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384: How To Become A Car Specialist With RM Sotheby's President Gord Duff
384: How To Become A Car Specialist With RM Sotheby's President Gord Duff
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About this episode
Gord Duff, president of RM Sotheby's, shares insights on becoming a car specialist in the collector car auction industry. He emphasizes the importance of passion, knowledge, and relationship-building in this unique career path. Duff discusses the skills needed, such as memory retention and understanding client preferences, and reflects on his own unconventional journey to success. The episode also touches on the recent Monterey auction results, highlighting record-breaking sales and the evolving market dynamics. Listeners gain valuable advice on how to enter and thrive in the automotive auction world.
Topics:
becoming a car specialist
passion for cars
relationship building
auction dynamics
Monterey auction results
career paths in automotive
knowledge retention
client preferences
market trends
long-term success
Cars:
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari F40
Ferrari F50
Ford Mustang
Jaguar E-Type
Shelby Cobra
What does it really take to become a Car Specialist at the world's leading collector car auction house? In this episode, I sit down with Gord Duff, President of RM Sotheby's, to explore the skills, knowledge, and passion required to succeed in one of the most exciting careers in the automotive world.
Gord shares his personal journey, offers insider advice for aspiring specialists, and explains how RM Sotheby's evaluates and markets the rarest cars in the world. We also review the recent Monterey results, highlighting market trends, record-setting sales, and what they mean for collectors moving forward.
I also open up about my own not-so-typical career path — how I transitioned from the consumer packaged goods industry into the collector car world, and how launching The Collector Car Podcast ultimately played a key role in consigning the $51.7M Ferrari 330 LM/250 GTO, the most expensive Ferrari ever sold at auction.
🔑 Topics include:
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The pathway to becoming a Car Specialist
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The mix of passion, expertise, and client service needed to succeed
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Lessons from RM Sotheby's Monterey auction results
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My own unconventional journey from CPG to consigning the world's most valuable Ferrari
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Key insights into where the collector car market is headed
#CollectorCars #RMSothebys #MontereyCarWeek #CarSpecialist
Listen to the "Octane FM: Shift, Rev, Repeat" album on Spotify!
Stay connected with The Collector Car Podcast—find us on our Website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or reach out to Greg directly via email.
Join RM Sotheby's Car Specialist Greg Stanley as he brings over 25 years of experience and keen market analysis to the world of collector cars. Each week, Greg dives into market trends, interviews industry experts, and shares insights—with a little fun along the way. New episodes drop every Thursday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Learn more at www.TheCollectorCarPodcast.com or email Greg at [email protected].
Interested in consigning a car at an RM Sotheby's auction? Contact Greg directly at [email protected].
Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Jaguar Etype
"now, you know, you think about, well, you know, there's a, whatever, an E-type for sale are available privately and you got to remember, wait, I had a client, you know, six months ago that said he'd like to have an"
Car
Ferrari F40
"...as well as to somebody that wants a, you know, an F40 with miles on it versus the guy that's only buyin..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"...uying delivery mileage stuff or, you know, Shelby Mustang or a Cobra and they like doing their show car per..."
Car
Shelby Cobra
"...y mileage stuff or, you know, Shelby Mustang or a Cobra and they like doing their show car person, not a,..."
Car
Ferrari F50
"going to sell the world's most expensive F-50 ever and that happened, you know, this summer forum and it's fantastic"
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"... across the board prices were strong from a Yanco Camaro to a 512 TR to a 599 GTO to, you know, we"
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"a judge based on whatever car you like in CRS for Corvettes, you know, Pontiac."
Select text to request an explanation
RM Sotheby's is the world's largest collector car auction house by total sales.
They are the preeminent market maker of high quality collector cars and collections, regardless
of size or complexity.
By working in partnership with the Sotheby's team and its network of 80 offices in 40 countries,
RM Sotheby's has established the largest client network of any collector car auction
house in the world.
Join the RM Sotheby's family by connecting with one of their car specialists at RMSotheby's.com
or contact me directly at gstanly at RMSotheby's.com.
Welcome to the Clutch of Car podcast.
I'm excited about this episode because there's a question I get from a lot of you that I honestly
can't answer.
It's, how do I become a car specialist?
Now a reason I can't answer that is because I have a very unique career path to RM Sotheby's
which I will cover at the end of this podcast.
