Saturday, May 12, 2007

Crash & burn?

The ads ran for weeks on EBay, it was the talk of the bidders for a week, now it seems that the sale of a 1969 Charger for 10 million dollars has spun out and crashed. This wasn't any ordinary car, it is owned by John Schneider, the "cute blonde Bo Duke" of the "Dukes of Hazzard" television show.
The "Dukes of Hazzard" still enjoys a loyal following on cable, I doubt for the stunning dialogue and plot lines but rather for the car chases and possibly Daisy's attair. The vehicle is a modified Charger that appeared as the General Lee in the early 80's show. It has been further modified since appearing the show to an over 200mph, roll caged 725 hp Hemi powered beast. Since these modifications, the car was featured in a limited-release movie that Schneider produced, directed and distributed. Schneider had hoped that the sale of this car would raise the funds needed for a sequal to that movie.
The winning bidder, William Fisher, has maintained that he did not place the winning bid and that his EBay account had been hacked. An EBay spokesperson said that there is no evidence as of now. During the auction last week, EBay had contacted several of the top bidders to verify their offers and had disqualified some bids. A winning bid on EBay constitutes a legally binding contract but company policy also allows Schneider to approach the second highest bidder, which may allow the sale to be completed more quickly.

"Guess I'll have to have a bake sale to fund the movie now!" stated Schneider immediately after hearing that the auction was in jeorpardy.

The show typically went through several cars during the filming of each show which over the six year span of it's television life, depleted the number of those cars left for collectors. McKeel Hagerty, president of Hagerty Insurance, a collector car insurance company, stated that there are about 20 production-used Chargers known to exist in reasonably good condition. These are valued between $150,000 to $200,000 but the opportunity to purchase one that has been owned by "Bo Duke" himself would add to it's value. It wouldn't add millions of dollars to it's value he believed.
If the "General Lee" could go for $10 million at auction..... I wonder how much one of Daisy's outfits would sell for?

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