one of the big players out there and we absolutely
24:53
killed it there this year, Steve. You know, we go back to 2010, long time ago at Monterey. We set a record for the
25:00
single highest priced car ever sold in Mikum auction. I'll tell you what it was. 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra
25:08
driven to Leman's victory in its class by none other than racing legend and
25:15
A-listister Bob Vondrant. Bob Vondrant was there at the auction and drove that
25:21
car that he drove to victory in ' 65. This is 2010. He drove that car up onto
25:26
the auction block and was greeted by Miss Hurst Golden Shifter to Linda Bond. We brought her in there with longtime
25:32
friends. She greeted him as he brought the car up and it brought $7.25
25:37
million. A lot of money, right? Yeah. Okay. So, that was Mikum's all-time single vehicle record all the way from
25:44
2010 up until Monterey 2024 where we absolutely crushed obliterated that
25:51
record. Dollar amount. We sold one car. I'll tell you what it is. Sold one car for $17,875,000.
25:59
It was a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT California. Only 55 were built between 1960 and
26:06
1963. It's a holy grail. Yeah. Of vintage Ferraris. It absolutely sent
26:12
shock waves through the clutched car world that Meikum could hit a classic Ferrari out of the ballpark like that.
26:19
But then not to show that it's not a fluke, Steve, in the muscle car world, not a Corvette, we sold a 1969 Dodge
26:26
Daytona Hemi four-speed F8 green. Very well-known car in the Mopar community.
26:32
Regarded as the highest option Hemi Daytona in existence, and after a crazy
26:38
wild bidder battle that we covered on TV, it was unbelievable the action. It
26:43
hammered for $3 million. Amazing. Muscle cars are alive and well
26:50
is all I can say to anybody that might think that muscle cars from 50, 60 years
26:55
ago have passed their prime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those are a couple of cars that are just going
27:01
to always stand out in my mind at that auction that had us all shaking our heads. Just so proud to be a part of
27:07
calling the action on those cars while it was happening. You still hear the excitement obviously and the pride in my voice right now.
27:12
Yeah, definitely. talk about some of the significant Corvettes that have crossed the Mikum auction block this year
27:18
because I know just recently one of the Corvettes, I think it was an L88, sold for $419,000.
27:24
Yeah. You know, as is typical, you know, keep in mind, Steve, Corvettes, number one most plentiful vehicle on the Mikum
27:31
auction block. Number one. Nice. Approximately 10% of the total inventory to Mikum auction are Corvettes. We've
27:37
got entry- level C4 Corvettes for under $10,000 all the way on to the world's best. You mentioned the L88 at over
27:43
$400,000. Not unusual to see cars like that at a mum auction. I want to brag and I want
27:50
to talk about one sale. The big part of Corvette history and how it's come full circle and where we're at today
27:57
recognizing the significance specifically of the Corvette brand after now what 71 years.
28:03
Yeah. Let's go to Nikum Dallas this year where we had what I'm going to go ahead
28:08
and call I'll kind of tip my hat a little bit. The most significant C7 Corvette ever of all time. We all know
28:15
2014 to 2019. You as a former owner of a C7 know what a wonderful car that was.
28:21
But it reached its pinnacle with one year. 2019 the final year. the ZR1
28:27
incredible supercharged 755 horsepower engine available with manuals and automatics, coups and convertibles. And
28:33
we know that forever that car is going to go down in Corvette history as the most potent conventional, which would be
28:39
front engine Corvette of all time. That car is never going to be repeated. And we know that. And we know that the
28:45
prices of the ZR1s have been just steadily climbing. Oh yeah. But there's one in particular, Steve,
28:50
don't know if you caught it or not. One in particular that paid off big time for the visionary owner that ordered this
28:56
car brand new. He knew it would be the very last C7 Corvette built, which means
29:02
that it would be the last front engine Corvette ever built. He selected the seven-speed manual transmission, meaning
29:09
that it was the last manual transmission Corvette ever built. Right. Okay. and he ordered it an arctic white
29:17
with the red interior to pay homage to the original Corvette from 1953. All 300
29:23
of the original Corvettes 53, 71 years ago were all Polo White with the red interior. He knew that. Obviously, it
29:30
paid off in a huge way. Lot of speculation on exactly what that car was going to sell for, but bringing well
29:37
over double the MSRP about 10 miles on the odometer, by the way, for a car that virtually will never be driven. Steve.
29:43
Yeah, that car is going to be in and out of collections as a showcase of the end of the line of a incredible run, America's
29:51
sports car. And that was just another thrill to see that car. Have some interaction with the owner, how happy he
29:56
was both before and after the sale. Another example of Mikum just kind of leading away on significant Corvettes.
