Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is
Speaker 2: Hot Pursuit. So we have David Gooding with us today.
Speaker 2: He is the president and founder of Gooding and Co.
Speaker 2: Which he started with his wife Don in two thousand
Speaker 2: and three. But actually Gooding and Co. Is now Gooding Christie's,
Speaker 2: which is really exciting because they're just Christie's was in
Speaker 2: the car business and then they got out and now
Speaker 2: they're back in and they're sort of bigger and better
Speaker 2: than ever. And you know, I will say we've definitely
Speaker 2: chronicled the competition among the auction houses and it is
Speaker 2: a real it's real thing. But I have to say universally,
Speaker 2: whenever I ask any of the other auction house people,
Speaker 2: they say very nice things about David It he is
Speaker 2: really universally liked and universally called a nice, decent guy.
Speaker 2: So that's that's really a tribute. And he's he's gonna
Speaker 2: be great to have on the show.
Speaker 3: And has, as as we've learned, a very strong exclusive
Speaker 3: relationship really with Pebble Beach. So it's a nice preview
Speaker 3: for the trip that you and I are going to
Speaker 3: take there in August. Let's get straight to it. Well,
Speaker 3: welcome to Bloomberg, David. Great having you with us. You know,
Speaker 3: Hannah's told me so many great things about you and
Speaker 3: your business, and so I'm really looking forward to basically
Speaker 3: hearing you guys chat because she is the journalist responsible
Speaker 3: for covering the auctions and classic cars and collectors and stuff,
Speaker 3: and I'm usually interested in like trucks and and muscle cars.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna let her kind of hog the ball here.
Speaker 3: So Hannah, why don't you take it away?
Speaker 1: I call me Hannah the Hog.
Speaker 2: I love it, and I will say I feel like
Speaker 2: truck's dude dovetail with collecting definitely. Yeah, David, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for joining us. It's really great to have you. Obviously,
Speaker 2: you know we've worked together for years. You've been in
Speaker 2: the industry forever. I think, did you start Gooding and Co.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and three?
Speaker 4: Correct? Yeah, we started. Our first auction was two thousand
Speaker 4: and four.
Speaker 1: Wow, And but forever, well, it was just two thousand
Speaker 1: and three.
Speaker 2: You had been at you'd been every you'd worked for
Speaker 2: everyone else. I think you got all the best practices
Speaker 2: and then started your own company. You were actually at
Speaker 2: Christie's in the nineties. Give us like a give that
Speaker 2: a run through, because even I don't know, okay, back.
Speaker 4: Farther, Okay. So in January of nineteen ninety, right as
Speaker 4: the car market was shifting, none of us had realized it,
Speaker 4: I joined Christie's and I was at Christie's for eleven
Speaker 4: years and really learned the trade, and Christie's instilled in
Speaker 4: me and all of us that ethics were and you know,
Speaker 4: the certain way of doing business is the most important thing.
Speaker 4: That that's all that you've got really above and everything out,
Speaker 4: above everything else. So I was there for eleven years.
Speaker 4: Then I worked at RM for three and a half years,
Speaker 4: and after that we started Gooding Company in two thousand
Speaker 4: and three. So it's been it's been a long and
Speaker 4: interesting ride, and we've watched the market change develop I've
Speaker 4: seen you know, markets go up and down and watch
Speaker 4: it all happen, and it's been interesting to be to
Speaker 4: be there throughout it all.
Speaker 2: David, I want to get to market talk, but just
Speaker 2: to like put a pin in the arc of your career.
Speaker 2: The most recent news of the course is that now
Speaker 2: Gooding and Chrissy's are back together. Which must be so
Speaker 2: surreal for you having been there before. Can you just
Speaker 2: tell us how did that come about and what does
Speaker 2: that mean for you in your I don't think you
Speaker 2: really have a new role. You're kind of doing the
Speaker 2: same that you always did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know the role. The role doesn't feel really
Speaker 4: any different, so you know, to sort of go back
Speaker 4: as as I think I alluded to, I mean I
Speaker 4: always felt very near and dear to Christie's. It was
Speaker 4: it was, you know, the soft spot in my heart.
Speaker 4: So even when we were competing against each other in
Speaker 4: the in the early two thousands, uh, there was a
Speaker 4: friendly rivalry. And then Christie's for a while got out
Speaker 4: of the car car business, but we were We worked
Speaker 4: very well together. They would refer business to us, we
Speaker 4: would refer business to them. And then then a little
Speaker 4: over a year and a half ago, uh, the chairman
Speaker 4: of Christie's pulled me in and said, we really, we
Speaker 4: really need to change this. We want to we wanna
Speaker 4: we want to acquire your company. And so it was
Speaker 4: not something that we were really My wife and I
Speaker 4: were not really looking to do that, but it made
Speaker 4: a lot of sense. They're the each company has the
Speaker 4: same ethos there they were. It's really a perfect marriage.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're we're now working together and uh and
Speaker 4: uh or technically I'm working for them and uh uh
Speaker 4: we are busy expanding the business. I mean we're going
Speaker 4: into Europe. Uh, We're we're looking at expanding our sales,
Speaker 4: we're adding staff. So it's it's great. I mean, we're
Speaker 4: we we have the financial wherewithal behind us now that
Speaker 4: we can really compete on every level. So we're it's
Speaker 4: super exciting for us.
