This 1964 Shelby 289 Cobra is up for auction this weekend in Scottsdale, offered by Gooding & Company for — wait for it — upwards of $1.4 million. 

Before you say "Wha?!" because this rare American sports car looks like it was dug up from a dirt pile someplace in the Upper Midwest, know that its value derives largely from its current less-than-perfect condition.

It's what's known in the car collecting world as a "barn find." 

It's the Holy Grail of car collectors who pursue pure examples of their dream cars — cars that haven't been messed with or modified. Cars that can serve as the basis for loving restorations.

American motorsports legend Carroll Shelby is responsible for this diamond in the rough. He created his Shelby Cobras in the 1960s, and over the decades they've become some of most most desirable collectibles. They combine a kind of raw American spirit with smooth, lightly European style. 

This one spent 40 years with the same owner. My Business Insider colleague Ben Zhang lamented that the owner didn't invest in upkeep, a fair complaint, but I pointed out that all the owner had to do was keep the car in a barn for four decades in order to make a million bucks.

Such is the mythology that surrounds Shelby.

SEE ALSO: 59 Antique Cars Will Be Sold At Auction After They Were Found Decaying In A French Barn

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A healthy number of very sweet classic Porsches are up for auction on Friday and Saturday in Scottsdale, Ariz. The auction house Gooding & Company is handing the hammer for these fine examples of German engineering — not to mention styling, as the 1973 911 Carerra categorically demonstrates. I drooled over 911s of this vintage when I was a youngster. But how often did I see one in yellow? Not that often.

Pick this traffic-stopper up for a cool $1.5 million at the top end of the estimate.

Now a few more of Stuttgart's finest:

It's a 1989 959 Sport. Kinds of looks like Baymax from "Big Hero 6." George Lucas would dig this car. Take it home for $2 million, if it tops estimates.

Not all the Porsches in Scottsdale are over-the-top. This sweet little 1963 356 Carerra 2 Coupe shows off the core of Porsche's iconic style and shape — with a sassy red paint job! A bargain at $650,000.

But this 1967 911 2.0 S is the real steal: $325,000!

Porsche also does racing — and has for a long time. This 1966 906 Carerra 6 competed for the brand in one of its heyday decades. It spent six years on the track. And now we're getting back to the upper realms of pricing: $2.4 million.

SEE ALSO: This Incredible $1 Million Classic Car Was Found In A Barn

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DALLAS (Reuters) - A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, including a lock of the 16th U.S president's hair, will be up for auction in Dallas on Saturday, months before the United States marks 150 years since the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination.

The collection of more than 300 items, with a combined estimated value of about $400,000, belonged to a Fort Worth history buff and is considered to be one of the best private Lincoln collections known to exist, according to Heritage Auction officials.

The late Fort Worth art gallery owner Donald Dow built the collection over five decades, beginning in 1963 with the purchase of a box of books, according to his son Greg Dow, who is selling the collection. The elder Dow died in 2009.

"He started collecting because of his interest in the Civil War and military history," Greg Dow said. "But then he became interested in Lincoln and the assassination."

Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865, in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and supporter of the Confederacy. He died the next day.

Highlights of the collection include a fragment of a letter Lincoln wrote to a Baltimore attorney in 1862, containing a rare admission that Civil War was not going well for the north but rejecting surrender. The fragment is projected to sell for about $25,000.

Papers endorsed by Lincoln arranging a prisoner swap between a Union soldier in Confederate custody and the son of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was being held by the Union, is estimated to sell for $10,000.

The items up for auction include the arrest warrant for Booth, estimated to sell for $4,000, and two eyewitness accounts of the assassination, expected to fetch $6,000 and $8,000.

Greg Dow said the time is right for him to sell the collection.

"I want other collectors to have a chance to enjoy it," Dow said.

(Reporting by Marice Richter; Editing by David Bailey and Mohammad Zargham)

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A treasure trove of extremely rare classic cars, discovered on a farm in western France last year after lying forgotten for almost 50 years, is expected to fetch 16 million euros ($18 million) at auction on Friday.

The cars, described as "sleeping beauties" by the Artcurial auction house, will be sold in the state they were found, some rusted and weather-beaten, having been kept in makeshift shelters exposed to the elements.

The 60 classic gems, bearing legendary names like Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago, Panhard-Levassor, Maserati, Ferrari, Delahaye, and Delage have been described by Artcurial as "works of art."

Among them is one of only 37 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spiders ever made, valued at up to 12 million euros, which was discovered under a pile of dusty old car magazines.

The once-in-a-lifetime discovery, announced in December, was likened by Artcurial managing director Matthieu Lamoure to stumbling upon the car world's equivalent of the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Metallic graveyard

Lamoure and senior specialist Pierre Novikoff got a tip about the timeworn fleet while criss-crossing the country hunting for rare pieces.

