Re: DeLorean- Kruse auction

["Gary Weaver II" <gw2tulsa@xxxx>]

Yeah, you like that. Here is a little story about what was my car...

I sat my Car up for the entire weekend at the Kruse Leake 2003 
Dallas Auto Auction and it was the hit of the show. EVERYONE stopped 
and looked. Pictures were taken all over the place, interviews were 
had. People actually came back the next day with family to show them 
the car. It was amazing to see the reaction we were getting. I was 
incredibly hopefull for how things were going and the auction was 
starting for us in about an hour...

So, I get the car set up and ready to go to the bidding floor. 
Things are great and I take the car up on the lift... 

Then it all went to heck in a handbasket...

I'm sittin gup here in the blazing heat and can't see or think for 
ANYTHING... The bidding is going NOWHERE, I mean NOWHERE. The bids 
are only around $18k... I'm in total shock at this point. All the 
while one of the auction runners is sticking his head in my drivers 
area and telling me...

"Thats a fair price... This is the market value" blah, blah, blah...

I respond that the Reserve is 35K for a REASON. He continues to 
harrass and push, and push, and push...

Finally the bidding is about 22K and its stalling... All the while 
the auctioneer is saying "move the car"... Excuse me? I thought my 
auction contract stated that they auction would contiue to bid in my 
behalf until the reserve was met? 

Well, at this point I'm totally lost... The Bid runner from earlier 
is still screaming at me that the current bid was fair and a great 
deal. I refuse to accept that and tell him that I need to talk with 
my wife about it. So, what does mister bid runner do? He yells to 
the counter "he needs to talk to his wife about it"... then what do 
I hear over the loudspeakers?

"SOLD, pending discussion with his wife!!!". I kid you not... Like 
that my car was off the block and on the way down the ramp... I'm 
more concerned with driveing the car than to think about the 
ulitmate ramifications of what just happened...

So, my poor wife who is sitting out in the audience with a good 
chunk of our family is still in shock and finally comes over to talk 
with me. She joins me in the passenger seat and this Auction Runner 
is STILL harassing me to confirm the sale. She did not want to sell 
the car at 22K and I agreed with her. HOWEVER, in my mind I know 
what our debts are, and I know we needed the funds from this sale to 
pay for some things with the house. In a fit of total shock and 
confusion I said "yes" and with that the deal was done... The car 
sold for 22K and we were going to make about 18K after comission. 

At this point we left the show in shock and made the 3.5 hour trip 
home to OKC and my wife's family. She cried the whole way home and I 
was too angry to care about much of anything at that point. We 
decided to go to bed early and head up to Tulsa in the morning. At 
9:00 we went to bed, but didn't go to sleep till 12:00. The whole 
situation hit us like a ton of bricks at that point and I realized 
there was only ONE SOLUTION...

Get my car back. PERIOD.

So we get up at 4:00 and leave to go BACK to Dallas.. We get there 
at 8:00 and talk with the auctioneers. NOTE: At this point we had 
not been paid for the car. No money had changed hands and I had not 
yet signed over the title. For all intents and purposes - this car 
was still mine. I don't care what they said. 

Well, the auction house thought differently... As far as they were 
concerned, the car was sold when I said "yes". Even thought I paid 
$500 to list the thing with these people and signed over a couple of 
dozen forms with all these little caveats for the auction house. 
Nice, huh?

According to the auciton house. The only person that could decide if 
the car was for sale is the new "Owner" - thats right the guys who 
had not even paid for the car yet... How ******* up is that... Even 
then, if he decides NOT to buy the car we would still owe the 
auction house the commissions for the sale. nearly $2500. Fine, 
whatever it takes, we just wanted the car back. 

So we wait.... and wait... For 2 hours we waited for him to show 
up... And when he does...

He doesn't want to give the car up. He likes the car - thats why he 
bought it. My wife actually PLEADED with this guy to let us have the 
car back - with TEARS in her eyes (not that fakey Tear up stuff, 
these were real). He thinks about it and says he will give us the 
car back.....

IF WE MAKE IT WORTH HIS WHILE...

He asks us to hold on and he goes to talk with the auctioneers... 
They come back with an offer... We can have the car back IF we pay 
the comissions AND give the new "owner" about $2200... about $5000 
more than what the car "sold" for...

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? We sure didn't. So we sit and talk it over. We 
had MAX $4000 in savings. There were no other funds available, 
Period. Our hands were tied and we could not meet their offer. In a 
way I refused to give in to the principle that I had to pay more of 
MY MONEY to get back MY OWN CAR, when I still had not even been paid 
for it in the first place... That was just way too wrong on soo many 
levels for me.

At that point we just walked away... Took our check for $20K (they 
added another $1000 because they felt sorry for us) and walked away. 

We took our lumps and in the end are probably better for it. I have 
better things to do and to that end have resolved to make an even 
better, more accurate, and ultimately arse-kickin BTTF Delorean. 

And to boot once we got our Debts taken care of I still had enough 
to get my Studio Scale Apogee Delorean model from Back to the Future-
so phhhttt!!!

And to think all this pain and suffering just because I said "yes" 
instead of "no" - THAT is the true power of the english language 
right there...

-Gary Weaver II

Post Script - Since I wrote out this story for the BTTF.com Fan Club 
lists I spoken with some close friends in legal circles and basicly 
we were had by both the Auction House and this Seller. Oh well, I'm 
not about to make anythign more of it now - its done with. I have 
also heard about the current owner looking to sell the car for the 
35K we originally wanted. Sounds like the Promotional Story is a big 
ole lie. I doubt I'll see the car again and if I do it would 
probably be too painful of an experience...

BTW, I'm pelased to hear that you were impressed with the car. I 
busted my ass for nearly 6 months on it. New interior components, 
engine work, and all of the conversion was done to cause little or 
no Damage to the vehicle. I'm glad someone from the list was finally 
able to see it -even if I no longer own it... Glad you liked the 
binder as well, but I wish I had never wasted my time making it 
now... :(



--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Marvin" <marv@xxxx> wrote:
> While in Florida, I went to the Kruse auction Jan 2, 3, 4 / 04, 
in Ft Lauderdale. Among the many neat vehicles for sale was a "back 
to the future" / time machine DeLorean.