-
Osceola Heritage Park awaits the fans, and the Mecum auction block awaits the cars, for the world’s classic car auction that started Monday. PHOTO/TERRY LLOYD -
Osceola Heritage Park awaits the fans, and the Mecum auction block awaits the cars, for the world’s classic car auction that started Monday. PHOTO/TERRY LLOYD
While most of us have been busy with the annual hustle and bustle of the holidays, there has been a different kind of holiday flurry at Osceola Heritage Park. Coming off of a record-breaking 2023 auction with 4,000 motor vehicles consigned, 3,180 vehicles sold totaling $234 million, and record attendance of both registered bidders and spectators, Mecum Auctions and the Osceola Heritage Park staff are gearing up for an even bigger event in 2024.
“We are at 4,400 cars consigned for this year, and we expect to exceed last year’s record number of registered bidders and overall attendance,” said Harold Gerdes, Vice President of Operations for Mecum Auctions.
Gerdes and his team, along with the ASM Global staff of Heritage Park, started preparations right after Thanksgiving. With additional large tents, in all, there are over a million square feet undercover for the auction this year. A new challenge for the Mecum/Heritage Park team has been the October 2023 start of the season for the new Osceola Magic basketball team, with Heritage Park as their home court.
2024 will be Mecum Auctions’ 19th year at Osceola Heritage Park, and the 25th year of the January event happening in Osceola County. Aside from one down year during the Coronavirus pandemic, the January event has grown to take advantage of improvements at Heritage Park, including the relocation of a stormwater pond across U.S. 192 that yielded several more acres for event parking.
“Mecum’s January auction is our county’s largest recurring event and gives us great national media exposure. It also comes at the perfect time for us, during the first week in January, which is traditionally slow in the convention industry,” Experience Kissimmee President and CEO D.T. Minich said.
The Mecum event accounts for over 6,000 hotel room nights and over $56 million in economic impact to the area, according to information provided by Experience Kissimmee, the county’s tourism authority. In the classic car auction industry, the Mecum Kissimmee event has clearly established itself as the largest in the world, measured by the number of cars, attendance, and total sales.
This year promises some spectacular highlights, including a “Ferrari Room” with several of the exotic Italian cars expected to sell at prices in the tens of millions of dollars each. Over 30 collections are also included in the auction.
“We can handle the auctioning of a collection from start to finish. We can detail and photograph the cars, transport them to the auction and, of course, get them sold here. The owner gets a check at the end,” said Gerdes.
