$10 Mil. “General Lee” Auction in Shambles

When I saw that one of the original “General Lee” Dodge Chargers from The Dukes of Hazzard was on sale by Dukes star John “Bo” Schneider on eBay, I was surprised to see the bidding already up into the millions. The auction apparently topped out at nearly $10 million, but now the bidder is claiming that someone else was using his account to bid. (The original auction is here.) Mr. Schneider estimates that the auction would have legitimately topped out around $5 million had fake bidders not continued to up the ante.

My real question is this: Can the General Lee (one of six non-stunt originals) be a good investment even at $5 million? When I looked at the auction, the top bidder was the owner of a car restoration shop (if I recall correctly), and I suppose there would be plenty of opportunities to show the car off at car shows and the like, but $5 million? You could easily buy a ‘69 Charger of your own and restore it to the exact specifications of one of the television cars and still have several million dollars in the bank. Can people really put that much value on nostalgia?

$10M ‘General Lee’ auction spins out [CNN/Money]