On the farm — Artcurial is keeping the exact location secret — they found a hodgepodge of makeshift structures, describing shock after shock as they realized the treasures they contained.

"This was somewhere between a metallic graveyard and a museum," said Novikoff, describing valuable cars invaded by ivy, and in some cases corrugated iron resting directly on the cars.

"We were overcome with emotion. Probably much like Lord Carrington and Howard Carter, on being the first for centuries to enter Tutankhamun's tomb," Lamoure said.

The rare California Spider — a car that features 13 times on the list of the 100 most expensive cars ever sold — was bought new by French actor Gerard Blain and later sold to fellow actor Alain Delon.

Delon was photographed with American actresses Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine in the car, which historians thought was lost forever.

Also uncovered is an extravagant Talbot Lago T26 Cabriolet that belonged to Egypt's last monarch, King Farouk, an immensely rich ruler known for grotesque extravagance and avid collector who along with fast cars amassed one of the world's most famous coin collections.

"This is surely the last time that such a discovery will be made, anywhere in the world. What is so special here is the number of cars, the range, and the quality and pedigree of the models," Novikoff said.

'It is a sculpture'

But how did such a jackpot of mythical automobiles end up on a rural French farm, left to rust for half a century?

While classic cars are now snapped up and extremely valuable, this was not the case a few decades ago when inventor and automobile enthusiast Roger Baillon became one of the first collectors.

He had a transport business in the west of France where he in 1947 designed and built his own car known as the Bluebird, all while raking in a fortune in the post-World War II boom in the sector.

He bought the property in 1953 to turn into an automobile museum, snapping up classic cars — some saved from the scrapyard — and according to Lamoure, even bought a little train that he planned to use to give tours of his museum.

"When the vehicles arrived he put them away without much fuss, one next to the other. He restored some and left others as they were," Novikoff said.

Much of the collection was built up between 1955 and 1965.

But when the 1970s swung in, Baillon's business went into decline, and he held a large sale of his car collection at the end of the decade, and to car historians, that was the end of that.

But it turned out he had clung on to many of the collection's jewels.

"This is a very rare opportunity presenting works of art unknown to the market! For the Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupe Saoutchik, caved in at the rear, I think it should be left in this condition. It is a sculpture." 

SEE ALSO: We saw an incredible collection of Ferraris in Palm Beach this weekend

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Paris (AFP) - An ultra-rare Ferrari that once belonged to actor Alain Delon and was discovered rusting under a pile of old magazines on a French farm fetched 14.2 million euros ($16.2 million) at auction on Friday.

The Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider -- one of only 37 ever made -- went under the hammer at the Artcurial auction house in Paris as part of a treasure trove of vintage cars found on the farm in western France last year after lying forgotten for half a century.

SEE ALSO: This Incredible $1 Million Classic Car Was Found In A Barn

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NOW WATCH: The new 'Furious 7' trailer is packed full of cars, explosions, and ridiculous stunts

Apple is reportedly working on an electric vehicle, codenamed "Titan."

If it ever reaches the market, Apple's car will doubtlessly bear the influence of the company's chief designer, Jony Ive.

Ive is a car fan who's owned a number of interesting and expensive rides, according to a biography of him by Leander Kahney.

Ive drove a Fiat 500 when he was in school.

He once helped his dad restore an Austin-Healey Sprite.

Ive used to own an Aston Martin DB9, but he crashed it near San Bruno, California.

Warren Buffett's 2006 Cadillac DTS sedan sold for $122,500 in a charity auction that closed on Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

That's roughly $111,300 more than the car's estimated value, and $49,300 more than he raised when he auctioned off his Lincoln Town Car back in 2006.

The winning bidder has not yet been identified. But that person, who CNN Money reported was a "New Yorker," will get to meet Buffett, who offered to personally hand over the keys in Omaha.

Proceeds will go to Girls Inc., a favorite charity of Buffett's that works to empower young girls through education. Buffett's daughter, Susan, is a director at the charity.

Here's the promo video for the auction, which was hosted online by Proxibid:

Read more on the auction from Bloomberg>>

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You probably know Buzz Aldrin as the second guy to set foot on the Moon.

Or maybe as the namesake for Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear.

But Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. also has the honor of being the first person to take a selfie in space.

Aldrin snapped the photo in November 1966, during Gemini 12, the last mission of a program meant to test astronauts' ability to dock with spacecraft already in orbit.

While he was at it, Aldrin also set a record for time spent outside his spacecraft (called an EVA, or extravehicular activity), at five and a half hours. Here's the photo:

The eight by ten inch photo was among hundreds of vintage space photos sold at London's Bloomsbury Auction on February 26 — see more of them in our slideshow.

Aldrin's seminal selfie went for more than $9,000 (£5,952) — way more than the auction house's minimum estimation of $900 (£600).