Speaker 3: Can I just jump in and ask about your wife,
Speaker 3: because I don't want to seem too cliche, but I've
Speaker 3: always in my career hooked up with really smart women,
Speaker 3: and uh, I think that's been one of my advantages
Speaker 3: in life. Right my wife, Hannah Carol mass or you
Speaker 3: you talk about your wife, I guess your your partners
Speaker 3: in the business or what is that?
Speaker 4: Yes, one hundred percent partners. Now, I'm I'm in charge
Speaker 4: of sales and and and uh a lot of the business.
Speaker 4: But she she does all of our marketing and branding,
Speaker 4: and she's involved in finance and operations. So we we
Speaker 4: compliment each other very very well. And uh it's been
Speaker 4: great for us because because the sales end of the
Speaker 4: business requires so much travel and she doesn't have to
Speaker 4: travel as much, and so, you know, we we just
Speaker 4: it's been very good that, you know, while I'm out
Speaker 4: on the road getting getting cars for these various auctions,
Speaker 4: she's here holding down the fort. And you know, she
Speaker 4: she is brilliant in terms of marketing. She has a
Speaker 4: background in motion picture marketing. And her vision for our
Speaker 4: brand and our look and our feel that that's all
Speaker 4: her and we became very well known for that, and
Speaker 4: so I just you know, it's a great, great partnership
Speaker 4: and marriage.
Speaker 2: David, I guess I've never asked you this, but it
Speaker 2: strikes me that you are sort of the face of
Speaker 2: the company. I'm curious if did you and don ever
Speaker 2: have a conversation that she actually doesn't want to have
Speaker 2: to do the heavy lifting of like talking to people
Speaker 2: like Matt and and she's very happy to let you
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 3: Wait, this is heavy lifting for you.
Speaker 4: Well, this isn't heavylifting, but sometimes it's heavy lifting. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, we we I don't know if we actually
Speaker 4: sat down and had that conversation or it just sort
Speaker 4: of developed, but it's we agree. I mean, there's certainly,
Speaker 4: there's so many things that she does that she does
Speaker 4: so much better than I do that, so we just
Speaker 4: we just stick in our certain lanes, you know, And
Speaker 4: and it's kind of implicit. I think it's it's pretty
Speaker 4: obvious there's a lot of things that I'm not very
Speaker 4: good at that she handles, and so it's, uh, it
Speaker 4: didn't need to be a conversation.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'm okay.
Speaker 2: So back to what I really wanted to ask you too.
Speaker 2: After the Christie's news, you know, did Christie's come to
Speaker 2: you because they realized we need to get back into cars?
Speaker 2: I mean, are they what are they seeing in the
Speaker 2: market that made them think we need to get in
Speaker 2: on this again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think they definitely saw that and realized it.
Speaker 4: I mean, the car market has exploded over the last
Speaker 4: few years, and they certainly were aware that so many
Speaker 4: of their clients that collect in other categories also collecting cars,
Speaker 4: and their competitors have car you know, vibrant car departments,
Speaker 4: and so they just they knew that it was an
Speaker 4: important aspect and it's quite you know, in the luxury
Speaker 4: category and in everything that Christie's does, they are really
Speaker 4: at the top of their field, and there was this
Speaker 4: big vacuum where they just weren't in the car business,
Speaker 4: and so that, you know, I think it became pretty
Speaker 4: obvious that they needed to be So it worked out
Speaker 4: really well. We were excited to join together.
Speaker 3: What is the unique selling point of Gooding. I mean,
Speaker 3: you've even I know you've sold some really exclusive cars
Speaker 3: the Yellowbird, uh dusenberg S, SJ and and some others
Speaker 3: that I've read about. And you're very closely connected to
Speaker 3: Pebble Beach where Hannah and I for the first time,
Speaker 3: Hannah's been there a million times, will go in August.
Speaker 4: Great, I'm glad you're coming out. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: we are. We've always been very involved at Pebble Beach.
Speaker 4: We've been the auction house there. Well, Christie's was an
Speaker 4: auction house there and then Gooding took over the spot.
Speaker 4: So now it's it's great that it's good in Christie's again,
Speaker 4: you know, I guess are we pride ourselves on not
Speaker 4: doing the most sales, but really focusing on quality and
Speaker 4: transparency and integrity, and and I think we're we're well,
Speaker 4: I know, we're quite passionate about the objects we really enjoy.
Speaker 4: We're very enthusiastic about the cars. Not to say that
Speaker 4: others are not, but but we get we get really
Speaker 4: focused on bringing out the best of every car that
Speaker 4: we can that we consign, and we search search the world.
Speaker 4: I just got back from from the UK too to
Speaker 4: get a big car that we'll be announcing soon. So
Speaker 4: we're constantly searching the world for the you know, the
Speaker 4: best kind of cars that we can find that are
Speaker 4: that are different, that we think will risk the market
Speaker 4: will respond to really, well, what are you.
Speaker 2: Seeing like when you like when you just travel and
Speaker 2: you're looking at cars, like, what has the market produced
Speaker 2: this summer?
