Littlefield Collection & Auction

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Ed hit the nail squarely on the head with his finial line:

"We are only caretakers of this material for a short time, so in the end I think a collection owner has to be happy with whoever gets the collection and sit back and think that at least they looked after or preserved it while they had it."

Having worked with non-profit organizations and foundation for most of my working life, I know where to look up and review the financials of US non-profit organizations. I've read through the Collings Foundations returns and they seem to be the real deal with some real financial strength both in the foundation and behind it. So there is hope that the collection or major parts will be preserved.

But going back to Ed's point each collector/museum can only try to do the best while they posses the collection.

Cheers Phil

[Chuck Anderson]

I don't have a problem with it.

All of the family members have over $100 million EACH. Any money they might get from this sale is chump change to them. Even if they do profit from the sale, why is that bothersome? People profit (and suffer) all the time from their parent's or grandparent's life choices. Jaques himself benefitted from his grandfather's work, whether Jaques was interested in it or not, and there's where he got all of the money to put the collection together. The Foundation is the "owner" of the vast majority of the vehicles & parts. Jaques had some in his name, but not too much. The Foundation is a non-profit and is required to pass its assets to another non-profit. Any income would go into the non-profit and not to the family. Add to that the expense that Jaques put into each vehicle. The vehicle was his passion, not the cost. I don't know what the end result is, but from a family position, its a write-off.

We as collectors all benefit (and suffer) from the the involvement of the Jaques Littlefields of the world. Whenever Jaques was looking for something, prices around the world would increase. People in would dig up or scrounge up vehicles and/or parts because a billionaire was looking for them. That helps us by bringing a lot of rare stuff onto the market and hurts us in that the prices went way up when we wanted a vehicle or parts. Then again, it caused the market values to increase making everybody's MVs worth more. Now that the "big fish" are dissapearing (Littlefield, Gibb, Budge, Ropkey, Wheatcroft isn't buying much) the money isn't flowing like it use to.

There a quite a few of us that are getting up there in years and before too long the market will be flooded with MVs. The question is what will they be going for? Is there a new generation that cares enough about them to spend that kind of money on them? If Collings is going to auction off over 100 of the vehicles, I wonder how much they'll command? I was stunned last December at the auction in Indiana. Maybe there's a new wave of millionaires that love this stuff.

This is why I don't gamble.