Mecum announces Kissimmee sale August 27–29

Grab your sunglasses and a spritzer fan—Mecum has announced an addition to its auction rotation for August 27–29: Kissimmee. Yep, summertime in Florida. If all goes according to plan, the halls of the Osceola Heritage Park will ring loud with the sounds of smacking gavels, socially-distanced auction chatter, and the occasional rumble from your favorite Hemis, Fords, and Chevy small-block V-8s.

Why Kissimmee in the heat of summer? On a recent episode of Mecum’s On the Move podcast, auction house founder Dana Mecum shared the logic behind heading to Central Florida at a time when temperatures and humidity are often sweltering. Mecum said his team felt strongly that holding the live auction somewhere that it is familiar to both his staff and the venue staff would be advantageous, especially given the extra precautions necessary due to the current health crisis.

Mecum expects to have between 750–1000 cars at the August sale—nowhere near the 3500-plus at the Mecum’s January event, but still a sizable lineup for an event being put together in short order. On the podcast, Mecum said that at the auction house’s Indianapolis sale in July, Mecum plans to place the cars farther apart in an effort to help folks stay socially distanced—it’s safe to say that this practice will likely be in place at the summer Kissimmee sale, as well.

Auction faithful will note that Mecum and Kissimmee usually pair up in January for the company’s marque event, the largest auction of its kind in the world. The upcoming January sale (which at this point will still happen in 2021) has been the location for some of the most significant sales ever, including last year’s record-setting sale of the original Bullitt Mustang for $3.74M.

Is past performance an indicator of future success, albeit with a lot more humidity? Hagerty auction editor Andrew Newton is taking a wait-and-see approach. “Mecum has put on plenty of huge and successful auctions at this venue, but it will be interesting to see the crowd of cars and people that turn out for this one, both due to the health concerns and that it’s Florida in August.”

Information has yet to be released about specific vehicles coming to the Kissimmee sale, but we’ll keep you updated.