Speaker 4: So you know it's there there. We're offered a lot
Speaker 4: and we turn away a lot. So the market, there
Speaker 4: are a lot of things that people put towards us
Speaker 4: that we say, you know, and they may be great cars,
Speaker 4: but they may be priced too high or we feel
Speaker 4: that there have been too many similar cars like that
Speaker 4: offered on the market. We feel like, you know, we
Speaker 4: want to we try to build a sale that is
Speaker 4: interesting and has a lot to offer, and we also
Speaker 4: are trying very hard to be conscious of what else
Speaker 4: is coming on the market, and that's hard because obviously
Speaker 4: our competitors don't you know, we don't know what they have,
Speaker 4: and they don't know what we have. So we try
Speaker 4: to balance things out and offer something that will be
Speaker 4: that that will respond our clients will respond well.
Speaker 1: To what are people trying to.
Speaker 4: Some you know, here's the thing. I mean, sometimes it's
Speaker 4: not what you know. We can we can hear, you know,
Speaker 4: clients will say, oh, I want to you know, you know,
Speaker 4: I want a really special roof, or I want you know,
Speaker 4: I want this kind of Ferrari or or this kind
Speaker 4: of Dusenberg. But but we actually always also try to
Speaker 4: think what can we they don't necessarily Sometimes we can
Speaker 4: try to anticipate what they want without them even knowing.
Speaker 4: So that sounds a little.
Speaker 3: You know, we presumptuous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, presumptuous. I don't Yeah, yeah, I don't mean it
Speaker 4: to be, but I.
Speaker 1: But I think that you're forecasting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we can we can just see that, oh, this
Speaker 4: is something really special. We know that their tastes are
Speaker 4: like this, and therefore they would like that, and and
Speaker 4: we try to match that. And it's exciting and you know,
Speaker 4: it's really exciting when when it works. Sometimes it doesn't work,
Speaker 4: but that's part of the fun of that's part of
Speaker 4: the fun of the auction businesses. It is a real test.
Speaker 4: I mean, you kind of you put yourself out there,
Speaker 4: you put these cars out there, you're you know, and
Speaker 4: the market speaks, and sometimes it applauds really loudly, and
Speaker 4: sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay. You know, we all
Speaker 4: learn from it. I like the I like the real feedback.
Speaker 4: It's a real test. It's not some you know, kind
Speaker 4: of manufactured thing that sometimes ourselves very well and sometimes
Speaker 4: they don't. And that is the market speaking.
Speaker 2: It does seem like, you know, if the money is
Speaker 2: in the room, the money is in the room, and
Speaker 2: if it's not, yeah, figuratively speaking obviously, yeah.
Speaker 4: And you know, and sometimes we we have cars that
Speaker 4: we're super excited about that we think we'll do exceptionally
Speaker 4: well and they can do just okay, or you know,
Speaker 4: other times they really surprise you. So it's you don't know,
Speaker 4: you know, And that's when you think you know, then
Speaker 4: then you're that dangerous. You can have an idea and
Speaker 4: you you know, but you don't know for sure.
Speaker 2: What is the conversation that you're having with people selling things,
Speaker 2: consigning things, and also those looking for things in terms
Speaker 2: of are they talking about tariffs? Are they talking about
Speaker 2: you know, economic and political factors.
Speaker 4: What's the chatter, well, the the the tariff, the introduction
Speaker 4: of tariffs in April. We basically should have taken the
Speaker 4: month off of April. We should we should we should
Speaker 4: have all gone on vacation then, because it just stopped
Speaker 4: all conversations. We were in discussion with a lot of
Speaker 4: clients from from England and Europe who were talking about
Speaker 4: giving bringing cars over to Pebble Beach, and it just
Speaker 4: shut everything down. And uh, but not only that, even
Speaker 4: our US clients were distracted by it. They obviously were
Speaker 4: focusing on their investments, the stock market, you know, all
Speaker 4: kinds of things, all of the news, and so that
Speaker 4: certainly had an effect this year. So what that did
Speaker 4: is it really compressed our time. I mean usually April
Speaker 4: May June is a real busy time for us in
Speaker 4: business gathering, in getting the consignments. What it did this
Speaker 4: year is it compressed it all into June and now
Speaker 4: we're just getting the last few cars in for Pebble
Speaker 4: Beach in July. It's really tight. But yeah, so that's
Speaker 4: that's what it's done. It's really just our windows. So
Speaker 4: the I think all the noise, and I would call
Speaker 4: it all the distraction of that has has calmed down
Speaker 4: a little bit and people are ready to move on
Speaker 4: and kind of you know, make decisions anyway and commitments anyway.
Speaker 2: So some of the concern sorry, Matt, I'll just I'll
Speaker 2: let you I'll let you ask a question just to
Speaker 2: follow up. Some of the concerns specifically was even if
Speaker 2: you even if vintage cars were exempt from you know,
Speaker 2: these very high tariffs, parts would still be taxed. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And it was unclear if a car was had for
Speaker 2: like you know, certain alloy or steel components, whether it
Speaker 2: be taxed partially based on that percentage of the car.
Speaker 4: Right. It was just very it was very unclear, and
Speaker 4: the messaging was unclear. So it was you know, people
Speaker 4: saying it was chaos. Yeah, so, uh, you know, nobody
Speaker 4: really knew and people didn't want to make big decisions,
Speaker 4: which which I understand. But I think now it has
Speaker 4: calmed down a little bit, and certainly for pre two
Speaker 4: thousand cars, which is a lot of what we sell,
Speaker 4: it's it's calmed down. And again I think a lot
Speaker 4: of it was just people not wanting to focus on
Speaker 4: their car side of their life and really focus more
Speaker 4: on everything else that they were dealing with. I mean
Speaker 4: a lot of these a lot of our clients are
Speaker 4: very active in business, and so they were, you know,
Speaker 4: there was they were dealing with more urgent issues first,
Speaker 4: and then they kind of came out of the came
Speaker 4: out of the cloud and could talk about their summer plans.