So stay tuned if you would like to hear my wacky career path.
But I thought, you know what, who's the best person to answer this question?
So I'd like to welcome Gord Duff, president of RM Sotheby's to the podcast.
Gord, how are you doing, buddy?
Good, good.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I appreciate you being on the podcast to talk about this because, you know, everybody
thinks it's the dream job.
Obviously there's some really cool stuff about the job, but it is a much harder job than
I ever thought it would be.
And you know, it's an interesting job because nobody knows, like, what are the
skill sets?
You know, there's not a college degree and being a car specialist and you and
I both come from abnormal career paths to end up where we are today.
But from an RM perspective, like, if you had advice to give someone who's at 12 or 13-year-old
car enthusiast who would love to join the ranks of RM one day, like, what kind of advice
would you give them?
Like, what's a great, you know, avenue experience, education that you really look
for when you're interviewing candidates?
You know, let's even say a 25-year-old or a 35-year-old, but, you know, the most
important thing or kind of the first thing is the passion for the cars and, you
know, it being something you really enjoy and you're not coming into it as you
think you can make a lot of money doing it or you see others that appear to be,
you know, super successful at it.
But one, it's kind of having the passion for the cars.
Two, definitely knowledge and the ability to learn, you know, quickly and, you know,
being able to have a really good memory.
I think that's a super important part, whether it's the history of a car,
certain years that certain models were built, knowing what a car sold for five
years ago or what the market was on a car before, what it is now, what it might
be in the future, being able to connect dots on who used to own what,
who's looking for what.
You know, that's a big piece to our businesses.
You know, we visit clients throughout the year and, you know, you're always
getting pieces of information of, you know, I might want to sell that in six
months or I'm looking for one of these if you ever find one and, and, you
know, the ability to be able to retain that information and be able to connect
dots, whether it's a week later, six months later, two months, two years
later, that's the crucial piece.
And, and, you know, the people that are out there, colleagues of mine,
friends of mine, just in the industry, like the ones that are super successful,
that's one of the main ingredients, I think, is having that, that really good
memory and being, being able to connect dots.
That makes a lot of sense because as I'm doing this in a full-time capacity
now, you know, you think about, well, you know, there's a, whatever, an
E-type for sale are available privately and you got to remember, wait, I
had a client, you know, six months ago that said he'd like to have an
E-type or whatever the car might be, I did, you know, that is something I
wanted to have necessarily thought as being super important, but you're
right, it's something that you really need to remember who is looking for
what, who has what, who might move on, you know, it's part of a larger
world, I guess, that you need to keep track of, right?
And being able to understand, you know, the, the, the type of car that
that, you know, each client is into a different either type of car or
quality of car, some like more driver quality.
They like doing rallies or they just like a great old car where
others are like, I want to go to concourse, so I want perfect
stuff and don't call me if it isn't a perfect car or an original
color or et cetera, et cetera.
So there's also, you know, that calibration through it all as well
as to somebody that wants a, you know, an F40 with miles on it
versus the guy that's only buying delivery mileage stuff or, you
know, Shelby Mustang or a Cobra and they like doing their show car
person, not a, you know, car tour driver type person.
So it's understanding that so that, you know, when you're either
trying to consign or sell cars, you're, you know, you build good
relationships with these people and then you're coming to them
with cars that are actually fit within their collection or that
they're looking for and not just throwing any E type as you
would say at them, you're, you're putting one in front of
them that's like, hey, this would be good for your collection
because of XYZ or, you know, when you're trying to sell stuff
for them, I guess, works both ways.
Yeah, the other thing I was really surprised by is, you
know, you join RM, it's not like, hey, here's your client
list, here's the book, here's, you know, you got to find
your clients, right? You got a network, you got to meet
people, you got to understand who's out there who's
looking, who's selling, who's buying and so much of it is
building these long lasting relationships, right, in which
they trust you, they trust your opinion. It's not like you
show up and hey, here you go, right? I mean, you kind of
have to build your own relationship network.
