We’ve written before that the doomsayers who are declaring the collector car hobby is dying are living on a different planet than we are here at SCM.
In addition to Cars & Coffee and marque-specific tours (the Oregon Region of the Porsche Club of America holds two tours per week), there is a new entry into the world of car gatherings.
Bring a Trailer (BaT) is the leading online auction site. It has parlayed its popularity into a physical presence by having Bring a Trailer Meet Ups. All the attendees get name tags with their BaT user handles on them.
Isn’t this a switch, moving from the anonymity of the online world to actually meeting other buyers, sellers and trolls in person?
Last weekend’s Meet-Up was hosted by BaT local partner 911r, the handle for Matt Crandall’s Avant-Garde Collection.
No registration was required, but I would estimate there were 500 cars and over 1,000 people (“Batsters?”) in attendance.
What all of these people had in common is that they were interested and engaged by the buying and selling of cars online. In a way, it was like Barrett-Jackson, just without the tents and cars. Just buyers and sellers and tire-kickers.
A good time was had by all. I especially liked the chocolate-chip cookies, with which I once again demonstrated that for me, the first cookie is just an invitation for the next half-dozen. Vintage Underground’s Sue Counselman got me there, and my son Bradley drove our Lotus Elise. It was one of three there, along with two Evoras and a Series II Europa.
A thank you goes to BaT co-founder Randy Nonnenberg, for continuing to find innovative ways to energize our collector car community.
I look forward to the next Portland Meet-Up.
They are, I believe, called “BATistas”.
Keith asked, “Isn’t this a switch, moving from the anonymity of the online world to actually meeting other buyers, sellers and trolls in person?”
I use my real name on BaT, and if everyone else did so, there’d be fewer stupid posts!