The One That Got Away
Hi Friends!
As anybody who spends any discernible amount of time on Facebook or Instagram knows, the memories feature can be both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s photos from that amazing vacation you took 5 years ago or the day you got your dog or memories of a concert you were getting ready to attend. Others, it’s pictures with an ex, a screenshot of the hospital bill you received after you broke your arm or other less than wonderful things that you would just prefer to stay forgotten in the past. Most of the time, I tend to avoid exploring there, but the other day I kind of randomly stumbled across something that can only be described as a long, long-term itch that was never actually scratched.
As many of you know, prior to me getting into the collector car business, I was a touring musician in a band. One of our primary pastimes while on the road (and not doing music related business) was grabbing AutoTraders or getting on Craigslist and searching out interesting cars to go check out, meet the owners and just kill time. Over the course of the couple years that we did this, we met some really interesting people and learned a lot and it’s one of the things that really pushed me into this business in the first place. This also continue to carry my obsession with classifieds (of all kinds) into my first several years of working at Russo and Steele.
This is where I first encountered my “one that got away”.
One of the first things that I would do every morning when I got to my office was hop on Craigslist, do a search for anything older than 1974 and just see what popped up. On this particular day, the first thing that caught my eye was a shiny, Shadow Gray 1970 Chevrolet El Camino with black bucket seats, a console shifter and black stripes. I’ll be the first to admit, there wasn’t anything particularly special about this car. It was a non-numbers matching 350ci small block, the seats weren’t stock, it had some questionable audio equipment jammed into the interior and a set of knock-off Torque Thrust wheels. Still, there was something about it, so I continued to investigate further and found out that it was located at a dealer lot not too far away in Phoenix.
I never visited the dealer to look at the car, but it always kind of set in the back of my head. No more than a few months later, I spotted it at the GoodGuys Southwest Nationals in the for sale pit. This was the first time we met face to face and as I went through the car, I realized it was actually put together pretty well, in really good condition and would probably be a fun thing to make a full-blown SS tribute car out of (I’ve always wanted to make a tribute vehicle out of something, it’s on my bucket list and I’ve still not done it). I struck up a conversation with the dealer and he seemed to be reasonable, but not particularly willing to negotiate in any capacity and it was clear the car was priced too high. I shrugged my shoulders, moved on and figured that was probably the end of it.
Obviously, I was wrong as no more than a couple of months, we crossed paths again.
Putting together the Russo Arizona Auction Catalog was always kind of a hellish experience. It was almost always due a couple of days after Christmas, so that meant we were working through the holiday and around the clock to try and put together a document that usually clocked in at somewhere between 500 and 700 pages (not including the accompanying pocket guide). It was a big job. I remember it was about 2:00 in the morning like 2 days before Christmas, I was working from the breakfast bar in my parent’s kitchen in Denver and I was back and forth on text message with the graphic designer who was helping to put together the project with me. As I was rolling through the initial draft with him, I turned the page and boom, there it was. I went through the pictures and the info and it once again awoke my interest and I knew that I had to figure out some way that I could realistically register to bid and try to buy this thing when it crossed the block in January.
I spent the first couple of days on site at the auction sort of loosely hovering the car. I wanted to see who else was interested, if anybody else was interested and get the opinions of the experts wearing media badges as they came through to see me (everybody told me not to buy it….). I checked with company policy to see if it was ethical and legal for me to register as a bidder, I went through the process at the friendly neighborhood JJ Best tent next to the auction block and I got my credentials.
The car ran pretty early in the day, so I made sure that I was near the block area and ready to go, I registered as an online bidder with an unrelated screen name in order to eliminate any potential conflicts with the block staff and I went for it. As I was glued to a computer in another part of the event area and although I didn’t get to see it cross the block, I was able to follow it on the online platform that I had helped create. There appeared to be at least two other bidders, but one bowed out pretty quickly. The other one was pretty committed. We went back and forth several times and finally we reached my level of comfort on the car and the other bidder walked away victorious, for $500 more than I was willing to spend.
Once again, I figured that was the end of it, I shrugged my shoulders and walked away.
About 2 months later, I was laying in bed clearing my email in the morning (which is still the first thing I do before my feet even touch the ground, even today), opened an email from classiccars.com and there was again. This particular piece of correspondence, was a sponsored blast was from Leake Auctions and they were advertising early consignments for their upcoming Oklahoma City sale. Towards the end of the email, there it was once again, once again I knew I had to register to bid and once again I went through all the same processes to do so. Come auction day, I was online, ready to go and once again missed it by one bid. This time was different however. This time I was mad. I was mad at myself, I was mad at the car and I vowed that someday we would cross paths again.