I always tell people if they're interested in coming to work
for us or just in general, they're younger and they're
like, hey, someday I'd like to get into this is, you
know, getting into its one thing, getting good at
it and great at it is just takes time. You know, I
tell a brand new specialist three to five years until
you one, get comfortable to get a decent client base and
you start, you know, being able to consign good cars and
sell good cars and kind of get a, you know, your own
client base together that trusts you and it's about
being honest and being long term, right, making sure
that when you're selling a car to somebody, we sell
cars to people over the phone all the time that never
see them and they're going based off me telling
them this is a good car for you and, you know, a lot of
time they're like, okay, like they trust me because I've
built a relationship with them over a long time, you
know, that they'll buy cars site unseen. But it's, it
takes a lot of, you know, sacrifice as well. You
got to be on the road a lot. You got to be willing
to go to all these car shows and that's where it
comes back to, you know, you got to love doing
this and, you know, kind of you work hard enough
you're going to be successful in this, but some
people it comes quicker to than others, but, you
know, three to five years is to just kind of start
to get comfortable and then in, you know, 10 years
you can see it, 15 years you can really start
seeing it. It's definitely a long term play, but
you got to give up lots of, you know, weekends
away with friends and away from your girlfriend
or your family or, you know, those kind of
things to sacrifice in order to, if you
really want to be great at this job. Yeah,
agreed. Now, can you speak a little bit to the
Dare to Dream collection? Because if I remember
correctly, that was a long-term relationship that
you build up personally and help them source
the cars for that. Is that correct? Yeah, there
was me and actually a few, you know, friends
of mine in the industry that, you know, had
sold him most of his cars, but, you know,
I kind of met him just randomly on a weekend
while I was up in Toronto and it, you know,
went from, you know, a collection where he had
20 or 30 cars that were 50 to 100 grand a piece
to I'll never buy a car for a million dollars
and within two or three years it kind of,
he switched, right? He just kind of started
getting into the bigger stuff and, yeah, we
were, we're still great friends. I go
hang out with him in the summer now
with his family at his cottage and whatnot,
but, you know, that was 15 years of
kind of, you know, doing the right thing,
selling him the right cars, telling him no
when he wanted a car and it wasn't good
enough for him or, you know, he was looking
to me and, you know, other people in the
industry to steer him right and, you
know, we did. You know, we made sure
that he bought the right cars and stayed
away from, you know, the ones that
weren't up to snuff of what he wanted,
but, you know, that's what our business
of 40 years is based on are these
relationships that, you know, Rob has had
and Shelby has had and, you know, lots of
us that, you know, have been here for
10, 15, 25, 30 years kind of thing.
Yeah, and, crazy if I'm wrong here,
but wasn't it the blue Daytona that
you made sure he went out and got
just the right one, which, yes, it
cost him more money at the time, but
then, you know, when it did
eventually sell it also, you know,
realized, I don't know that it was
a record, but a really strong price
because of the quality of the example.
Yeah, I'd say selling it was more luck.
I wouldn't have expected it to bring
that kind of price. I think it was like
a million dollars hammered his auction,
but when he wanted it, I was like,
it's the right car, but you're going
to pay World Record money for this
car and when you wake up in the
morning, you're going to read stuff
about it and people might say this
crazy guy came and bought this car
and, you know, other people might
tell you the right, the same thing,
but it is the best. It is a killer
car and if you want it, you're just
going to have to step up and he did
and, you know, surprisingly, I thought
it was worth about what he paid for it.
You know, this is 10 or 12 years later
and, you know, it got into a bidding
or between two people at the auction
and lo and behold, I think it hammered
at like a million dollars or a million
fifty, which if it's not a record,
I think it's the second highest
price ever paid for a Daytona Coupe.
So, you know, certain things
that he bought, buying the best of the
best, you'll always be, you know,
okay in the end with.
Right. Right. Yeah. Okay.
Well, I feel like I probably have some
listeners now that are excited because
they're like, okay, I've got the passion.
I'm ready to go on the road.
I'm ready to do this at any other,
but they're not necessarily equipped
whether that's from a knowledge basis
education training.
So, I know we've had some McPherson
college graduates.
I know myself included. I try to
judge cars at car shows because I want
to increase my knowledge base on certain
models, make some models.
What would you recommend has been
like maybe the most successful pass?
Is that like, hey, you know what?
I worked at a luxury dealership
that also had classic cars.
I know there's a lot of different
ways to kind of get to your knowledge
base. Right.