Speaker 3: You mentioned the pre two thousand cars, and I'm looking
Speaker 3: at a list of it. Maybe you know, an Ai hallucination,
Speaker 3: but a list of the most famous cars you've sold,
Speaker 3: and almost all of them look like pre nineteen sixty.
Speaker 3: You've got the Dusenberg, the afore mentioned Dusenberg nineteen thirty five,
Speaker 3: Talbot Alago nineteen thirty seven, nineteen oh three, Mercedes Simplex.
Speaker 3: But then you get a bunch of fifties ferraris right,
Speaker 3: the requisite Bugatti Type fifty nine at Alfa Romeo eight
Speaker 3: c also in nineteen thirties cars, and the only thing
Speaker 3: modern I see is the Yellowbird nineteen eighty nine off
Speaker 3: CTR yellow Bird and the nineteen ninety five McLaren F one.
Speaker 3: Is that starting to change, a little?
Speaker 4: David? Are you?
Speaker 3: Are you selling newer cars or are people you know,
Speaker 3: are the high highest networth individuals still focused on the
Speaker 3: classic sort of pre war American cars and the fifties.
Speaker 4: Ferraris, Oh, we're definitely selling a lot more contemporary newer
Speaker 4: cars than we ever did before. Definitely trending that way.
Speaker 4: I mean in the what you're seeing in the you know,
Speaker 4: north of ten million dollar range, they tend to be
Speaker 4: more classic are cars, not as much that you know,
Speaker 4: Porsches and things like that. But we have sold we
Speaker 4: still hold a record for the Porsche mark with a
Speaker 4: nine to seventeen that we sold. That's obviously a sixty Porsche,
Speaker 4: but we sold the car we sold lamal winning Porsche
Speaker 4: nine five six from the eighties. So there are much
Speaker 4: more contemporary cars. A lot of our bread and butter
Speaker 4: cars are are you know, nine ninety three Porsches and
Speaker 4: more contemporary cars like that. Lots of more contemporary Ferraris Mercedes.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're seeing that, you know, we are. We've
Speaker 4: sold McLaren f ones, will continue to sell McLaren f ones,
Speaker 4: but to get to get north of fifteen million dollars,
Speaker 4: it tends to be a classic era car and you know.
Speaker 3: But I see this nineteen ninety five. McLaren f one
Speaker 3: sold a Pebble Beach in twenty seventeen for fifteen point
Speaker 3: six two million dollars.
Speaker 4: That was we sold. No, we sold on McLaren f
Speaker 4: one for more money than fifty team it brought brought
Speaker 4: twenty Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is a stunning.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Are the people who buy something like that? Is that
Speaker 2: someone who's buying like bitcoin and lives in Dubai?
Speaker 1: Like what type of buyer is that?
Speaker 4: So that was names but you can't Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 4: can give you sort of a profile that that was
Speaker 4: a an American collector who we've known for a long time.
Speaker 4: And I was a bit surprised that he that he
Speaker 4: bought that car that was newer territory for him. But yeah, no,
Speaker 4: I mean he's a he's a he is a you know,
Speaker 4: follows the typical profile of our of our clientele.
Speaker 3: Are these guys all anonymous or do you have buyers
Speaker 3: who are pretty open about what they're doing?
Speaker 4: Both?
Speaker 3: Are?
Speaker 4: There are some that are very open and a lot
Speaker 4: tend to be more anonymous, But yeah, they're they're very open.
Speaker 4: Some are extremely private about it. But yeah, I would say,
Speaker 4: you know it tends to be about seventy percent are
Speaker 4: pretty anonymous about it. But then of course when they
Speaker 4: take these cars to a classic car show or to
Speaker 4: a concord, you know, it all gets revealed.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you about the conversation that you have
Speaker 2: with sellers about reserve prizes? And this is something Met
Speaker 2: and I have discussed and debated before about the merits
Speaker 2: of having a reserve. Yeah, what do you counsel people?
Speaker 2: And maybe it depends on the car and you can
Speaker 2: talk to us about the nuances, but what are the
Speaker 2: benefits of setting a reserve or not? Because I think
Speaker 2: you know, if you don't have a reserve, the market
Speaker 2: truly speaks for itself.
Speaker 4: It does, you know. We well, we have we have
Speaker 4: these sales estate sales oftentimes where everything is no reserve.
Speaker 4: And you know, the cars that we have at any
Speaker 4: of our auctions, anything two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 4: or below is without reserve. Oftentimes we have cars that
Speaker 4: are north of that value that are without reserve. You know,
Speaker 4: I think particularly on high production, easy to value cars,
Speaker 4: I think of like a three hundred sl is going
Speaker 4: or a roadster that is a perfect car, that is
Speaker 4: a perfect valuable car. You know, they tend to be.
Speaker 4: They're worth over a million dollars. That is a perfectly safe,
Speaker 4: valuable car to it in at no reserve. Now that's
Speaker 4: easy for me to say, it's not it's not you know,
Speaker 4: it's not my it's not my neck on the line there.
Speaker 1: But it's it's kind of a known thing.