At this point, I began collecting as many photos as I could of this car and as much data as was available. I started distributing this to all of my contacts that worked everywhere basically, I entered all of the VIN numbers and any other identifying information I could come across into Google Alerts and the various other search engines that we’re out there at the time, who are offering similar features. No more shrugging of the shoulders, figuring that would be it or walking away. If this car came up for sale again, I was going to be on it.
About 6 months later I got another bite. This time it was a Craigslist ad from a private seller in the Dallas, Texas area and they wanted CRAZY money (like triple what I would have paid had I bought it at Russo the first time). I bookmarked the ad and sat on it. Every time it would expire, I would immediately refresh the search and it would come back up. This went on for another couple of months at least. I figured at some point this guy was going to have to come off this insanity at least somewhat, but he never did. Eventually, the ad expired, it wasn’t renewed and I figured I was going to have to wait my turn yet again.
About a month after the ad disappeared for the final time, I got another hit. This time the car was running across the block at no reserve at Mecum in Dallas. I thought for sure that this was going to be my opportunity. I marked the date on my calendar, went through all the motions yet again and waited for the sale. As it turned out, the date and the time that it was crossing the auction block completely conflicted with a business trip that I had no other option but to go on. It looked like I could probably bid from the airport after landing, but it was going to be a close one. I reached out, placed a proxy bid with the caveat that I might actually be available to do a phone bid situation if the plane landed on time. Of course, the plane was late, the car crossed the block while I was in the air and I missed it by about $500 for a third time. This time, feeling pretty defeated, I figured the car was probably going to be gone for a while this time, I tucked my tail between my legs and whimpered my way through the remainder of my trip and then all the way home.
Although, I never really forgot about the car, I definitely stopped chasing it and it disappeared off my radar for what I thought would be the final time.
Not so fast though. About 4 years later, we crossed paths once again.
For those who have known me for a while may remember that at one point, I was a fairly prolific LinkedIn user. I spent quite a lot of time on there, wrote for the platform pretty regularly and was considered to be in the top 1% of all accounts. I still have about 14,000 followers there.
One sunny afternoon, a post from a salesman at Streetside Classics in Fort Worth caught my attention. Once again, the El Camino was back on the market. I immediately messaged the gentleman, which turned into a phone call down there and found out that once again, the consigner wanted like three times what I thought the car was actually worth. The salesman was pretty convinced he was going to get that number, I told him he was crazy and that we would just have to wait and see. From then, the car set for about 6 months.
Then one day, I got a call that the car had been sold, they got what they were asking (which Streetside is somehow incredibly good at doing almost regardless of the number) and the new owners were absolutely in love with it. The salesman and I had spoken pretty regularly over the time that they had the car, he knew my story with it and he assured me that the new owners (who were a father and son and not dealers) were going to take great care of it. Although I was a little depressed, I was kind of happy to hear that it had finally found what would seem to be a semi-permanent home and I deleted my searches and stopped looking.
Earlier this week (now 9 years later), a picture of me standing next to the car under the tents on a rainy Wednesday at Russo and Steele popped up in my Facebook memories.
I’m a big believer that things tend to work out the way that they’re supposed to. If there’s too many obstacles that get thrown in your way, sometimes it’s the universe trying to tell you that it’s not meant to be, it’s not good for you and you need to move on. Had I ever acquired this car I probably wouldn’t have stumbled into the world of Alfa Romeo which I’m now so thoroughly enamored with and brings me so much happiness, I would have had a lot less space in my garage, so motorcycles probably wouldn’t have ever entered into my life and I probably would be in a much different place today than I would be otherwise. I’ll admit, I have definitely thought about this car over the years, but if it came up again I’m not necessarily sure I would try to pursue it. I’d certainly look, and I think I’d probably reach out to the seller, but I’m not sure it’s something I would want to add to my stable today. Still though, to this day I absolutely love a Shadow Gray 1970 El Camino with black stripes and anytime I see one it always makes me stop, admire it and think what if.
Sometimes things that get away aren’t doing so because you somehow failed someplace. Sometimes, they’re leading you to the things that you’re supposed to find instead.
That’s it for this week……
Darin Roberge