The New Corvettes At Carlisle Auction - Lance Miller Interview

This year marks the 26th year for Corvettes at Carlisle, and for almost as long there's been a Corvette auction held there yearly. The Corvette auction has always been a popular feature of the annual three-day event. The auction attracts lots of people interested in what choice Corvettes are currently fetching dollar-wise, and it's the place to be if you're interested in buying or selling a Corvette. Over the years, the Corvettes at Carlisle management team enlisted Bob Gold and then Dana Mecum to handle the auctions, but this year there's a new twist.

The auction on Friday and Saturday, August 24 and 25, will be the first time ever that Carlisle Events is hosting and running it entirely themselves. An estimated 150 Corvettes are expected to come under the gavel. And there's a new venue, as well. Rather than holding the auction on the Carlisle Fairgrounds as it always has been in the past, this year the auction will take place in the Carlisle Expo Center, one block from the Carlisle Fairgrounds (across the street from Gate 3).

By the time you read this, the dedicated web site link to the Corvettes at Carlisle auction will undoubtedly be up. It was still being worked on as of this writing, so we decided to give Lance Miller at Carlisle Events a call to get the skinny, and here's what he had to say.

CF: Lance, why did you folks decide to handle the auction yourselves rather than using the Mecum organization as you have for the last few years?

LM: Well, before I answer that, let me preface it by saying first-off there is no bad relationship between Mecum and Carlisle Events at all. The reason simply is, right now we're doing our spring and fall auctions in-house, and we feel very comfortable with the progression we've made there. So it's just a natural fit for us to do Corvettes at Carlisle as well this year.

CF: What are the benefits and advantages for both buyers and sellers with Carlisle Events hosting and running the auction rather than having a third party handle things?

LM: for starters, it's certainly more convenient. People can register here for their show field; they can register here for their auction; and they can register here for their vendor spaces. So, again, it's all internal rather than having to outsource somebody else to handle things. By doing it all in-house, essentially, it's just easier for us and for the people who are going to register their cars either to sell or to buy-they can go directly through Carlisle Events rather than having to go through a third party.

CF: In the past, when the Bob Gold organization and then Mecum was running the auction, they had all sorts of ancillary services available, such as on-the-spot insurance and immediate temporary registration for people who won auction cars and wanted to drive them away, among other things. Will you be maintaining that type of support for buyers as well?

LM: Yes. It's definitely our full intention to replicate what they've done in the past; at the same time we're going to be putting our own twist on things. At this point we're still brainstorming, so it's still in the developmental stage, but there's nothing like last-minute planning, right?