Speaker 4: It's in this day and age, especially at an auction
Speaker 4: like Pebble Beach, it's the world stage. It's it's where
Speaker 4: the many world records are set. Year after year after year,
Speaker 4: everyone will be there. A three hundred sl is going
Speaker 4: to sell for a market price, whatever the market. If
Speaker 4: you're if you're accepting I'm going to sell the car
Speaker 4: this year, I'm going to sell it for a market price.
Speaker 4: I would I think it's better to put it in
Speaker 4: no reserve if you if you're comfortable with that, because
Speaker 4: actually what that does is it focuses all of the
Speaker 4: potential buyers. They think, oh, you know, I'm kind of
Speaker 4: casually looking at that car, but I'm not sure if
Speaker 4: it's really gonna if it's priced writer or you know,
Speaker 4: maybe it will sell, maybe it won't sell. When you
Speaker 4: say it's no reserve, it is going to sell. It's
Speaker 4: going to walk on stage. It's selling no matter what.
Speaker 4: So so you or get you know, you better really
Speaker 4: focused because if you want to you know, if you think, oh,
Speaker 4: I'll pay one point two for that car all day long,
Speaker 4: well you better look at it. You better do your
Speaker 4: research because it could sell for it could sell for
Speaker 4: one point one, it could sell for one point three.
Speaker 4: But you you know, get get get in the get
Speaker 4: in the fight. And uh so, definitely no reserve can
Speaker 4: be great. Uh it of course can be can be risky,
Speaker 4: but I think I think it's very good again, especially
Speaker 4: on cars that are like that or or cars that
Speaker 4: are you know, so fresh to the market. And and
Speaker 4: you know, if you have if you have a low
Speaker 4: cost basis and you really just want to you're going
Speaker 4: to sell the car anyway, it's better to just put it,
Speaker 4: put it at no reserve.
Speaker 2: And as a spectator, it's exciting. I mean I love
Speaker 2: going to auctions just to watch. I think they're so fun.
Speaker 2: People should do it.
Speaker 1: It's yeah.
Speaker 4: I I I often encourage people come watch, even if
Speaker 4: you're not you're not into cars, it's just an interesting
Speaker 4: dynamic to see it. So I'm excited Matt that you're
Speaker 4: going to be uh.
Speaker 3: Oh, I can't wait. By the way, did you were
Speaker 3: you in the car or is this uh?
Speaker 4: Is it is?
Speaker 3: Did you get into cars because the auction business or
Speaker 3: have you always been kind of a gearhead?
Speaker 4: I my dad was an automotive museum curator, so I
Speaker 4: grew up in an automotive museum. So yeah, I he
Speaker 4: told me, don't ever get in the car business. You
Speaker 4: you love cars, you want to collect them. You'll never
Speaker 4: make money in the in the car business. You should
Speaker 4: be a dentist. I'm glad I didn't follow his advice.
Speaker 4: He gave me a lot of other great advice, though,
Speaker 4: but he was he was as a museum curator. Really
Speaker 4: never was able to collect the cars that he was
Speaker 4: passionate about. But what it did, was it it? You know,
Speaker 4: it gave me a great education. After school. Every day
Speaker 4: I would go to these automotive museums and study the
Speaker 4: cars and study the hang out in the libraries and
Speaker 4: read the books. And you know, I had no, no,
Speaker 4: no plans to go into this business. But I needed
Speaker 4: a job out of college.
Speaker 3: And so what's your thing? I mean, like, I guess
Speaker 3: since your dad is a museum curator, you probably already
Speaker 3: had very sort of Hoteku tour taste. I never heard
Speaker 3: of a Talbot logo, for example.
Speaker 4: Yeah and yeah, yeah, you know. So my thing I
Speaker 4: really love, really I love performance cars from any era.
Speaker 4: So what a lot of people don't realize is the
Speaker 4: very old cars, you know, pre World War One cars
Speaker 4: can be very exciting and fun to drive and very fast,
Speaker 4: and so I really like that era car. I like
Speaker 4: cars from the thirties. I love cars from the thirties,
Speaker 4: but anything that is really performance oriented, the fifties and sixties.
Speaker 4: They're just different eras that are magical and exciting, and
Speaker 4: so I grew up around all of those and I
Speaker 4: have a natural love for those. But I've come to
Speaker 4: love more contemporary cars as well. So I like it all,
Speaker 4: but I think my natural I would say, my natural
Speaker 4: soft spot is pre seventy four and earlier, So anything
Speaker 4: from We've sold eighteen ninety six steam car, sorry, eighteen
Speaker 4: eighty six steam car, which was a race car from
Speaker 4: eighteen eighty six, which is kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: That's not the one you had at Retromobile.
Speaker 4: That was the three Mercedes.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, fantastic another.
Speaker 2: I will always obviously sort of remember that car.
Speaker 4: That was incredible car, absolutely incredible car. That was the
Speaker 4: McLaren F one of nineteen three and unbelievable car, maybe
Speaker 4: the most important car we ever sold.
Speaker 2: So and I asked about the restoration of those cars.
Speaker 2: Do you guys do in house restoration and how go?
Speaker 2: And like, okay, so, how does that work? If someone
Speaker 2: has something that you know is really significant but it
Speaker 2: needs a little bit of love.
Speaker 4: So I mean, we will do very light work to
Speaker 4: bring a car back to life if we have a
Speaker 4: if we have a barn discovery, uh, and we think
Speaker 4: it can be brought you know, it could be running
Speaker 4: with just a very little effort of you know, changing
Speaker 4: the oil and fluids and fuel and whatnot. We'll do that.
