31K Miles Series I 240Z Up for Auction on BaT - Over $100k on First Day!

[Zed Head]

11 minutes ago, motorman7 said:

Pretty sure this is not Mike's car.  I saw the owner, he was 'youngish', I would say mid 40's.  Although, he probably knows Mike well since they are in the same region and the car was in Mike's museum.  I am pretty sure that I know Mike's show cars.  Mike has S/N HLS30-00222 which is far superior to this one.

I don't know how the Museum works.  Sounds like you're saying that people loan their cars to the Museum for display?  

Looks like a tax scheme to me.  The general public can't go see the cars.  I assume that fees are charged to groups, so it's a business and various costs are tax deductible.

Regardless, it still looks like one owner since 2002, unless the car was sold but stayed at the "Museum", for this second sale.  Don't know.  The BAT listing implies that this is the second owner since it left storage in 2002.  The car "joined" the Museum, then somebody bought it and is now reselling it.  Convolution...

Actually I see that Charland Auto is in the middle there also.  Maybe they messed around with it.  I'm seeing four owners so far, if Malamut actually owned it, three if Charland still owned it while it was displayed.  Could be that Malamut is actually a consignment shop and the "collection" is the sales inventory.

http://malamutautomuseumfoundation.org/

Edited October 18, 2020 by Zed Head

[motorman7]

Ahh, interesting.  Maybe Mike was the seller in 2017.  I think this would coincide with his purchase of 222.

[Zed Head]

Is it the blue one?  Weird that it has 31,000 miles also.  Loaned FROM his personal collection.  TO the Foundation???  For display and business purposes?  It still seems to be there.

Edit - actually I see that some of the cars are PART OF the collection.  Where are the loaned cars, I wonder.

The world of money.  It's a strange place.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Zed Head

[Racer X]

On 10/15/2020 at 6:49 PM, Zed Head said:

I think the 240Z's, at least this one, has/have moved from 240Z collectors over to the realm of old car collectors.  Collecting not because they like Z's but because they're old and "expensive".

Doesn't seem like Wob really knows Z's, he has comments about other old cars but misses the point of some of the things that a Z person would know.  The heater core bypass is bad for cooling, it's a straight shot from the back of the head to the pump inlet.  The coolant just cools picks up heat from the block then goes right back to the pump without seeing the radiator then does it again.  He could fix that without disturbing anything.

The hose clamps are the kind that everyone hates, boooo.  It's not even really a good restoration.  It's probably a good base for a restoration though.  And it's good entertainment for flaw-finding.

I saw the hoses, all the worm gear clamps, a strip mall auto parts store battery and oil filter, the do it yourself air conditioning, and the price dropped 40%.

 

I looked through the pictures, read the listing, and some of the comments. It isn't a doubt this car has potential, with proper restoration, to be quite valuable.

 

But as presented in this auction, it is nothing more than a cobbled up misrepresentation worth only a fraction of the current bid.

[motorman7]

2 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Is it the blue one?  Weird that it has 31,000 miles also.  Loaned FROM his personal collection.  TO the Foundation???  For display and business purposes?  It still seems to be there.

Edit - actually I see that some of the cars are PART OF the collection.  Where are the loaned cars, I wonder.

The world of money.  It's a strange place.

That one looks nice, haven't seen that one before.  Yes, interesting that it is also at 31K miles.

The 222 car is the old Mike Sage car.  It was one of the 1999 (VZ?) cars.

[Zed Head]

9 minutes ago, motorman7 said:

That one looks nice, haven't seen that one before.  Yes, interesting that it is also at 31K miles.

The 222 car is the old Mike Sage car.  It was one of the 1999 (VZ?) cars.

1997 maybe.

[lonetreesteve]

12 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Is it the blue one?  Weird that it has 31,000 miles also.  Loaned FROM his personal collection.  TO the Foundation???  For display and business purposes?  It still seems to be there.

Edit - actually I see that some of the cars are PART OF the collection.  Where are the loaned cars, I wonder.

The world of money.  It's a strange place.

Here's a link to the auction of this car from 6/7/17. The car sold for only $39,250.00....what a great investment Mike Malamut made! 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-datsun-240z-13/

 

[Zed Head]

1 hour ago, lonetreesteve said:

Here's a link to the auction of this car from 6/7/17. The car sold for only $39,250.00....what a great investment Mike Malamut made! 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-datsun-240z-13/

 

Interesting how the internet lets us track the path of things through time now.

It's not really an investment unless he hopes to make a profit reselling it, right?  And it's not a great one until he does.  At least, investing as it's meant in financial terms.  And car collecting "passion" (type from the Malamut web site), and investing aren't really the same thing.  Nothing wrong with either, they're just not the same.

The Malamut collection looks like a really enjoyable business to own and run, that's for sure though.  He gets to do both, make money and collect cars, together.  But other collectors just need to be very aware of the first part.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Zed Head

[Zed Head]

So, just to sum things up, there's an undisclosed owner who bought the car from Malamut in 2017 and Wob is selling it for him now in 2020.  Does that sound right?  Wonder why today's owner is selling it, and why is it still at the Collection site, after three years.  Just questions.  The paperwork, registration, etc. up to today would be interesting to see.  Seems to end in 2018.  The last few puzzle pieces...

The tags expire this month.  Maybe he doesn't want to pay the fee.

[siteunseen]

Ah, the infonet! No take backs or I never said that. Twitter post never go away. 

[Racer X]

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

 

The tags expire this month.  Maybe he doesn't want to pay the fee.

I doubt that is an authentic Nevada plate and registration tag. The plate doesn't look like any ever issued by the Nevada DOL, but rather a novelty plate.

[Zed Head]

13 minutes ago, Racer X said:

I doubt that is an authentic Nevada plate and registration tag. The plate doesn't look like any ever issued by the Nevada DOL, but rather a novelty plate.

Might be a Vintage plate from 2002.  I can't imagine a car collector and auto dealer sticking fake tags on a license plate.  That would be absurd.  Any cop would be all over it as soon as they saw it on the road.

Here's today's.

https://dmvnv.com/platesclassic.htm

Edited October 18, 2020 by Zed Head