Someone did exactly that this week at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Arizona
- Someone just paid US$330,000 for a plain ol’ 2012 Corvette with automatic transmission
- OK, it does have just 65 miles on the odometer, but still…
- It outsold at least two ZR1s from its late owner’s collection at auction
Well, someone did at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale in mid-January; and while this particular car only has 65 miles (104 km) on the clock, that’s still quite a premium to pay for it. The car initially crossed the block with no reserve on it, and the first bidder called out 10 grand for it. It moved up relatively slowly until a bidding war broke out, pushing it up to a final price of US$300,000, and then add the 10% buyer’s premium on top of that.
The car was part of the collection of David Ressler, who died in late 2017. He’d started working at a Chevrolet dealership in North Dakota in 1980 and, seven years later, bought the business. He went on to acquire more dealerships and, along the way, his extensive car collection, which included the world’s oldest Corvette and the first 2009 ZR1, according to his obituary. He was famous for wearing clothes that matched the colour of whatever car he was driving that day.
Barrett-Jackson auctioned 12 of his cars, 10 of them Corvettes including six consecutive ZR1s from 1990 to 1995, at its Scottsdale sale last fall; and 18 more at this event in January, with those cars all at no reserve.
Oddly by comparison, a 1993 C4 ZR1 from Ressler’s collection, with only eight miles (12 km) on it went for US$115,000; and his 1995 ZR1, with 73 miles (117 km) on the clock, was US$82,500. So perhaps someone was reliving an old dream of walking into a dealership in 2012 and getting a brand-new C6; or perhaps, more likely, we just had two ultra-fueled bidders who weren’t going to back down?
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