Speaker 4: But we tend not to to do restoration work. We're
Speaker 4: not we're not a restoration business. We don't we actually
Speaker 4: have that's a whole complicated specialty that that we have
Speaker 4: tremendous respect for and we're we're we're friends and we
Speaker 4: love to collaborate with a lot of these restoration shops
Speaker 4: and you know they do they do what they do
Speaker 4: very very well, and we don't. We don't want to
Speaker 4: compete with them, and so we'll we'll send work their
Speaker 4: way and they'll they'll often refer cars to us. But
Speaker 4: that's a you know, restoration is I have tremendous respect
Speaker 4: for for for those specialists and experts, so we tend
Speaker 4: you know. The other thing is I mean from a
Speaker 4: from a market point of view. Also layered on top
Speaker 4: of what I just said, was that you'd never quite
Speaker 4: know what the next client is going to want to
Speaker 4: do with the car. They may want to not touch
Speaker 4: it at all. You know, we had a we had
Speaker 4: an alloy alloy body two seventy five Ferrari that was
Speaker 4: covered in dust and and and we pulled it out
Speaker 4: of this uh barn and the fellow the bought it
Speaker 4: just got a running but he didn't touch it. It's
Speaker 4: still dirty, it looks it needs a car wash, but
Speaker 4: he just drives it around like that. He uses it
Speaker 4: and drives it like that. So you never you don't
Speaker 4: want to make an assumption of what a client will
Speaker 4: want to do with the car. And you know, sometimes
Speaker 4: clients will want to restore them. Sometimes I want to
Speaker 4: leave them exactly as they are. Sometimes they'll do something in.
Speaker 2: The middle that's actually really cool. I mean it's a
Speaker 2: way to get your Ferrari to stand out.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a little surprised.
Speaker 4: I mean, I actually I thought in this he's an
Speaker 4: incredible client and friend. But I if I were initially,
Speaker 4: I would have washed the car, you know, And now
Speaker 4: that I now, it's been about ten years and I
Speaker 4: think it looks really cool, and I'm I applaud them.
Speaker 4: I'm like, God, I'm glad. I'm glad that wasn't me.
Speaker 4: I would have cleaned it and it would have looked
Speaker 4: like so many other two seven fives, and now it
Speaker 4: stands out and looks different. He cleaned the windows so
Speaker 4: he could see out of it. But that's it.
Speaker 3: By the way, David, you obviously develop relationships with I'm
Speaker 3: sure the sellers and the buyers here. And so if
Speaker 3: I look at a list of the cars you sell,
Speaker 3: most of them are at Pebble Beach or at Amelia Island.
Speaker 3: And but I wonder if someone would come to you
Speaker 3: and say, listen, I want to sell this, you know, Bugatti,
Speaker 3: but I don't want to do it at an auction.
Speaker 3: Do you know anybody who wants to buy it? Do
Speaker 3: you do like more a substantial amount of private sales
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: Yes we do. We've we did many private sales. We actually, well,
Speaker 4: Bugatti is a great example. We sold a Bugatti years
Speaker 4: ago for a family they had, the Williamson family. They
Speaker 4: had one of the best Bugatti collections ever assembled, and
Speaker 4: we sold ten of the cars to and all of
Speaker 4: the money went for charity at auction. But then the
Speaker 4: Bugatti Atlantique, which was there, it's one of the greatest
Speaker 4: Bugattis there is, they wanted that sold privately, so we
Speaker 4: we did a private sale of that. So yes, we
Speaker 4: do private sales. We've we've sold we have the highest
Speaker 4: price world record for were a Ferrari, which we sold privately.
Speaker 4: Actually we've sold many Ferraris, but two fifty gto. We've
Speaker 4: sold a couple of two fifty gto Ferraris privately. So yes,
Speaker 4: we'll do private sales. We you know, I mean more
Speaker 4: of our sales are at auction, but definitely we do
Speaker 4: private sales. And it really depends on the car, the timing,
Speaker 4: the needs of the seller that we really give advice
Speaker 4: and oftentimes people will say I want to sell something privately,
Speaker 4: but then we'll counsel them and say, well, you know,
Speaker 4: I mean, if where do we think something will sell best?
Speaker 3: So it really depends, by the way, do you ever
Speaker 3: talk to when I think about Bugatties, I think about
Speaker 3: the classics initially only, but then I think about they
Speaker 3: still make cars that are really cool and they I
Speaker 3: was lucky enough to go to Mulesheim and see you know,
Speaker 3: you know, the mansion and the factory, and it was
Speaker 3: such a cool thing.
Speaker 4: Do you ever talk to like.
Speaker 3: The people who are building these new cars and they say, hey, David,
Speaker 3: what should we do about these tail lights don't work right?
Speaker 3: Or you know, you know, like give anybody advice because
Speaker 3: you not just an auctioneer. Obviously your father was a
Speaker 3: museum curator, so you're someone with vast knowledge of the
Speaker 3: histories of these marks.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I've been to many of the factories. I
Speaker 4: have not been to the Bugatti factory, and I would
Speaker 4: love to go. It's it's on my list of things
Speaker 4: to do. But I have been to many of the factories,
Speaker 4: and we've been involved in launches of new cars. It's
Speaker 4: throughout the years and everything. They've never no one's ever
Speaker 4: consulted us on on on designing, so I don't know.
