Microcars sold (and not sold) at Spring Auburn IN Auction 2013

[Jim Janecek]

There were 5 vintage microcars listed in AuctionAmerica's Spring Auburn 2013 catalog.
You can watch the auction stream on-line if you can't be there in person. Of course you can't watch them AFTER the run across the block.
I recorded and uploaded just those 5 cars to YouTube, see links below if you want to watch them.
The last Isetta is rather interesting to watch, something was up at the end... what I don't know.
Note that some cars had a RESERVE and some did not. Sometimes the Reserve is taken off and the car is sold.
All prices are HAMMER prices and do not include the 10% Buyer's premium.

Lot 199: Blue ISO Isetta (Spanish-built) sold for $17K, originally from the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum
http://youtu.be/_htN9WeupHc

Lot 439: 1940 American Bantam sold for $23K
http://youtu.be/kFg7U5vZVvo

Lot 488: 1951 Crosley Super convertible sold for $6500
http://youtu.be/nq0-y0TqsYs

Lot 555: 1957 BMW Isetta bid up to $25K and did NOT sell.
http://youtu.be/P0WBCihaQmA

Lot 561: 1957 BMW Isetta Sliding Window cabrio barely sold at $19K
http://youtu.be/SZ8hRY3siCc

So where is the big bump in prices from the Microcar Museum Auction in February?
Or is there another reason that Isetta prices in particular were fairly low?

[Herb]

The Madison auction was not a real reflection of values. It was the result of exceptional global marketing of a well known and possibly the largest Microcar collection in the world.
My guess is that Isettas are suffering from a couple of set backs: 1) due to their spike in popularity and parts availability, a lot of them have been dragged out of the shed and redone over the last decade, resulting in more of them being on the road now than before. 2) since also here the Iso went for less than the sliding glass models, people may primarily buy them because they're cute, rather than for historical significance or to be part of an investment strategy

[Jim Janecek]

... due to their spike in popularity and parts availability, a lot of them have been dragged out of the shed and redone over the last decade, resulting in more of them being on the road now than before...

There was another recent auction that had a couple of Isettas that "suffered" from this "condition".
They were "tarted up" for auction, but not over the last decade, they were done recently and specifically to sell at auction.  They looked nice but the mechanicals were never apparently touched - this info from someone who spoke with the seller who tried to sell it privately after Mecum would not let the car sell because the engine and chassis numbers did not match.   I think that's a first.  Another auction house had no problem selling the car with non-matching numbers.