You know, if I look at people that
work for us that are, you know,
started when they were 25 years old
or started when they were 40 years
old, like, to be really successful,
you're either, you know, you come from
maybe a research side of things
where you're really knowledgeable on
cars so that, you know, coming to work
for an auction house, let's say, like,
you know, the clientele wants somebody
that knows what they're talking about.
And, you know, that's a good way for
some people. The other side is
you got to be a good talker.
Right. You need to, you need to be
honest and, you know, you need to
have a little bit of salesmanship in
you that you're not scared to go walk up
to a stranger or that you can be an easy
person to carry on a conversation with.
And, you know, the knowledge will come
in time. You know, I remember a friend
of mine when I first got into being
a specialist and, you know, I'm going
on the road visiting people and I'm
like, I'm going to walk in garages
and I won't know anything about the
kind of cars they have. And he was
kind of like, just remember the
people you're going to see will
always know more about their cars
than you were. You will, you know, the
histories and that kind of stuff. And
you just sit there and listen and soak up
as much as you can. And, you know, I
feel like over the years every car I've
consigned I really didn't know much
about. That was the car that, that
because I consigned it I learned a
ton about and then it just stuck
with me. So then times that by
whatever 20 plus years and, you know,
you end up knowing a lot. And I
think for younger people, you know,
if you can get your foot in the
door with auction houses are great
because we sell a little bit of
everything. So we sell cars from 1900
to, you know, a modern-day SP3. So
you get to learn a lot whereas if you
go into a restoration shop and they
only restore E-type Jags, you're just
going to get to know E-type Jags.
We're, you know, working for an
auction house, whether you're a
writer or your researcher. We've had
guys that started, you know, at
McPherson where they were working
summers for us or they would work
line-up at our auctions and, you know,
they were good with their hands or knew
how to drive things and they'd come in
and help us move cars around and drive
them across the block and, you know,
they get to know clientele. They get
to know a lot about, you know,
hundreds of different kind of cars
and how to drive them and, and then
they kind of, you know, figure out
their path from there. We've, we've
got some people that, you know,
are researchers and writers for us
and we got, you know, three McPherson
grads that, that are car specialists
for us now, but they started working
in line-up. They started pushing cars
around at an auction kind of just like
me. So it was like, they just, they came
at it maybe a humble way and, and learned
as they went. And I don't think any of
them thought maybe initially like
that's what I want to become when I
get older and it just kind of happened
or they, they started, their eyes
started opening up to, you know, all
the different possibilities in this
industry of like, you know, all the
different directions you can go. But,
you know, McPherson is a great one
writing for, you know, auction houses
or if you can get an internship at a
restoration shop just to get your
foot in the door. I think anywhere
is, is great to get going and then
you kind of just, you know, you can
make three, four, five different moves
as you grow in order to get into
whether you go work for a dealership
or you come work for an auction
house or something, but we're one
of the best places to learn the most
about cars since we touch so many
different kinds of cars throughout, you
know, a year. Yeah, that's a good point.
Like I'm not a pre-war guy, but I know
more now today than I ever have in my
life. Yeah. Still hesitant to drive on.
I do want to get that training class
one day. Okay, no, that's really,
really good information. What's the
best way for folks to learn more? I
know we have like a LinkedIn profile
that you can tab on to to see if
there's opportunities. Is that
correct? Yeah, I, you know, we're
always looking for great specialists.
It's nice if you come with, you know, a
bit of background and knowledge of the
industry or from, you know, like a
restoration shop or something like
that. We have trained lots of guys
from, you know, the ground up, but
you're going to start doing a lot of
different stuff before you become a
specialist. We're not going to hire
any, you know, 22-year-old and
you're going to become a specialist
right away. I think, you know, with the
team that we have, you know, in North
America, more so, they've come from
kind of humble beginnings of doing a
lot of other stuff and have just
grown over time and, you know, we got a
couple of them that are just
fantastic and it's nothing I could
have seen, you know, 10 years ago
of what they've become today. You
know, we had a McPherson grad and I
don't think he ever thought he was
going to sell the world's most expensive
F-50 ever and that happened, you know,
this summer forum and it's fantastic
and it was a relationship that he
built for, you know, several years
with the family and he was, you know,
finally able to secure the car and,
you know, worked for a company like
us with a great brand and, you know,
we were able to put a world record
price together for him, but it's
pretty cool from where he came from,
you know, 10 or 12 years ago to
today. So it's, you know, it's
possible for anybody if you want to
put in the time. Yeah, no, that's a great
way to put it. So I'll put links in the
description so folks that are listening
to this can check out, see what might
be available at RM Sotheby's, but before
I let you go, two things real quick.