Speaker 4: I h that's us, yes, exactly, that's that's maybe a goal. Yeah.
Speaker 4: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a
Speaker 4: our designer. But you know, now it's so uh, committee
Speaker 4: driven and everything. I don't know, I think it might
Speaker 4: be kind of frustrating to you know. They used to
Speaker 4: be you know, it used to be the vision of
Speaker 4: one person that could really make their design scene. But
Speaker 4: now it's uh, now it's very corporate and everything. So no,
Speaker 4: I haven't been involved in design but yet, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I would love to.
Speaker 3: I wasn't thinking about Folkswagen. I was thinking about like
Speaker 3: Horatio Pagani.
Speaker 5: Or yeah you know or you knoweah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: yeah I should see, yeah, something something else to do.
Speaker 2: So right, David, what's your advice for Matt or anyone
Speaker 2: or me going to the Pebble Beach Monterey Car Week,
Speaker 2: especially from you guys at the auction. But what should
Speaker 2: we be watching for? What do you want to uh,
Speaker 2: what do you want to highlight?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, going to I mean, you know, Matt,
Speaker 4: if it's your first time, just sit in the audience
Speaker 4: and watch it all unfold. As I say, it's it's
Speaker 4: exciting to see there will be some things that perform
Speaker 4: very very well. Uh and kind of just watch it,
Speaker 4: you know, see see if you can pick out why
Speaker 4: they why they perform well, if you can, if you
Speaker 4: can walk around during the viewing, look at the cars
Speaker 4: ahead of time. You know, when we you see the cars,
Speaker 4: we photograph them beautifully. They they're there. It's but when
Speaker 4: you see them in person, they really come. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's just like I mean, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: And they will brag and say, I've been invited to
Speaker 3: ride in a Dusenberg in the dawn patrol. I don't
Speaker 3: know what that is.
Speaker 1: Patrol, Matt, you have to do that.
Speaker 4: You're going to do that, Yeah for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: Oh that's super exciting.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, someone who works for Mikheil Haggerty invited me
Speaker 3: to ride in his So that's great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh you definitely definitely, you'll you'll enjoy that. That
Speaker 4: is a that's a very special thing to experience, rolling
Speaker 4: on the on the lawn in the car like that.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever ridden in pre war car
Speaker 3: at all, in any pre war car, so yeah, it'll
Speaker 3: be new for me.
Speaker 4: Oh that'll be that'll be fun. You'll enjoy that. My
Speaker 4: favorite event of the week is the Thursday the tour
Speaker 4: because you see all the cars that are going to
Speaker 4: be on the loan on Sunday, but they're out there
Speaker 4: for the first time. Oftentimes the owners are seeing them
Speaker 4: after extensive restorations for the first time, and the cars
Speaker 4: fire up and they take off, and to see the
Speaker 4: cars in motion, you know, at fairly good speed as
Speaker 4: opposed to you know, driving driving over a ramp, which
Speaker 4: is one thing, which is great, but to see them
Speaker 4: like take off and fire up, it's it's really that's special.
Speaker 4: So definitely soak in the Thursday the Thursday thing, and
Speaker 4: the great thing is you can you can watch all
Speaker 4: that unfold and then just walk right into our tent
Speaker 4: and look at the viewing and then kind of study
Speaker 4: the cars and then you'll see them sell on Friday
Speaker 4: and Saturday night.
Speaker 1: Soak it all up. Yeah, that is a really cool
Speaker 1: thing about Pebble Beach.
Speaker 2: It's like each one of those cars that you see
Speaker 2: on the lawn actually runs, and that's part of what
Speaker 2: they're evaluated on these art you know.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, trailer queens, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And hearing them and seeing them in motion
Speaker 4: and seeing them with against you know, seeing cars in context.
Speaker 4: I mean that's the you know, when you when you
Speaker 4: see them with other cars of the era or you know,
Speaker 4: you really begin to appreciate how incredible they were for
Speaker 4: their time or still are, and that's really that's really exciting,
Speaker 4: so that you know, I love I love the tour
Speaker 4: for that reason. And the other nice thing about the
Speaker 4: tour is that the cars are mixed up. They're not
Speaker 4: by class. It's fun to see them in class on
Speaker 4: the lawn on Sunday, but to see them there, you know,
Speaker 4: you'll see you'll see a tiny little Alfa Romeo next
Speaker 4: to a giant Dusenberger Mercedes or you know, in different eras,
Speaker 4: and all are fantastic. So it's really fun.
Speaker 2: David, I know we're coming to the end of our time,
Speaker 2: but I also want to ask about Retromobile.
Speaker 1: Yes, next year, this is you know.
Speaker 2: This really fabulous car show that's been in Paris for
Speaker 2: many years, but it's coming to the States, and I
Speaker 2: know you guys are a big part of that. Can
Speaker 2: you kind of give us a preview of what to expect?
Speaker 4: Sure, so Retromobile, you've been to Retromobile, I don't know
Speaker 4: Matt if you've been, but if not, that's another thing
Speaker 4: you've got to do, so I love to. Yeah, okay, Well,
Speaker 4: so Retromobile in Paris it's the it's the biggest car
Speaker 4: event in Europe. It happens the end of January and February.
Speaker 4: We're doing an auction there where the selected auction house
Speaker 4: to hold an auction there, so we're super excited about that.
