Kruse International is one of the world's leading collector car Auction An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. In economic theory, an auction may refer to any mechanism or set of trading rules for exchange firms. It was founded in Auburn, Indiana Auburn is a city in DeKalb County, Indiana, United States. The population was 12,074 at the 2000 census. Founded in 1836 by Wesley Park , the city is the county seat of DeKalb County in 1952 by Russell Kruse after his graduation from the Reppert School of Auctioneering. The company began as a local auction company selling real estate, farms and personal property. Russell Kruse, along with his son's Dean Kruse, Dennis Kruse and Daniel Kruse held their first collector car auction in Auburn, Indiana Auburn is a city in DeKalb County, Indiana, United States. The population was 12,074 at the 2000 census. Founded in 1836 by Wesley Park , the city is the county seat of DeKalb County on Labor Day in 1971. After the success of this auction, they were asked by Tom Barrett to have a sale in Scottsdale, Arizona Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. As of 2010 the population of the city was 245,500. Scottsdale is regarded as an upscale tourist and shopping destination and as a representation of western American style. The New York Times described downtown Scottsdale as "a desert the next January, which was the first of the annual sales held there through the present. In addition to collector cars, the company has auctioned distinctive real estate, vintage aircraft, collectible tractors, mobile homes, collectibles, rare oil paintings, factories, islands, zoos, railroads and three entire towns. The Kruses were the first to sell a car for a documented $1 million in cash -- a 1934 Duesenberg Model SJ La Grande long wheelbase dual-cowl phaeton. The Duesenberg was sold to Tom Monaghan Thomas Stephen "Tom" Monaghan is an entrepreneur and Catholic philanthropist who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983-1992, founder of Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1960, Domino’s is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States. Domino's currently has nearly 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 international markets and all 50 US states. Domino’s Pizza was sold and then owner of the Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team based in Detroit, Michigan, the central city of the Metro Detroit area. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in 1894. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant 10 times. Since 2000, the team has. The Kruse family is also noted for conducting the $41 million sellout of the famous William F. Harrah automotive collection. The sale of this 1,000-car collection was dispersed over three auction sessions in 1985, 1986 and 1987. Because of the lucrative divisions that auctioned real estate and oil field equipment, ITT bought Kruse International in 1981, but the family bought it back in 1986. It was purchased in 1999 by online auctioneer eBay eBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized with Billpoint Billpoint was the name of a person-to-person money transfer service founded in 1998 and purchased in 1999 by online auctioneer eBay. Billpoint's website was taken offline while eBay integrated Billpoint into their auction service, and it did not reappear until the Spring of 2000 when it was relaunched as a joint-venture with Wells Fargo bank for $275 million.[1] The company was purchased back from eBay by Dean Kruse in 2002.[2]
Kruse International is one of the world's leading auction firms and the largest collector car auction company, selling more vintage cars than all other firms combined. It auctions more than 13,000 cars in more than 30 events and dozens of real estate properties each year. In addition to collector cars, the company has auctioned distinctive real estate, vintage aircraft, collectible tractors, mobile homes, collectibles, rare oil paintings, factories, islands, zoos, railroads and three entire towns.
Together, the Kruse family has broken more than 250 world record prices in the collector car industry. Dean Kruse cried his 5,000th auction at the annual Houston sale in August 1987 and became the youngest man ever to attain that goal. His auction total is now well over 6,000 auctions.
The Kruses were the first to sell a car for a documented $1 million in cash -- a 1934 Duesenberg SJ La Grande long wheelbase dual-cowl phaeton. The Duesenberg was sold to Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza and then owner of the Detroit Tigers. Another widely publicized sale was the sale of 30 muscle cars for $1 million to baseball great Reggie Jackson. The Kruse family is noted for conducting the $41 million sellout of the famous William F. Harrah automotive collection. The sale of this 1,000-car collection was dispersed over three auction sessions. The Kruse family is also renowned for selling Homer Fitterling's 40-year collection for more than $13 million to car collector Ed Weaver, owner of Diamond Carpet Mills in Dalton, Georgia. In October 1990, the Kruses sold the collections of Gene Ponder and the late Sam Vaughan for $10.6 million. They then proceeded to sell out the Ed Weaver car collection in 1995 that featured 22 Duesenbergs and nearly 200 other great collector cars - all at No Reserve! More recently, the Kruse's have sold the multi-million dollar collections of Andy Granatelli, Roy Warshauwsky, Herbie Livingston, Mark Martin and many others.
Kruse International conducted the world's first annual consignment collector car auction in 1971 with its Auburn, Indiana auction. The Auburn extravaganza, held each Labor Day weekend, is the world's largest event of its kind and annually draws 5,000 collectible vehicles for sale. More than 150,000 people annually attend the auction and the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Festival. It is the fourth largest spectator event in Indiana, behind only by the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Indiana State Fair.
Russell Kruse, Dean's father, established the family real estate/auction business in 1952 when he teamed with his father-in-law, Lester Boger. Boger had been clerking and contracting auctions since 1929. Dean Kruse joined the family business part-time in 1956 and full-time in 1959.
References
- ^ "eBay acquires two firms". CNET News, May 18, 1999.
- ^ "Its back to the basics for eBay". internetnew.com, October 3, 2002.
Categories: Auctioneering Categories: Auctions and trading | Business models | Game theory
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