Mecum Auction: Buyer’s Premium, Bidding, Payment and Pickup

Mecum Auctions, based in Walworth, Wisconsin, describes itself as “a live auction company for collector cars, motorcycles, tractors, Road Art and other collector items.” On 16 October 2026 we read its FAQ, its Terms of Use (updated 30 January 2023), its bidding, consignment and transport pages, two auctions’ detail pages, nine state sales-tax pages, the two bidder forms its FAQ links, Mecum Financial Services’ terms and two federal court opinions that quote a Mecum bidder registration. We registered for nothing, bid on nothing and have no commercial relationship with Mecum or any company named here.

What Mecum is, how its sales run, and who owns it

Mecum sells cars the old way: on a stage, in front of a crowd, with an auctioneer calling bids. The FAQ says “Almost all of Mecum’s live auction events are open to the public” with a spectator ticket, a bidder registration or a consigned car. Most collector car and motorcycle sales “last 2 to 4 days,” and some, such as Kissimmee and Indianapolis, “can last 8 to 12 days or more.” Bidding generally starts at 10:00am local time, with lots taken in lot-number order.

The Dallas/Fort Worth auction lists 1,500 vehicles at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on October 21-24, 2026; Kissimmee lists 4,500 vehicles at Osceola Heritage Park on January 5-17, 2027. The cars, Mecum says, “come from individual collector car owners, enthusiasts or collection owners,” plus “some dealers and charities.” Mecum also runs Mecum On Time, a separate “TIMED, ONLINE-ONLY BIDDING PLATFORM”; we did not read its terms, and nothing below about fees applies to it.

Who owns Mecum

The Terms of Use say the site “is property of Mecum Auctions Inc.” of Walworth, Wisconsin. Mecum’s transport page says it has been “In the business since 1988,” which by our arithmetic is 38 years, and its consignment page says “more than 35 years.” Its Who We Are page calls the company “Family-run.” A 2017 federal court opinion, discussed below, names Dana and Frank Mecum as “the principals of Mecum Auction” and records the company as “a citizen of Delaware and Wisconsin.” We read no filing or press release recording a sale or an outside investor, so we name no other owner.

How Mecum differs from the online sites

This table copies one line each from the documents our other guides read; it states none of their fees.

The practical difference: at Mecum you pay Mecum, on the spot or within a day, and Mecum handles the title paperwork. On the online marketplaces above, money and title mostly pass between buyer and seller. Salvage sales such as IAA run on their own buyer rules again.

Registering to bid, the fee Mecum does not print, and verifying funds

A ticket gets you in; it does not let you bid. The FAQ is direct: “daily spectator tickets do not include bidding privileges. To bid at an auction, you must register with Mecum Auctions, sign a bidder’s agreement, and pay the registration fees.” You can bid in person, by phone or online, and registration stays open for the whole auction, though Mecum recommends registering early because some registrations need financial checks.

The fee. No page we read prints the registration price. The FAQ says only that “Bidder registration fees vary by bidding method and package options,” and points to a video for “bid methods and pricing.” The packages and the bidder’s agreement appear inside the registration form, which we did not open because doing so starts a registration; read both there before you pay. An in-person registration includes “one bidder badge and one guest pass” for every auction day, and registrations received two weeks ahead get their credentials by mail. Kissimmee’s page adds that “Gold bidders” park free, so packages differ.

Financial verification over $50,000. “Bidders intending to spend over $50,000 will be required to provide financial verification,” and it “must be received by Mecum prior to registration approval.” Any one of five options works:

• ACH profile. Mecum’s form authorizes “Mecum Auction, Inc.” to debit your account up to an amount you set, which is “the maximum amount you will be authorized to bid at the auction.” Debits may come “as soon as a winning bid is placed, and up to 14 days following the auction,” and the form says Mecum “will not contact me to verify transfers.”
• Bank letter of guarantee on Mecum’s Proof of Funds form, signed by your bank.
• Approval through Mecum Financial Services (see the payment section).
• A $5,000 deposit, applied at settlement, with unused funds returned after the auction. Card deposits carry a “3% non-refundable processing fee,” $150 by our arithmetic.
• A blank check made out to Mecum Auction, Inc., “completed at settlement.”