Can you give me your thoughts on the
Monterey week because you just
referenced the F-50 record price,
quite a few record prices
happening over the weekend? Yeah, you
know, overall the
the market was really strong. I, we
had a better auction than I
honestly expected we would have. I, you
know, knew the F-50 would do a good
price and I knew the SP-3 would
be strong that we sold for charity, not
nearly what it brought, but
what was your number on that car?
You know, 12 to 15. Okay. You know,
that's what was kind of in my head. I
knew it was north of 10. I did not
believe it would be 20 plus.
Right. You know, amazing result,
amazing that we have such a great
relationship with Ferrari. But, you
know, across the board prices were
strong from a Yanco Camaro to a 512
TR to a 599 GTO to, you know, we
sold a great Duesenberg and a 500K
for really strong money for, you
know, pre-war classics. So, overall
I was, I was, you know,
happily surprised with our results
and, you know, when you looked
around, you know, with even all
our competitors, everybody had a
really good weekend. So, you know, if
it's good for all of us, it's good
for the market overall, it's good for
all of us going forward. So, no, it
was really happy and relieved. It's
over. It was, you know, a six-month
worth of work, you know, putting all
that stuff together, but super happy
for the success of, you know, the
team and our company and everything
and what we achieved a couple weeks
ago.
Yeah. Yeah. Really amazing work. Well,
before I let you go, I know I'll
cover my not-typical career path
after we're done, but could you just
give our listeners a little insight
into your not-typical career path
because I think it's really
fascinating one. What little I know
about it?
Yeah. So, started almost 27 years
ago, did an internship here, like
some of my other colleagues have done,
you know, since me, but did an
internship cleaning cars, started,
you know, working our auctions,
pushing cars, driving cars across
the auction block, got into
transporting cars for us. So, I
drove our transport truck all over
the place, like a reliable carrier's
truck really like that, did some
logistics for auctions, setting up
venues and whatnot, and then moved
into a specialist role and, you know,
just kind of wanted to go from
consigning five cars to 10 cars to
15 cars to my first million-dollar
car, and it, you know, took a lot
of time. It doesn't seem that long
in the moment, I guess, but like
looking back, I'm like, oh, I've
been doing this for 15 plus years
as a specialist and, you know,
everything I learned from the
driving the cars to transporting
cars, I got to learn the customers,
I got to learn the cars and how to
start them all and drive them and,
you know, good ones from bad ones
from all of that. So, that helped,
you know, bring me through to
understanding the cars in a
better way and, and, you know, all
the stuff I was learning of the
cars I was transporting, got me
into learning 34 Packards from
37 Espanos, from, you know, name
the car. It was all the things I
didn't realize I was learning at the
time. And, and, you know, it's
nothing that I would have ever
expected, like every thing that's
kind of happened to me over 27
years, none of it was, you know,
one day I want to be this or
that kind of thing. It just, I
don't know, the next little step
happened and then you look back
and it's like, oh, I've taken a
lot of steps in 27 years. So,
yeah, I like the kind of way it
came about for me, but it was
nothing that I would have ever
expected.
Yeah, and I have to say from my
food industry side, I started as a
cracker stacker, slinging Oreo
cookies part-time into grocery
stores. And, you know, I made my
way up to district manager and as
a manager and as you as the
president, in my mind, you have
so much more trust and
credibility when you started in
the trenches, you know, you're
not someone that just kind of came
over, you know, because you have
an ideally degree or something,
you know, like you've been here,
you've done everything, you've
seen everything, you've been a
part of everything. And I think
that really good for the troops,
I guess, is the best way to put it.
Yeah, I wanted to be at the top
of the pile for being a
specialist and, you know, consign
the most stuff and help sell the
most stuff. And that's where I
thought, you know, the top was
and didn't realize that, you know,
there was more to come after that.
I didn't expect to be running a
company or, you know, managing a
lot of people. It is, you know,
I like doing the car deals and
meeting the clients and that kind
of stuff, but it's great. I get
to do, you know, both now. So it's,
it's, yeah, I don't know how it
could get any better.
I was about to ask, is this it? You
topped out here? You're going to...