30:04
And with over 400 Corvettes coming up for CMI, we're setting the stage, knock on wood, again for another potential,
30:10
not only a big CM, but another big Corvette. Buddy, I tell you what, that leads me right into the next set of questions.
30:17
Let's take our final break, John. When we come back, we'll talk about the Corvettes and other significant cars
30:22
coming up in Mikum CM 2025. That's next on Corvette Today.
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett.
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my pal John Kraman, the Mikum Auction TV host. We are talking about Mikum CMI
34:00
2025 coming up. John, first off, let's talk about some of the significant Corvettes that are going to be crossing
34:06
the auction block at Mikum CMI 2025. Yeah, no shortage of really cool
34:12
high-end Corvettes. One of our main attractions is the very last L72, a legendary 427, 425 horsepower engine. It
34:20
was the first year of the 427 with its availability in the Corvette. Big block was 65 with the 396, but it grew up even
34:28
to this day. That L72 425 horsepower 427 has a mystique in the Corvette world.
34:34
And we've got the very last 66 convertible that was built. It's been through NCRS judging and all that stuff.
34:40
It's a great color in red. It's obviously fully restored. That's one that gets my attention. But even more
34:46
so, Steve, even more so than that are the incredible Corvette collections that we've got coming now. We've got over 30
34:53
distinct collections. And we're talking everything literally from A to Z. Pre-war classics, 50s, customs,
34:58
contemporary performance cars, European exotics from virtually all generations. But man, we've got some Corvette
35:05
collections that are almost too good to be true. You know, one of the real hot markets today in not only just the
35:12
Corvette world, but in the overall clutch car world is the split window Corvette. One year only, 1963, the debut
35:19
of the coupe. We've got a collection coming to CMI called the Split Window Colorama 2 collection that's got about a
35:26
dozen split window Corvettes that represent some of the best of the world. I mean, we're talking about fuel
35:31
injected versions. We're talking about a variety of colors. air conditioning, which made its debut in the Corvette in
35:37
1963. Under 300 were built. I mean, it's a rare option. There's actually two of
35:43
those cars with air conditioning. Even one with the down market base engine that's rarely seen, can you believe it?
35:49
A modest 250 horsepower 350. That was the standard base engine in the Corvette in 1963. Rarely seen out of a variety of
35:56
higher horsepower engines. Usually got those option boxes checked off. Yeah, I can tell you that collection is going
36:02
to get a massive amount of attention in addition to other collections that have
36:07
a wide variety of Corvettes from virtually all generations, generation
36:12
one all the way through the current day. And I just want to say that a lot of people, Steve, were talking about Corvettes in the Corvette market, how
36:19
well it's doing. A lot of these conversations go to the C8. You've got one, I've got one. We pay a little bit
36:24
more attention to the market as a result of that, but I know mine's not for sale. I don't think yours is either. No sir.
36:30
But the reality is this. Right now, Chevrolet is approaching near record
36:35
volume sales levels annually. You know, in the 50,000 car range, right? They are pumping these cars out and
36:42
there's a lot of availability right now, which I consider to be a very good thing. The good news for a potential C8
36:49
buyer is this is a really super good time to buy a C8. Oh, yeah. The prices have settled. They're right
36:55
in line. And I just wanted to, as a C8 enthusiast, and I love mine like you do yours, just let folks know that if
37:01
you're thinking about a C8 Corvette, new or owned, man, this is the time to buy
37:07
because the prices definitely are down to a level that not only makes it more affordable, but overall makes it easier
37:15
to get into and easier to justify than obviously the over MSRP and the huge
37:20
premiums that we saw in the early years of the Skate Corvette, which of course began in 2020. Now is the time to buy a
37:26
C8. There's some great pricing out there, buddy. Indeed. How about some of the significant non-corvettes coming up?
37:32
Obviously, Steve, no shortage of those as well, but you know, man, I talked about at Monterey 24, the record of that
37:39
63 Ferrari 250 GT at just under $18 million. Man, we've got the potential to
37:45
break that at Mikum CMI and to smash it by a wide margin. Perhaps the most
37:50
significant collector car of all time. don't even necessarily have to be a Corvette enthusiast to understand what
37:57
the significance of this particular car is. And of course, that is the 1969 Porsche 917K, Steve McQueen's hero car
38:04
from the movie Lemons, the number 20 car. It is the real deal. It is totally
38:10
documented. No questions about the history or the pedigree of this car. The movie was a sensation when it came out.
38:16
Today, it's a cult favorite. The 917 dominated the world sports car racing
38:22
beginning in ' 69 and running through really the mid1 1970s, including Can-Am racing here in the US. It's a landmark
38:28
car. This specific car puts it at the very highest level because it's part of American pop culture. Totally expecting
38:35
that car to hammer at a number that would be a new all-time meum record.
