Hershey Auction Results: Duesenberg Leads $13.1 Million Sale
RM Sotheby’s concluded its annual Hershey sale with $13,122,160 in total sales and a 98.9% sell-through rate, reinforcing Hershey’s reputation as one of the collector-car calendar’s strongest venues for Brass Era automobiles, Full Classics, and postwar American luxury cars. The two-day auction was held October 7-8, 2026, at the Hershey Lodge as the official auction of the AACA National Fall Meet.
The complete Hershey Auction Results covered 280 cataloged lots, including collector cars and automobilia. After excluding withdrawn vehicles, 278 lots crossed the block and 275 sold. Only three offered lots failed to record a sale, giving RM Sotheby’s Hershey an overall sell-through rate of 98.9%.
A 1934 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Berline by Murphy topped the sale at $1,022,500. The auction’s five highest-priced cars collectively brought $2,442,250, accounting for approximately 18.6% of the event’s total sales.
Five Most Expensive Cars
The auction’s five highest-priced cars ranged from a coachbuilt Full Classic and a one-off Motorama dream car to a Brass Era Mercedes and two exceptionally rare postwar American automobiles.
| 1934 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Berline by Murphy | $1,022,500 |
| 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car | $494,500 |
| 1915 Mercedes 28/60 HP Town Car and Tourer Display Chassis | $324,000 |
| 1958 Buick Limited Convertible | $321,250 |
| 1947 Chrysler Town and Country Sedan "Big Red" | $280,000 |
The star of the 2026 RM Sotheby’s Hershey Auction was the 1934 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Berline by Murphy, which sold for $1,022,500. Offered as Lot 389 with a pre-sale estimate of $900,000 – $1.2 million, it was the auction’s only seven-figure result.
Chassis 2434 carries one of Walter M. Murphy’s late convertible-berline designs, distinguished by close-coupled proportions, a sharply raked windshield, and streamlined coachwork. The body style is exceptionally scarce, with approximately five examples believed to survive. The car also came to market after two decades in the same ownership, adding an element of freshness that often matters to established Duesenberg collectors.
Its provenance included a period as a Chicago Duesenberg branch demonstrator followed by delivery to William Boal Wood. Later owners included figures familiar within Duesenberg circles, among them Charles M. Knipe, Glenn Pray, Lorin Tryon, and Jack Finden. The result placed the car squarely within its $900,000 – $1.2 million estimate range and established it as the undisputed leader of the Hershey Auction Results.
A one-off 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car achieved $494,500, finishing second overall and surpassing its $300,000 – $400,000 estimate. The experimental Cadillac, identified as XP-48, was created for the 1956 GM Motorama and subsequently appeared at the Paris Salon.
The car represents the sole surviving prototype and earliest surviving example of the Eldorado Brougham. Its elaborate specification included an open chauffeur’s compartment, division window, air conditioning, intercom, beverage accessories, cigar humidor, and extensive hand-finished trim. Unlike the production Eldorado Brougham introduced for 1957, the Town Car was a hand-built show vehicle intended to demonstrate Cadillac’s vision of future luxury.
The Cadillac’s survival is nearly as remarkable as its design. General Motors reportedly sent it to Warhoops Used Auto & Truck Parts for destruction, but it was hidden instead. Collector Joe Bortz later acquired the remains, and subsequent owners completed an award-winning restoration. At Hershey, its combination of singular design, Motorama history, and dramatic provenance pushed the sale price nearly $95,000 above the top of its estimate.
The 1915 Mercedes 28/60 HP Town Car and Tourer Display Chassis ranked third at $324,000. Powered by a 7.2-liter T-head four-cylinder engine, the imposing Brass Era Mercedes paired formal enclosed coachwork with a separate open tourer body carried on a purpose-built display chassis.