Speaker 4: It will be our first auction in France. And then
Speaker 4: Retromobile for the first time is moving that magical, fantastic,
Speaker 4: unique event to bring it to bring it to the
Speaker 4: United States. It'll be in New York at the Javit
Speaker 4: Center in November and we're going to do an auction
Speaker 4: there and Retromobile for people that are not familiar with it,
Speaker 4: it is like the the best automobile trade show there is.
Speaker 4: I mean, there are the world's top dealers bring they
Speaker 4: build these fantastic stands and shows and show their top
Speaker 4: cars that they have for sale. There are manufacturers that
Speaker 4: bring out their latest cars as well as their heritage cars,
Speaker 4: private collectors clubs. It's it's really wonderful. And then then
Speaker 4: there are little sections where where you can buy vintage
Speaker 4: car parts or or fashion. You know, if you if
Speaker 4: you want to buy helmets or goggles and you know,
Speaker 4: driving shoes things like that. There's all kinds of things.
Speaker 4: If you're looking for that carburetor that you haven't found
Speaker 4: for for you know, years and years, you might find
Speaker 4: it there. It's it's just a great event like nothing else.
Speaker 2: It is really cool and I really hope, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's so charming in Paris because it's Paris. Yes, I
Speaker 2: really hope New York can kind of develop its own
Speaker 2: spin on it, you know, and really it'll take hold.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm confident that that that that it will. I mean,
Speaker 4: the organizers are very excited about they're extremely creative, and
Speaker 4: they want to bring the French flair but keep keep
Speaker 4: it American, but but bring the whole ethos of Retromobile
Speaker 4: Paris to New York. And you know, they were they
Speaker 4: were debating different cities, and we had discussed it a
Speaker 4: little bit, and I said, come on, there's there's like
Speaker 4: the the obvious city is New York. I mean you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: And you know, the fun thing, the great fun thing
Speaker 4: about that event, unlike some other car events where you're
Speaker 4: kind of just locked into just being at the car event.
Speaker 4: The great thing about Retrobile is you come and go.
Speaker 4: It happens over a few days. So you know, in
Speaker 4: Paris you go in and then you go have a
Speaker 4: fantastic meal or something outside and come back, you know
Speaker 4: later in the day or the next day. Same kind
Speaker 4: of thing will happen in New York. People will will
Speaker 4: come and go and enjoy the city around it and
Speaker 4: just have have the magic of the venue the city
Speaker 4: all around you.
Speaker 3: By the way, one one more question. I know we're
Speaker 3: running up against the clock here, but for people who
Speaker 3: can't spend a lot of time going to Retromobile, going
Speaker 3: to Pebble Beach, what are some good resources to be
Speaker 3: introduced to this world, because you know, there's not some
Speaker 3: very popular pre war car forum, but I know there's
Speaker 3: some books.
Speaker 4: I'm also there are there's there's a there, there are
Speaker 4: some but they're not perhaps known as well.
Speaker 3: There's like pre work card that is accessible right right, right,
Speaker 3: So do I go to the REVS Institute.
Speaker 4: Or yes, yes, yes, rev. REVS is fantastic, I'm very
Speaker 4: involved there, incredible resource. REVS is wonderful, Peterson is wonderful. Uh.
Speaker 4: There there are the Peterson Siams fantastic. There are many resources.
Speaker 4: There are also clubs that are that that do great.
Speaker 4: They have great resources as well. So it really depends
Speaker 4: on the type of car that you're you know.
Speaker 3: I'm just worrying about the pre war stuff, you know,
Speaker 3: because I'd love to get into like a flathead V
Speaker 3: eight and I don't know nineteen thirties Ford, but I
Speaker 3: don't know, like there's no hot rod clubs around me
Speaker 3: that I know about, and I don't have access to
Speaker 3: Miles Collier on the regular basis, So like, who who
Speaker 3: are the people who know this stuff? What books?
Speaker 4: Can you read it? You can? Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 4: start off by going to you know, go on the
Speaker 4: REVS website. That's a that's a great source. You live
Speaker 4: in New York, right, yep, Okay, let's see in the
Speaker 4: New York area, I mean there are there are cars
Speaker 4: and coffee events. I can definitely you know, I'd be
Speaker 4: happy to connect you with some VA four guys that
Speaker 4: they're great. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I've got
Speaker 4: a lot of friends up in Vermont area that are
Speaker 4: into VA Fords and stuff, so I could connect you there. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's a it's a great world. And those cars are fun, beautiful,
Speaker 4: very affordable. I think a tremendous value. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 4: I'm excited for you. I think that's a that's a
Speaker 4: that's a great event. So things like you know, if
Speaker 4: not too far from New York, but in no sorry,
Speaker 4: October is the Hershey Classic Car Swap Meet. You will
Speaker 4: see tons of tons of cars there. There's thousands of
Speaker 4: cars and many many, many V eight Fords and things
Speaker 4: like that, and people that are crazy about them. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we can we can connect you with all kinds of people.
Speaker 3: Very cool, a new mission. Yeah, David, it's been fantastic
Speaker 3: talking to you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Our thanks to David Gooding, president and founder of Gooding
Speaker 3: and Company, for joining us. And that does it for
Speaker 3: this edition of Hot Pursuit. For Hanna Elliott, I'm Matt Miller,
Speaker 3: and this is Bloomberg