SEE ALSO: 21 beautiful, vintage photographs of NASA's glory days

DON'T MISS: These Stunning Images Prove That Life On The Space Station Is Just As Mind-Blowing As 'Gravity' Makes It Seem

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The Apple Watch is the only Apple product I've even been super-interested in.

I like watches and always have, and I think Apple's design guru, Jony Ive, and his team did a great job, for the most part, in creating Apple's first true luxury device.

That said, I have no plans to buy and Apple watch anytime soon.

The watch fascinates me, and I'm looking forward to visiting an Apple Store to "play" with the "piece," as they say in the world of horological enthusiasm.

But the only thing I really want the Apple watch to do is tell time. Sure, some of the other features sound quite cool and probably have unforeseen potential, particular the quickie, minimalist messaging stuff and the ability to send your heartbeat to someone.

The combination of ever-changing watch faces and Apple quality is what, to me, is cool about the Apple Watch. I also sort of like the idea of owning the first of some Apple something. I just bought a new watch, a Swatch Sistem 51 (I wrote about the timepiece here), mainly because it's the first of its kind.

But I'm not going to buy the Apple Watch when it goes on sale, because I intend to wait three years and pick one up used, when perhaps the only thing it can still do is function as a watch. I don't expect Apple to crack the planned obsolescence curve with the watch — my family has numerous old Apple devices that kinda sorta work, like a 10-year-old iBook that's a glorified typewriter and a first-gen iPhone that takes awful photos. Basically, they've been reduced to performing a single duty.

In the watch world, depreciation is a much-discussed subject. The bottom line is that almost all the watches ever made and being made will be worth next to nothing almost right after they're purchased. Even watches in the $500-$1,000 realm won't be worth very much on the resale market.

The two brands that reliably don't depreciate that much are Rolex and Patek Philippe (there are others, but those are the Big Two). The right models from these major Swiss watchmakers will hold value over time, although they will depreciate somewhat (they can retain about 70% of their original prices as a baseline, and then depending on what model you've bought, even appreciate over the decades).

If you're an aspiring collector, the advice you'll most often hear is to buy a used Rolex or Patek, with all the correct certifications and documentation, at auction or from a reputable dealer. The deprecation from new has already taken place, so you can wager on the value of watch remaining somewhat stable over time.

The buy-in here is maybe $5,000 for a Rolex — a Submariner, for example — and substantially more for a Patek, perhaps $10,000 to $20,000 for an iconic model, such as the Calatrava.

These are watches with automatic or mechanical movements that, if cared for properly and serviced on schedule, could last forever — or as long as replacement parts are being made. 

The Apple Watch isn't a mechanical watch, so presumably it will suffer a much bigger initial drop in value. I don't want to fool with the entry-level model, which has an aluminum case. The larger stainless-steel version, with the link band, is where I'd start. My understanding is that it will be priced at about $1,000.

The significance of the watch may prevent it from losing half its value straightaway, so I'll assume that there's a "newness" premium that it will retain. But I still think its loss of functionality and displacement by newer Apple Watches will grind the value down. Plus, if people wear their Apple Watches every day, they're going to beat them up. 

So for me, the sweet spot to pick one up will be at the midway point of the second upgrade cycle. Apple Watch 1 will have been displaced by Apple Watch 2, and we'll be eagerly awaiting Apple Watch 3. I'm guessing that Apple will update the watch on a two-year cycle, so that means I'll be buying sometime in 2018.

My wager is that I'll be able to find the model I want, in reasonable working condition but with outdated technologically, for about $100, maybe a bit less. It will still tell time, but that's maybe about all it will be able to do. And if not, well ... I have a few old watches that don't work anymore that I sometimes just wear because I like the way they look.

Now, watches are more collectible than old iPhones, so there's every possibility that other collectors may have the same idea — and that a resale market for "vintage" Apple Watches may develop that keeps prices higher than they would be otherwise. And perhaps it would make more sense to avoid buying Watch 1, waiting for Watch 2, which will have a lower historical value. 

We'll have to see if that happens. I may have to cough up $200.

Anyway, I will own an Apple Watch. I just won't own one until I'm a bit older and grayer.

And as an aside, I certainly expect Apple stock to be worth more tomorrow than it is today. So it would be interesting to take the $800-$900 I won't be spending on a new Apple Watch and buy Apple shares instead.

SEE ALSO: Here's the thing about the Apple Watch — it isn't really a watch

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NOW WATCH: Steve Jobs' biographer says the Apple Watch makes perfect sense

Billionaire Liu Yiqian is a regular globetrotter, often traveling abroad to bid millions of dollars in auctions for ancient Chinese art. But he usually travels for free.

That's after Bloomberg reporters inspired him to start using his air miles, earned from the millions of dollars he's paid on his American Express Centurion card for the ceramics and antiquities he collects, Bloomberg's Frederik Balfour reports.

