GAA Classic Cars at The Palace auction draws thousands – Greensboro News & Record

That’s when her husband Jim Carrier turned the key on the trusty 4,000-pound chariot that had motored them through their high school courtship.

“He drove me to the hospital in it,” Terri Carrier said. “And we still have it — a red, ’66 Mustang, the very car that we drove around in and dated in when we were at McDowell High School,’’ said the nurse, 66, who will celebrate 45 years of marriage with her classic car-loving husband in August.

On Friday, in town from Lake Nebo, the two joined thousands of other vintage car enthusiasts for one of the Southeast’s premier sales, the GAA Classic Cars Auction at Greensboro’s Automobile Palace.

Jim Carrier had a ’64 Ford Fairlane “Thunderbolt” — known as a “Hemi” — to sell. “It will go from 0 to 125 in nine and a half seconds,” he said, grinning. The Mustang will never go on the block, he assured.

All around the Carriers, fathers and sons — and a few wives and girlfriends — leaned over to inspect pristine engines of restored cars, and seasoned collectors compared notes on their bidding limits at the 500-car auction that began Thursday and runs through Saturday.

“That’s high as I’ma go,” one man said over a hot dog. “I don’t wanna get carried away.”

Lights are bright at the eight-acre Palace and they catch every glossy curve and chrome detail of the prize rides. Car windows are rolled down so you can pop your head inside sale cars, catch a spicy whiff of leather upholstery and marvel at dashboards of the past — some with chokes to pull and punch-button radios.

And if a look beneath the hood’s not sufficient, auction-goers can peek at the undercarriages of most vehicles on the block via handy mirrors placed near running boards.

Designed to accommodate 1,000 cars in its temperature-controlled showrooms, the Palace is a place where auctions run gracefully through a complex choreography.

Valets put cars in neutral and quietly tow them stage front for bidding. There, cars are lined up in the order they will go up for sale.

Next, a second team of white-shirted workers pushes vehicles along a painted red carpet where auctioneer Rickie Dale Parks can showcase them in style.

Parks, of Asheboro, is just the kind of auctioneer you want for an event like this  — a sale that will generate between $10 and $20 million, organizers estimate. He’s a former Grand Champion Hall of Famer of the Auctioneer’s Association of North Carolina, and he knows the music that makes for a lively auction.

His sing-song in a warm timbre moves from frenzied to plaintive, then back to : “Hey, hey, would ya gib me, hawbuhduh, hawbuhduh, 12 … 12, 5? Can you gib me 5? Now, gib me, gib me, gib me, hawbuduh, hawbuduh, mon-eeey, mon-eeeey, mon-eeey … Sold!’’

A third team works the bidding crowd for Parks, catching competitors’ nuanced nods and hand gestures to up the ante.

For an auction this size, it took months and hundreds of manhours for Johnny Ransom, the Palace’s general manager, to arrange transport of all the featured cars.

And the wide selection seems to please the auction crowds.

Standing in the periphery of the seated bidding crowd, Dan Voller of King, who brought his son, Daniel along to the auction on Friday, said he traveled from Stokes County because “it takes me back to my childhood.’’

“I just love classic cars and the auction is a great mix of cars to see and there are a lot of exotics,’’ said the 58-year-old, whose first car was a brown 1972 Plymouth Fury, converted from its original use as a police car.

For 17-year-old Daniel, it’s “the beauty.”

“Some of the body lines and how much power some of them produce. The colors, of course. Just everything about them.’’ The South Stokes High School junior enjoys his dad’s collection of classics which include: a ’87 Nissan 300 ZX, an ’86 Mustang SVO, and a ’77 Corvette.

Edwin Messer, a Thomasville classic car collector, only has eyes for Camaros and Chevelles. 

For him, aesthetics take a back seat to power when he sizes up vehicles.

“It’s really more about high performance for me,’’ said Messer, who enjoyed his youth wheeling about in a 1972 Z-28 — white with black stripes.

Freddie Neely of Covington, Ga., greeted friend after friend on the showroom floor Friday, the brim of his Bangora straw cowboy hat pointing toward a ’66 red Corvette.

“Cars has been my life, really,’’ said Neely, 70, who shares his classic car collecting hobby with his wife, Trish.

“The people around the auction — we all share the same passion. I really like GM and Fords, and I LOVE station wagons,’’ Neely said, grabbing his cell phone to show a photo of a 1969 Kingswood Estate Wagon he jazzed up with red, white and blue stripes.

“We drove that car to the West Coast two times,’’ he said. “See, there it is, parked on a corner in Winslow, Arizona!’’

Neely and his fellow collectors are part of a huge national market for classic cars, industry researchers say.

In 2023, the classic car industry was estimated to be worth $2.7 billon, according to IBISWorld, a global industrial research company.

The market is dominated by cars and trucks from the 1970s and 1990s, with about 60% manufactured after 1980, researchers found. The average price? A pretty reasonable $28,500, industry watchers said.

Data also show that 18 million people in the U.S., or 8% of all licensed drivers in America, have at least one collector car.

“This auction is growing every year and has some of the best collections I’ve seen anywhere. This is my sixth or seventh time here,’’ said Neely, who purchased automotive memorabilia at the auction, but said he would likely keep his wallet on his hip for the rest of the event.

Nodding his hat to two friends, Neely walked away from the ’66 Corvette and said, “It ain’t perfect, but it’s a nice little ride.’’