Who knows, right? Who knows, right?
Still got a long road ahead, so
we'll see what happens.
Well, Gore, thank you so much for
giving some insight as far as what
it takes to be a car specialist
in an auction world, especially
with ones such as Arm Sotheby's.
I appreciate you being on the
podcast.
Yeah, no, thanks for having me.
Okay, so you've heard from Gore
Duff on what it takes to become
a car specialist at Arm
Sotheby's. Now I will share with you
my non-traditional career path.
I get this question so much.
Originally, this was going to be
the podcast episode.
It was going to be how I became a
car specialist with Arm Sotheby's,
but then I realized that probably
won't help out most people because
it's such a weird career path.
So what happened was, is I've been
in the food industry for over 30
years, or around 30 years. I'm not
that old.
Anyways, started when I was like
17, 18. I was working for Nabisco
summers from college, ended up
quitting college after four years.
I did not graduate and I started
working for Nabisco full-time.
So long story short, I did the
corporate career path in the
consumer products goods category.
Now what this means for you is
if you are not in the car world,
it honestly doesn't matter if you
would like to explore a path
as a car specialist.
And so the reason I said that is
because I had it in my head, I would
love to be more involved in cars.
I just have such a passion for them.
As you can tell after almost 400
episodes of the Click to Car
podcast, I'm doing this for fun.
I'm not getting paid.
At least when I started it, I wasn't
getting paid anything. It's just a
passion project.
So fast forward to about, I don't
know, six years ago or so,
I was doing a podcast called Learn
from Others where I would share
the career journey of different
professions.
And the ideal scenario was, is that
it was teenagers were my listeners.
So I would share whether you're a
doctor, I had the director for
Hamilton on, I had the press writer
for Ronald Reagan,
all sorts of cool stuff.
Not a lot of cool people.
But I still kind of wanted to have
cars involved somehow in this
educational podcast for kids.
So you can still find it if you
go to Learn from Others.
It's on Apple iTunes, that kind
of stuff.
So at the end of every episode, I
would pick like what car would a
doctor have?
What car would the director for
Hamilton have?
And I would pick something fun,
interesting, could be a classic
car, could be a new car, whatever.
It was just a fun exercise for me
to intertwine
collector cars into my podcast.
So after a while it was the guy,
I cannot remember his name, but he
was the speech writer for Ronald
Reagan.
We were having a
conversation after the recording
and I forgot how he got on it.
But basically he said, if people
were to sum you up in three words
or less, what would they call you?
And I said, oh, that's easy.
They would call me the car guy.
And he said, well then you should
probably have a car podcast.
Now that sounds brilliant.
That sounds really, you know,
simple today.
But at the time I was like, you
know what, you're probably right.
Why am I kind of spinning my
wheels doing something that is
a passion, but it's not like the
overall driving passion of what I do.
And so I tried to do both podcasts
for a while.
I did learn from others and I did
the collector car podcast in tandem
for a while.
It was just too much.
Learn from others did not take off
like I hoped it would.
And so I ended up shutting that
down.
But like I said, I'm still paying
five bucks a month to keep it
active.
So you can listen to some of those
old episodes.
Now in the meantime, I was a huge
Mustang fan.
So back when I was 19 years old,
I joined the Mustang Club,
Mustang Club of America.
And then eventually when I became
of age where I could actually afford
a Mustang.
So let's call this mid 30s.
I decided I wanted to become a
Mustang judge because someone once
told me you never know what is
wrong with a car until you know
what is right with a car.
And they said you should become
a judge based on whatever car
you like in CRS for Corvettes,
you know, Pontiac.
I don't know what the name of
their club is.
But anyway, so I became a
Mustang Club of America judge.
And that is a really good way to
know what you're looking at.
And so for a little bit of
background in that world,
as well as in CRS,
you're focusing on like one or
two years, you know,
maybe in CRS as a generation,
I'm not sure you could focus on
C2 Corvettes.
But you're you literally know,
learn what is the right hose
clamp, what is the right nut,
the bolt,
you're underneath the undercarriage,
you're looking at the brake
calipers,
you're looking at the kind of
tires, the size of tires,
everything.
So that was a great learning
process for me.
So fast forward to,
you know,
six years ago or so,
I've got the Collector Car
podcast up and running.