A blank check or an ACH authorization lets Mecum collect whatever you win. Set the ACH ceiling at your true all-in maximum, premium included.

Inspection before you bid, and what “as-is, where-is” means here

The single most important line in Mecum’s FAQ answers the question “Are Mecum auction cars inspected?” with one word: “No.” Mecum, it says, “simply coordinates the auctioning of vehicles on behalf of the sellers,” and “all vehicles are sold as-is, where-is.” A separate answer adds that Mecum “does not offer warranties on any vehicle or item sold at auction.”

What Mecum does offer is access. “All vehicles are available to view and visually inspect at the auction prior to the start of bidding.” Remote bidders can ask Mecum staff on site to look at a car and answer questions, and Mecum says bidders “are also welcome to hire professionals to inspect the vehicle or item of interest in advance of placing bids.” Note the verb: view and visually inspect. Nothing we read promises a lift, a test drive or a cold start, and the FAQ says cars are pushed across the block, “Mainly for overall safety and to minimize exhaust fumes.”

The 2011 bidder registration quoted by a federal court in 2017 went further. “All lots are sold ‘AS IS, WHERE IS.’” Guarantees of “authenticity, originality, or condition” were “not the guarantee of the Auction Company,” and the information presented at auction was “deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed.” Today’s agreement may be worded differently, but the FAQ’s plain “No” tells you the burden has not moved.

For a collector car, a visual check is not enough on its own. Decode the VIN the way older cars need (our classic car VIN decoder guide explains why a modern decoder rejects older numbers and what a trim tag adds), compare the VIN plate, the title and the catalog description, and if you cannot be there, send someone. Our guides to a pre-purchase inspection and a mobile inspection cover what to ask for; for motorcycles, start with the motorcycle VIN lookup.

Reserve, no reserve, the hammer, and what “sold” binds you to

Reserve. “A reserve is a minimum sale price put on the vehicle or lot,” typically the lowest price the seller will take, and Mecum keeps it private: “Reserves are not public information.” You will not know where it sits while you bid. No reserve is the opposite: such lots “are guaranteed to sell at the highest bid, regardless of price.”

Before the sale. Mecum allows pre-bidding on most lots, and a bidder “can also set a maximum proxy bid.” Set it at a number you are content to pay plus the premium.

The fall of the gavel. Mecum’s current pages do not spell out the moment a sale binds, but its 2011 bidder registration did, in its General Bidder Rules: “Purchaser agrees to accept ownership of merchandise/property at the fall of the gavel and he/she willingly assumes all responsibility and liability for said merchandise/property at that time and without exception.” Read literally, the car and its risks are yours from the hammer, before you have paid and before title moves. Insure it from that moment and arrange transport early.

When the reserve is missed. A car that does not sell on the block is not finished. Through The Bid Goes On, “As long as you’re a currently registered bidder with Mecum, you can place additional bids for up to 21 days after the auction closes.” The team works from a booth beside the block, so a no-sale becomes a negotiation for a buyer who stays registered.

The buyer’s premium and other buyer costs, as printed

Mecum’s FAQ defines the premium as “a dollar amount added to the hammer price of each sold lot, paid for by the bidder/buyer.” It depends on what you buy and how you bid. These are the standing figures printed on 16 October 2026; no promotional offer is included.

What the premium adds. By our arithmetic, with hammer prices we chose and before any tax, title or transport:

• An $8,000 hammer: 10% would be $800, so the $1,000 minimum applies either way: $9,000, or 12.5% on top.
• A $25,000 hammer: $2,500 in person ($27,500), $3,000 by phone or online ($28,000).
• A $60,000 hammer: $6,000 in person ($66,000), $7,200 remote ($67,200), $1,200 more for staying home.
• A $250,000 hammer: $25,000 in person, $30,000 remote, a $5,000 gap, because no maximum is printed.

