Fantasy Bidding: Mixing It Up

Very cool...one of those plates that makes me wish I had a car to stick it on.

That sale price seems about right for the car [i:17hec44x]without[/i:17hec44x] the Tom Mix connection. Or is that aspect of the car's history lost on today's collectors?

Just by chance this showed up on eBay recently, kind of an odd association since the Rambler name wasn't used from about 1915 until 1950.

www.route66rambler.com/show_imag ... lesize=800

Sorry for the delay in results. I began my junior year in college a week ago and have been running around in circles since.

The car sold for $155,500, including premiums. With a guess of $242,000, Scott Campbell receives the hearty digital handshake.

Other results of note from the same auction (all including premiums):
1933 Duesenberg Model J Rollston Convertible Victoria (J-384 / 2535) for $1,437,000
1935 Auburn 851 Phaeton for $65,340

Somewhere at home I have the Sports Car Market report on the Cord when it was sold out of the Imperial Palace to Sid Craig in the late 1990s at the Auction in Las Vegas. I seem to remember it mentioning the restoration as being pretty old and tired with incorrect carpeting.

My bid is $325,000

Steve Derus

Auction catalog entry is now online. The car comes complete with a wax dummy of Tom Mix.

www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.s ... ectionNo=2

Get your bids in before it's too late!

Some of my old brain cells are telling me I once saw a pic of the Tom Mix Cord taken after the fatal accident and before repair/restoration. Perhaps it was in an ACD Newsletter. As I recall the car was not what anyone would call "totaled," so restoration or repair would not have been out of the question.

Apparently Mix was not killed by the sudden stop of the car, but by the impact from unsecured luggage flying forward into his head.

--Tom

It seems odd that a car connected with a celebrity death would even be repaired. I think the trend now would be to leave it "as wrecked" because of the Tom Mix connection. I don't recall from reading how heavily the car itself was damaged though, not too badly?

I remember a few years ago that the Buick Electra Jayne Mansfield died in was either sold or auctioned still in wrecked condition. From the pics it didn't appear to have been stored particularly well, possibly even outdoors for some time. I'm thinking that it sold for something like $12,000?

My guess for the Tom Mix Cord is $242,000.

No, but the car still has a gun holster and an oversized gas pedal, both said to have been installed for the King of Cowboys.

It's worth noting that Tom Mix's ACD products were this car and a Model A Duesenberg. He never owned the so-called "Tom Mix" Model J, which received its Western-themed rebody over a decade after Mix was dead.

The same sale includes another Duesenberg, also from the Craig collection, that was supposedly owned by William Boyd, "Hopalong Cassidy." That's probably an urban legend, too.

Ok, I've played Josh for the day ( <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> ), back to bidding!

Hmmmmmm... Does the car include the unsecured suitcase that actually killed Tom Mix? <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

We haven't had a Fantasy Bid contest on a Cord 810/812 yet, and since a particularly interesting one is coming up for auction, I decided this was the time.

On August 14, 2009, Bonhams will sell the Sid Craig Collection at "no reserve" at their auction at Quail Lodge in CA. One of the cars that will be selling is a 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton, the famous car in which cowboy movie star Tom Mix met his end.

This is probably the only time that having been wrecked and rebuilt may improve a car's value. The car was sold to Mr. Craig at auction from the Imperial Palace Auto Collections, where it had been shown for years.

So, what's having been the site of a movie star's demise worth? It's up to you to decide!

MAKE YOUR BID BY MIDNIGHT, AUGUST 14, 2009, EASTERN TIME. Winning bidder's guess must be closest to final on-block bid on the car, without commissionor fees. The prize is, as always, a hearty digital handshake.

Good luck!