I probably have maybe 60 or 70
interviews recorded.
And I just happened to see an
article or a job posting on
LinkedIn for a car specialist
with RM Sotheby's.
And I had never been to an
RM Sotheby's auction.
I had never,
I had been to Bear Jackson
auction in the early 90s
once with my sister,
but zero experience in the
collector car world,
zero experience in the auction
world.
And I just thought,
you know what,
probably cocky at the time.
I'm like, hey, I'll,
I'll apply and they'll offer me
this job where I get paid a
bunch of money and I get to
do fun stuff.
Right.
I was so wrong.
So I customized my resume
so that it appealed more
towards the car worlds.
I,
I emphasized the Mustang
judging.
I emphasized the collector
car podcast.
And so I sent the resume in
and I didn't hear anything.
Is that like for months?
I didn't hear anything.
And so eventually RM Sotheby's
had a sale in Dayton, Ohio.
So I'm in Cincinnati.
If you're from Dayton,
they pronounce it Dayton.
Dayton.
They say you have to make it
sound like your tongues numb.
Dayton.
Anyways,
and they did the John Dixon
collection,
which he had passed away.
It was in a state sale.
A lot of porches,
a career of speech or
some cool stuff.
And so I thought,
you know what,
I've never been to an RM
Sotheby's auction.
Why don't I just
go in there and see what it's
all about.
So I show up
and the very first person
I see walking by
that I actually recognize
was Donnie Gold.
He was with RM Sotheby's
at the time.
And I had seen him on like,
I don't know,
chasing classic cars
or some TV show.
Him as the expert.
And so I said,
Hey, Donnie,
I submitted a resume
and I never heard back.
And he immediately pointed,
he kept walking.
He immediately pointed to
the president
of RM Sotheby's
at the time
and said,
go talk to that guy.
And so he kept walking.
Now if you ask him today,
he takes credit
for getting me a job
with RM Sotheby's.
Anyways,
so I talked to the president.
He said,
Hey, you know what?
The spam filters
probably kicked out your resume.
Here's my email address.
Send me your resume directly.
So I did that
and I didn't hear anything
for like three months.
And then finally,
I heard from him
and it was,
it wasn't a job offer.
It was,
Hey, we're not going to offer
you a job.
But we really like your podcast.
We like the connections you're making
and the people you're talking to.
So we would like to
pick up your podcast
as our official podcast
and we would offer you
a consulting gig
where I could get paid
as if I was a car specialist,
but I would just do it part time
or as I,
as I could.
Now at the time,
we also had our Auburn sale.
And so I was fortunate.
I got a cold call list
from Sotheby's
and I started calling around
and I met someone
who became a great friend
and he ended up selling
22 cars with me
over two years at Auburn.
And so as I'm doing this
consulting gig
and working my full time
food job,
it was,
and doing the podcast
at,
for a while doing both podcasts,
obviously I was working
a ton of hours.
It was just so, so much.
Well, in the meantime,
I was able to consign
the 330,
the Ferrari 330 LM
slash 250 GTO
that eventually sold for
all in at $51.7 million.
And so that gave me
a little nest egg
in which I could say,
you know what?
I really enjoy doing this.
I'm having success
as a part-time consultant
and I was able to get this
really amazing car
in front of our Sotheby's
that they ended up selling
for a world record price.
Why don't I try to do this
full time?
And so that's when I,
I called up Gord,
our now president
who you just heard from
and basically said,
Hey, I want to come on full
time.
Can you bring me on board?
And he graciously agreed to
do so.
And I've been doing it full
time for about a year.
So I'm not saying
you should start your own podcast.
I don't know the answer,
but I just thought
I would share with you
my non-typical career path
to end up at my dream job.
And it literally started
with a podcast.
And I cannot stress
your no,
you're not,
you're never too old
to try to get into this
business.
I mean, look at me.
I started trying to get
my foot into the door
when I was,
I don't know,
48, 49 years old.
I'm a little bit older than
that now.
Actually, probably 46.
Anyways,
so it's been a heck
of a ride.
I appreciate all of you
joining me for such a long time.
And if you're new to this
and you'd like to be on my
newsletter,
just shoot me a note
gstanley at rmsuthabees.com
or greg at thecollectivecarpodcast.com.
As always, thanks for watching.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for sharing.
And I will talk to all of you
next week.
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