Factory records indicate that World War I interrupted the car’s completion and that Mercedes later updated it with a larger V-shaped radiator before delivery. Its early history connects it to a California client identified as “Laemmle,” believed to have been Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle. The Mercedes subsequently appeared in the 1931 film Waterloo Bridge and became part of Art Austria’s Simplex Garage collection, which supplied historic automobiles to Hollywood studios.
Restorer Mark Goyette completed the car’s award-winning restoration, while Crailville constructed the additional tourer body. Both body configurations were displayed together at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That blend of engineering importance, Hollywood provenance, and unusual dual-body presentation distinguished the Mercedes from more conventional Brass Era offerings.
Fourth place went to a 1958 Buick Limited Convertible, sold for $321,250. Buick produced only 839 Limited Convertibles for 1958, the sole model year for this version of the Limited and one of the most extravagant expressions of General Motors styling from the period.
The Limited combined Buick’s 364-cubic-inch, 300-horsepower Nailhead V8 with the model-specific Flight Pitch Dynaflow transmission. Its visual excess reached its peak in a grille assembled from 160 individually mounted chrome squares, along with broad rear-quarter brightwork and the layered ornamentation that defined Buick’s “B-58” styling.
This example, chassis 8E3011106, benefited from a concours-quality restoration in its factory Silver Mist and silver leather color combination. With rarity, condition, and top-tier specification all working in its favor, the Buick nearly matched the much older Mercedes and ranked ahead of every other 1950s production automobile in the sale.
The fifth-highest result was $280,000 for the 1947 Chrysler Town and Country Sedan “Big Red.” Chrysler built approximately 100 eight-cylinder Town and Country sedans on the New Yorker platform, and only four original examples are believed to survive.
“Big Red” pairs Chrysler’s 323.5-cubic-inch straight-eight with distinctive ash framing and mahogany body panels. Its restoration preserved the original structural wood while replacing selected mahogany panels and recreating the leather-and-tartan Highlander interior. The car won its class at the 2004 Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance and received an AACA First Senior Award in 2005.
An extensive accessory package further distinguishes the Chrysler, including a rooftop luggage rack, twin MoPar spotlights, driving lights, sun visor, and Fulton Traffic Light Viewer. Its rarity, established collector ownership, and award-winning presentation helped it reach the lower end of its $275,000 – $350,000 estimate.
Strong Results Across Categories
Beyond the top five, the 2026 Hershey Auction Results demonstrated demand across multiple segments of the collector-car market. The sale encompassed early high-wheelers, Brass Era machinery, coachbuilt Full Classics, wood-bodied postwar cars, 1950s convertibles, trucks, fire apparatus, and automobilia. RM Sotheby’s listed 280 total results across the two-day event.
The 98.9% sell-through rate is especially notable because it reflects the entire auction rather than only the headline automobiles. Automobilia contributed 108 sold lots, while 167 motor vehicles changed hands. Two additional vehicles were withdrawn before crossing the block, and three cars remained unsold.
Those unsold cars included the 1935 Auburn 851 Supercharged Speedster, the 1910 Stevens-Duryea Model XXX Runabout Roadster, and the 1931 Cadillac 370-A V12 “Buck Jones Speedster.” The Auburn had carried an $850,000 – $950,000 estimate, making its failure to sell the most conspicuous exception in an otherwise highly successful auction.
Hershey Market Takeaways
The results underline the continued importance of rarity, provenance, and restoration quality at the upper end of the collector-car market. Each of the top five automobiles offered more than a desirable badge: the Duesenberg featured rare Murphy coachwork, the Cadillac was a one-off Motorama prototype, the Mercedes combined dual bodies with Hollywood history, the Buick was one of 839 built, and the Chrysler ranked among four known surviving eight-cylinder sedans.
At the same time, the strong overall sell-through suggests that buyers were active well beyond the headline lots. With $13.12 million in total sales and 275 of 278 offered lots finding buyers, RM Sotheby’s Hershey delivered one of the year’s broadest tests of demand for early American cars, Full Classics, postwar collectibles, and automobilia – and the market responded with depth as well as headline prices.