38:41
We're actually doing a television special. Don't know the air date yet on that car and the history of it that will
38:46
be airing on Motor Trend TV. In addition to that, something a little bit more affordable and more whimsical, but it's
38:52
also a pop culture celebrity connection. How about the 1967 Jaguar Eype, the
38:58
Jaguar Roadster that was featured in all three of the Austin Power movies, the Union Jack painted up Jaguar Roadster
39:05
that Austin Powers cruised around in, did his escapades in. Again, VCAR ironclad documented, not going to be put
39:12
on the same kind of pedestal obviously as the 917K, but certainly it's going to be a few levels more affordable. And
39:18
then everything from Shelby Cobras to Ferraris to again high-end Corvettes of
39:24
all generations. The list and the quality of the cars that we put under what we call Steve our main attraction
39:31
banner which can be looked up at mikum.com will give folks a chance to see and put their finger on the pulse of
39:38
literally some of the world's best collector cars coming to the world's largest collector car auction.
39:43
Everything is in place, my friend, to have another record event. And I'm so glad that you and Keith are going to be
39:49
there with some folks from Corvette today. I'll obviously be there on the TV side of things and thousands of
39:54
thousands of folks there soaking up the Florida sun in the middle of winter and living the good life. Brother,
40:00
can't wait, buddy. I can't wait. Hey, John, you know, you talked about some of the collections coming across the block.
40:05
There's some really good ones. The Michael J collection. Bill and Patty Sperling have a collection that are
40:10
coming to the auction block. Are there any other significant ones that stand out in your mind? Yeah, lots of them, Steve. It's just
40:17
incredible what's happening with these collections. And let me tell you why collections are so important. Generally
40:22
speaking, these are all high-end collectors. The ones that you mentioned in addition to many more, Butch Lindley,
40:28
and my pal who's passed away, Cliff Ernst. I mean, more like I say, 30 collections. But these cars from these
40:34
Alys collectors represent really the finest carefully selected most important
40:41
individual cars of their category coming to Mikum CMI in mass and what happens is
40:47
once we do a good job with a high-end collection it draws others that want to
40:52
get on board with the same thing and it's typically collector waiting for a high point in the collector car world to
40:58
maybe sell their collection. Maybe they've kind of aged out to the point where they want to be a part of the
41:04
promotion and the sale of that collection or in some cases and we work with consigners for years to get to this
41:10
point that are coming out of estates. And this is all part of the Mikum strategy as we move forward to continue
41:16
to grow and to offer phenomenal cars to our bidder base. As time marches on,
41:21
every Mikum auction has collections, but none have the sheer volume of high-end
41:26
collections that we do at Mikum CMI. That includes everything I mentioned earlier. Corvettes and pre-war classics
41:32
and Duenbergs. Over 100 years of automotive history are represented in all of these collections. Even if
41:38
somebody's not a buyer, you watch it on TV. I recommend going to the auction. I call it a car show with a pulse. It's
41:44
unlike any car show anybody's ever attended. The cars that are moving, the action that occurs both on the auction
41:49
block and just with the cars moving around the venue, talking with the owners, talking with other enthusiasts. It's more than just a collector car
41:56
auction. It's a true happening. And you and I are going to be there to take it all in. Brother, buddy, I can't wait. I honestly can't
42:03
wait. All right, John, let's wrap it up. Where can people preview everything coming up for the CMI show?
42:08
Easy peasy, Steve. Mikum.com for so much information. It is so easy to navigate the website, look at things, and I just
42:15
want to do another pitch to join up as a Mikum my mikum member, which is totally free. Gives you an insider look at
42:21
what's happening with Mikum, including all of the results. And I mentioned results whether it be what the sale
42:27
amount was or what the high bid was. All of that information is disclosed and it's available to everybody for free and
42:34
I consider it to be the number one source for looking at comparable sales. You know, we talk about appraisers and
42:40
guide books and people's opinions, but the bottom line is if you go to mikum.com, log into your my mikum
42:46
account, you're able to easily navigate through a system with a lot of drop-own boxes. I'm not a computer guy. I can
42:53
click through it and pull up vehicles and spend unlimited amount of hours you can spend on there looking at great
42:58
cars, pictures, descriptions, what they sold for or what the high bid was in addition, Steve, to everything else
43:04
that's coming to the Mikum auctions in the future. It's awesome, buddy. That is awesome. And it is easy peasy
43:09
for sure. mikum.com. Buddy, thank you so much for taking the time to be on Corvette today. I am super excited about
43:16
coming down to CMI to hang out with you and everybody else at the show. Well, we appreciate, Steve, your interest and
43:21
your enthusiasm, man. We'll see you down there. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your
43:27
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