The October 2020 “Legal Files,” co-authored with Prescott Kelly, reported about a lawsuit filed against Coys of Kensington involving a 1973 Porsche Carrera RS. That lawsuit seems to be the tip of a large iceberg. Once again, we want to point out that the previous Coys, owned by Chris Routledge, […]

Recently, SCMer Bruce Cochran wrote me with an interesting suggestion: “I thought this particular listing for a Ferrari F12 might be of possible interest for a future dissertation. Without knowing anything about ‘salvage titles,’ my first instinct has always been to run in the other direction. My assumption has always […]

My interest was immediately aroused when I saw this in my inbox, a letter on which I had been cc’ed, from a renowned Ferrari expert and historian:  Attn. Mr. Rod Egan, Worldwide Auctioneers: I have been reading the January 2021 issue of Sports Car Market magazine and saw the Worldwide […]

Dear Legal Files: I read your article on shill bidding (“Legal Files,” November 2020) this week. It was funny because I had just bid at auction for a piece of art that I didn’t win. The bidding went to my bid limit, which was me, and then $20k higher on […]

Andreas Pohl is a wealthy and powerful man. The billionaire CEO of Deutsche Vermoegensberatung (DVAG), a German finance company, is also a car guy. One would think that with all the resources available to him, he wouldn’t get snookered on a car deal. Moreover, one would think no one would […]

Dear “Legal Files”: Have you written about or looked into “shill” bidding on Bring a Trailer? I’m not sure how common it is or if it even exists, but I recently had an experience that got me thinking. I was bidding on a nice restored Datsun 240Z. (By the way, […]

Last month, “Legal Files” started the story of two Porsche 904s, one owned by “Dieter” in Germany and the other owned by the estate of Ken Allison in Kentucky, each claimed to be chassis number 904054 (September 2020, p. 52). Our firm partnered with the London firm of Goodman Derrick […]

German collector “Dieter” was intrigued when he spotted an Internet ad offering Porsche 904 GTS chassis 904054 for sale. “That’s odd,” he thought. “That’s the same chassis number of my 904 GTS that is sitting in my garage.” The ad had been posted by TPE Ltd., a Japanese collector-car dealer […]

Everyone has their opinion about where the collector-car market is headed, and no one can honestly claim that their crystal ball is clearer than anyone else’s. “Legal Files” won’t claim to know more about the market than the real market experts, whose words appear on other pages of this issue. […]

The COVID-19 lockdown has had a dramatic effect on our society. Among the many dislocations are that people are driving less, interacting less — and trying to stay out of trouble. Also, the courts are pretty much shut down except for essential business. As a result, there haven’t been any […]