Dave Young and I will be walking around the Mecum Auction in Kissimmee, FL this weekend...this morning, I walked around the grounds after hearing from Dana Mecum himself.

As of this (Friday) morning, just after the event opened for the day, Mecum's  reported that they already had more than 2,400 registered bidders--up a bunch from last year. Plus, the line of bidders-to-be who were registering on-site was beginning to stretch out the door (again, this was as of the time that the event got underway this morning)

Before then,  Dana Mecum spoke to a gathering of car-publication writers and local reporters, noting that his company is not only getting more people who inquire about their first-of-the-year auction in Florida, but who are changing their plans and going to Florida instead of Arizona (and one of the five auctions that take place in and around Scottsdale). "For years, people west of the Mississippi have gone to the Southwest for the winter, and people east of the Mississippi have gone to Florida for the winter," he said to the gathering. "Our statement is: There are collector cars east of the Mississippi in January!"  

He added, "With the weather that the Kissimmee convention bureau provided us this year, and the poor job that the weather people in Arizona did this year, I’m sure we’ll get a larger crowd next year!"

The storm damage in Scottsdale during the big Arizona winter-auction weekend last weekend--especially the damage at Russo & Steele's auction grounds--was on the minds of those on hand, including Dana. "I really don’t have a comment  about their tents blowing down," said Dana, who noted that his first collector-car auction endured bad weather. "We got hit by a tornado," he said. "It’s not a fun thing, when that happens to you in this business. It’s the one thing, as an auction promoter, that you have to take extra, extra care with in set-up, safety, and so forth."

We'll have more coverage from Kissimmee here ...plus you can check out the auction via Mecum's website (www.mecum.com), or HD Theatre via your local cable/satellite provider. 

(By the way, how 'bout those old dealer neon signs in this post? They're part of a group of old dealer/service-station neons that are in the auction AND set-dressing for the TV broadcast. The Valiant sign was first used in 1960, when Valiant was a separate brand apart from Plymouth. The Dodge-Plymouth and DeSoto-Plymouth signs were used until 1960, before Ma Mopar merged the DeSoto Division --plus Plymouth and Valiant--into the Chrysler Division, creating the Chrysler-Plymouth Division and dealer network that we used to know and love.)