"A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong." - Milton Berle

I came across a site with bad hyphenated wedding announcement names. Trust me, there were some MUCH worse, just not suitable for this blog. 

We left here at 7:30 because the three places online that had info about the auction had different start times. The earliest was 10 a.m. which is why we began the two and a half hour drive that early. The traffic came to a complete stop i Portland because the drawbridge over the Columbia River was up.
Seriously? The only means for getting across the river and the major N/S freeway this side of Chicago and it still shuts down because of a drawbridge?

Turns out it was OK because we got there about 10:15 and learned the auction of cars was set for 2 p.m. So we looked around at some of the stuff (it was also an estate sale) and I gave the Metropolitan a thorough inspection.

The undercarriage was surprisingly free of rust, there were three or four areas of rust bubbling under the paint, the glass was all good, and the engine bay pretty good ford a 48 year old car.
The interior had mold on the vinyl but was otherwise in good condition.

Hagerty has one of the most respected collector car valuation tools online. The have four categories from 1 (concours) to 4 (fair). Based on their description of each category I'd put this car at a solid #4. Hagerty says a '60 Metropolitan that's a 4 is worth $7,700.

That was the first factor in our considerations - what's the car worth? We would only buy it if there was a profit to be made. We went into it thinking we might end up keeping the car but either way we wouldn't want to be upside down with it. So if it's an $8,000 car can we get it enough below that to make it a wise purchase?

The other factor - can we afford it? A Ferrari might resell far enough above it's auction price but if anyone looked at our bank account they'd know we couldn't afford it.

So at about noon we left for a nearby park, ate the picnic lunch Pam had packed, and talked through it. All of it. The financial aspects, the time and effort involved, and whether we'd keep or flip it.

We were back a little after 1:00 and I asked the guy in charge some more questions about the car.
Yes, there are keys but not for the locking gas cap, and it started right up with a jump. The Metropolitan was the sixth car to be auctioned and they already had a pre-auction bid of $2,000 so it started there.

It jumped to $3,000 at the first bid and that was above our ceiling so it immediately turned into an interesting spectator experience. And it quickly became obvious that there were two bidders. One was a very well dressed couple in their mid-50's, and she was the motivated one of the two. The auctioneer's banter revealed that she was born in 1960 and thought the car was adorable. The other bidder was directly behind us and it seemed rude to turn around and stare.

The couple dropped out and the guy behind us got it....
for $8,500! Add in a 10% buyer's premium and he paid $9,350 for that car. (I used a calculator.) That's WAY more than the car is worth in its current condition and the only way to get that kind of money for it is to put more money into upholstery, paint.....
Which is to say he wanted the car because of what it is, not for what it's worth on the market.
If someone has the money to buy a car above its value because they like it, good for them!

Pam asked me after we got home if I was disappointed. Yes and no. It would have been fun, but in the park we agreed that we wanted a clear outcome one way or the other - either way too much for us to even think about or such a deal that we'd be crazy to pass it up. The former clearly happened.

Mostly I think it was a very good day. We left at 7:30 and got home about 6:00. We talked, laughed, saw some interesting stuff, and worked an issue together. And that was the best part of the day.
Tonight I'm thankful that Pam and I work potentially delicate stuff easily. We didn't agree on some of the details (Pam was willing to set a higher threshold) but we don't have trouble quickly come to an agreement. That's what happened again today.

So I'm disappointed, pleased for a clear outcome (we both agreed an ambiguous outcome would be the worst), but mostly thankful we do this kind of thing together.
Thus, a very good day.

T'ank you, Fadder.