The $1,000 minimum sets the premium on any in-person car hammered below $10,000, and below $8,333.33 for phone and internet bidders. For motorcycles the $500 minimum binds below $5,000 in person and $4,166.67 remote. Above those points, bidding remotely costs 2 percentage points more on every dollar of hammer.

Bid with the premium already in your number: a $66,000 all-in ceiling in the room means a last hammer bid of $60,000. Sales tax, below, may be collected at the sale too.

Sellers pay too. The FAQ prints consignment entry fees of “$350 - $1000” plus a seller’s commission of 6% (no reserve) or 10% (reserve), charged only if the car sells, with entry fees halved for no-reserve cars ($175 to $500 by our arithmetic). Mecum calls this a “commission-based auction model.” For a buyer, that means Mecum earns from both sides of the same sale.

Paying: the one-hour rule, accepted methods and financing

Mecum’s FAQ does not print a payment deadline, but its own Proof of Funds form (revised 5 October 2020) quotes the rule that sets one. Per “the General Bidder Rules, Rule 21”:

• On site: “If bidding on-site, Bidder will pay for the Lot (including applicable commission, taxes, and fees) within one hour of placing the winning bid.”
• Phone and internet: “Telephone/Internet Bidders shall make payment within one (1) day following the auction event’s conclusion.”
• No holding back: “Bidder is prohibited from suspending or deferring payment.”

The form calls itself “a constituent part of the General Bidder Rules.” We did not read the current rules in full, so we cannot say whether rule 21 has changed since 2020; the registration form shows the current text.

How to pay. The FAQ lists “cash, check (personal or company), certified funds or wire transfer,” and adds that “credit/debit cards are only accepted for the payment of Road Art” purchases. A card is fine for a $5,000 verification deposit (with the 3% fee) but not for the car. If you set up an ACH profile, Mecum can collect “the amount due at settlement” directly, up to the ceiling you signed.

Mecum Financial Services. The FAQ says bidders can apply for financing through Mecum Financial Services “prior to or during the auction,” and that approval satisfies the $50,000 verification rule. Its site describes “a flexible, pre-approved line-of-credit” from “partner lenders.” Its terms, last updated 24 April 2019, say approval is “undertaken by third parties” and “MFS is not engaged in selling vehicles directly,” and put claims under the laws of British Columbia, Canada, within twelve (12) months. Its advertised starting rate is a promotion, so we do not repeat it. Compare any offer with a lender you find yourself; see our guide to private party auto loans.

Sales tax at the sale, state by state

Mecum’s state pages open with the same sentence: “All purchases at a Mecum auction are bound by local tax law.” Whether tax is collected on the spot depends on the state, your residence and, in several states, whether you can prove the car is leaving. These are vehicle rules as Mecum’s pages state them on 16 October 2026; Road Art and dealer purchases differ, and your home state may tax the car again or give credit at registration.

Where a bill of lading matters, Mecum’s Florida, Arizona and California pages require it to show the venue as origin, a destination outside the state, the “Shipping company’s MC# or USDOT#” and the car’s VIN, emailed to Mecum’s accounting team. Book Mecum Auto Transport and, on the Florida and Arizona pages, “the tax will be removed automatically and an updated invoice will be issued.” Indiana is the outlier: Mecum says “a Bill of Lading will not remove sales tax” there. Our guide to buying a car out of state covers what your home state does next, and out-the-door price shows how to total a deal before you commit.

Title, paperwork, removal deadlines and getting the car home

Title. Mecum handles the paperwork itself; its consignment page says it facilitates the sale and paperwork “from initial consignment inquiry to transfer of title.” No current page we read says how long title takes. The 2011 bidder registration did: “Titles on purchased vehicles will be processed in 14 working days contingent upon confirmed payment.” In 2017 the court read that clause narrowly. It held that “nothing in the contract obligates Mecum to transfer title to the purchaser,” only to process it, and recorded a Mecum principal’s testimony that the clause is “a protection for Mecum, not the buyer,” meaning “we do not give you the title until we have confirmed that you have paid for it.”

So check the paperwork at the auction office before you leave: whose name the title is in, that its VIN matches the car character for character, and to whom it will be assigned. Our guides to a title check by VIN, branded titles and a car title transfer cover the checks and the steps; a bill of sale guide covers what the sale document should show. At Harrisburg, Mecum’s Pennsylvania page says a messenger service on site can issue 60-day in-transit tags; elsewhere, see our temporary tag guide.

Removal. Each auction sets its own deadline on its details page. Dallas/Fort Worth 2026, which ends October 24, says: “All vehicles must be removed by 6:00 PM on Monday, October 26,” two days later by our arithmetic. Road Art there must be gone by noon on October 25, or “will be shipped via the designated shipping company at the buyer’s expense.” No storage or late-removal fee for vehicles is printed on any page we read; ask the auction office before the deadline, not after.

Transport. Mecum Auto Transport offers to “schedule delivery home right from the auction floor via our enclosed trailers,” and says its drivers “document and photograph each vehicle prior to loading” and track it “with GPS-equipped trailers.” Rates come by quote, which we did not request. Whoever you use, note the car’s condition on the bill of lading at pickup and look the carrier up on federal records; our car shipping companies guide shows how.

If something goes wrong: default, disputes and arbitration

If a buyer does not pay. No Mecum page we read prints a default penalty, a relisting charge or a storage fee for an unpaid car; those terms, if any, sit in the bidder’s agreement inside the registration form. What is printed is rule 21: no “suspending or deferring payment,” and a stopped or bounced check counts as “conclusive, irrefutable proof” of intent to defraud. For bidders over $50,000, three of the five verification options (a deposit, an ACH authorization or a blank check) put the money within Mecum’s reach before the sale, so a buyer who balks has little room to back out.

Disputes about the car. The 2011 rules quoted by the court added: “Should any dispute arise after the sale, the auctioneer’s records shall be conclusive in all respects.” Mecum’s paperwork wins, so keep your own record: photos of the VIN plate and title, the catalog page and the block sheet you sign.

Disputes with Mecum over the website. The Terms of Use cover the site and fold in the separate terms for “registering to bid, consignments, online bidding”; where those conflict, “the latter terms shall control.” The Terms themselves provide:

• Arbitration: disputes “shall be resolved only by final and binding arbitration” under the Federal Arbitration Act, before one arbitrator of the American Arbitration Association “or a similar arbitration service,” in a place both sides agree.
• Costs: “the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.”
• Individual only: “class arbitrations and class/representative/collective actions are not permitted.”
• Wisconsin: the agreement is governed by Wisconsin law, with “exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Wisconsin” for disputes about use of the site.
• Bidder agreements are separate: the Terms’ entire-agreement clause excludes “any bidder or consignment agreements,” so the agreement you sign to bid can carry its own dispute rules.

The Terms also bar “any page scraping, spider, or other automated device” and “artificial intelligence”, and robots.txt repeats the ban, so we read each Mecum page once by hand, requested nothing under the disallowed /search/ path and quote only short passages.

What a federal case shows about Mecum’s bidder agreement

Mecum’s bidder agreement has been tested in court. In Pardo v. Mecum Auction Inc., No. 12 C 08410 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, a buyer sued over a Corvette bought at Mecum’s Bloomington Gold auction in St. Charles, Illinois, on 25 June 2011. We read the court’s order of 29 December 2014 (Dkt. 124) and its memorandum opinion of 31 March 2017 (Dkt. 178), both public records on govinfo.gov. What they record, stated as the court stated it:

• The sale. The buyer bid $68,500, “plus an auctioneer’s commission to Mecum of $4,110,” and paid $72,610 in all. By our arithmetic that commission was 6% of the bid; today’s printed in-person premium on the same bid would be $6,850.
• The claim. The buyer alleged the car was not the 1967 Corvette it was sold as but an earlier car altered to look like one. Mecum disputed that. For its 2017 ruling the court assumed the buyer’s version without deciding it: the facts “are disputed.”
• Who sold it. In its fact summary the 2017 opinion says the seller was “The Mecum Collection Inc. (undisputedly, an alter ego of Mecum Auction),” and that “Mecum Auction did not disclose that its alter ego was the seller.” It also records that Mecum “admits that it was aware of and did not disclose the car’s replacement engine,” while denying any duty to, because the engine could be inspected before bidding.
• The fraud claims failed. In 2014 the court dismissed the fraud and misrepresentation claims with prejudice, because in the bidder registration the buyer acknowledged that all lots are purchased “as is” and “entirely upon [the buyer’s] own or his agent’s examination and opinion.” The 2017 opinion describes that as a holding that “the contractual non-reliance clause found in his bidder’s agreement foreclosed his claims.”
• The title claim failed too. The court found Mecum mailed the processed title 13 days after the sale, to a third party’s business rather than the buyer, and held the 14-working-day clause required only processing. On 31 March 2017 it granted summary judgment: “Judgment is granted in Mecum’s favor and this case is terminated.” Our search surfaced no appeal.

This is one case about a 2011 agreement, and today’s may be worded differently. But it shows the agreement working as written: whatever a catalog or a conversation says, a buyer who signs it bids on his own inspection. The same opinion quotes Mecum testimony that its entry process checks “that the serial number matches the title,” but not the car’s history “back indefinitely” or its originality. A matching VIN and title is where your checking starts, not where it ends; our guide on how to check if a car is stolen covers re-tagged VIN plates.

Where Mecum’s own documents disagree

• How long Bid Goes On runs. The FAQ says Mecum works to sell an unsold car “for at least 21 days after the auction”; the Bid Goes On page says buyers can bid “for up to 21 days.” One is a floor, the other a ceiling.
• Ticket refunds. The FAQ says “All ticket sales are final and are not refundable,” and, in another answer on the same page, that if you register to bid during the event, “the cost of your daily spectator ticket will be refunded.”
• The company’s name. The Terms say “Mecum Auctions Inc.”; the blank-check payee, the trademark notice and the ACH form say “Mecum Auction, Inc.” Pay exactly the name on your invoice.
• Auctioneer or seller. The FAQ says Mecum “simply coordinates the auctioning of vehicles on behalf of the sellers”; the 2017 court record shows a Mecum company as the undisclosed seller of the 2011 car.
• Arbitration or court. The Terms require “final and binding arbitration” and, a few paragraphs later, give Wisconsin courts “exclusive jurisdiction and venue” over site disputes.
• Old headings. The Dallas/Fort Worth 2026 page is headed “Dallas 2023” and the Kissimmee 2027 page “KISSIMMEE 2024.” Confirm dates, office hours and removal deadlines on site.

Common questions

How much is the buyer’s premium at a Mecum auction?

For collector cars and motorcycles, 10% of the hammer price in person and 12% by telephone or internet, at least $1,000 per vehicle and $500 per motorcycle. No maximum is printed: on a $250,000 car that is $25,000 in person, by our arithmetic.

Can anyone bid at Mecum, or do you need a dealer license?

Anyone who registers: the FAQ says bidding “is open to the public, and none of them require a dealer license.” A spectator ticket alone does not let you bid, and bidders planning to spend over $50,000 must verify funds first.

How much does it cost to register to bid at Mecum?

No page we read prints the amount. The FAQ says fees “vary by bidding method and package options”; the amounts appear on the registration form.

Does Mecum inspect cars or give a warranty?

No to both, by its own FAQ: Mecum does not inspect auction cars and “does not offer warranties on any vehicle or item sold at auction.” All vehicles sell as-is, where-is. You can view every car before bidding, ask staff to look at one if bidding remotely, or hire an inspector.

How long do you have to pay after winning at Mecum?

Under the bidder rule Mecum quotes on its Proof of Funds form, on-site winners pay “within one hour of placing the winning bid,” including premium, taxes and fees; phone and internet winners pay “within one (1) day” after the auction ends. Cards are accepted only for Road Art.

Who owns Mecum Auctions?

Mecum Auctions Inc. of Walworth, Wisconsin, which calls itself “Family-run” and dates itself to 1988. A 2017 federal court opinion names Dana and Frank Mecum as its principals; we read no record of a sale or outside owner.