After Yiqian's last major purchase back in July – $36 million for a ceramic piece known as the "Chicken Cup" – Bloomberg asked Yiqian about the frequent flyer points he must have earned.

Now, Yiqian, who is worth about $1 billion, is sure to use his miles whenever he travels – including when he recently flew to Hong Kong to pay $45 million for a 15th century silk Buddhist tapestry he won in a November auction.

That took more than 30 transactions to process, and should earn earn Yiqian another 18,750,000 points, Bloomberg estimates.

Read the full story over at Bloomberg>>

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Sotheby's tapped Madison Square Garden Company's CEO Tad Smith on Monday to join the art auction house as its next CEO.

Smith, 49, is succeeding Bill Ruprecht, who announced his retirement in November after 35 years at Sotheby's. He will begin March 31.

Since 2013, Sotheby's has been under pressure by activist investor Daniel Loeb, the founder of hedge fund Third Point LLC. Loeb, who previously called the company "an old master painting in desperate need of restoration," had been pushing for leadership change.

We've heard that Loeb is super psyched about Sotheby's decision to hire Smith.

The view is that this is a real shift for the company going from old school to having a dynamic, young and accomplished brand builder. Smith is also seen as someone who can bring in new energy.

Loeb, who owns a 9.6% stake in Sotheby's and is on the board, could not be reached for comment. 

The board's decision to hire Smith was unanimous. 

One thing that stands out, though, especially to the shorts, is that Smith doesn't come from the art world. The press release only mentions that he has "a passion for art and collectibles."

Smith worked at MSG for a year as president and CEO. In that role, he oversaw the company's strategy and day-to-day operations of MSG Sports, MSG Media and MSG Entertainment. Before that, he worked for Cablevision Systems Corporation, where he most had most recently served as president of Local Media. 

In a conference call on Monday morning, Smith said he plans to develop a five-year plan. He didn't get into much detail, but said that he has a "number of ideas" that he plans to test.

Later on the call, Smith said he plans to immerse himself by meeting with employees, clients and investors so he can understand what Sotheby's does well and what the company needs to work on.

During the Q&A portion of the call, Smith also laid out his "four key priorities" plan for Sotheby's (develop and implement a growth strategy, adopt new technologies in the business, allocate capital effectively, and build the processes, people and shape the organization in a way that reinforce 1-3).

Some investors, though, feel that talk is just talk until shareholders can observe actual improvements–capital being returned, revenue growth, clear improvement in expense discipline, etc. Those investors will be looking at how meaningful and how fast the improvements are.  

Shares of Sotheby's closed up 45 cents, or 1.11%, to end at $40.98. 

Here's a chart of how the stock has traded since August 2013 when Loeb disclosed his activist stake: 

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Going, going, gone! Sold to the highest bidder at the auction, on the phone or on a new eBay platform that will stream Sotheby's New York auctions live beginning next month.

The new live auctions platform - ebay.com/sothebys - that launches on Tuesday pairs Sotheby's 270 years of experience selling art and antiques with eBay's digital expertise and 155 million active users worldwide to meet the demand for online bidding.

The first auctions on the platform will begin on April 1 with photographs and a themed New York sale that will include the 13 letters of the 1970s Yankee Stadium sign that could fetch up to $600,000 from the collection of baseball great Reggie Jackson.

Online art sales are not new. Sotheby's and its rival Christie's conduct them. But the platform will bring Sotheby's vast inventory to a new audience in the hopes of boosting sales and prices.

"What this partnership is about is leveraging eBay's audience and ability to target that audience and find clients that have the means to participate in a Sotheby's auction," Josh Pullan, senior vice president, director of e-commerce at Sotheby's, said.

Online sales of art and antiques are estimated to have reached 3.3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) or about 6 percent of global sales in 2014, according to a report commissioned by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Foundation.

The majority of online sales, it added, was in the $1,000 to $50,000 range.

Most of Sotheby's New York auctions will be streamed on the platform except for high-priced evening sales of contemporary, modern and Impressionist art and other specialist categories.

Sotheby's has seen a nearly 25 percent rise in online bidding in 2014 over the previous year. In an auction of Picasso Ceramics, 75 percent of the lots offered attracted online bids.

The platform includes photographs, commentary and audio/ video components. It is designed to emulate the auction catalog in a digital format and to replicate the experience of seeing art in a museum before taking bidders to the live auction where they can bid in real time.

Megan Ford, director, emerging verticals and live auctions at eBay, said technology is changing and people have become more comfortable purchasing high-ticket items online in the past few years.

The premier tier of inventory for art and collectibles, she added, was previously only available in the live-sale format at auction houses.

(Editing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Richard Chang)

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In May, Christie's will offer Picasso's iconic Les Femmes d'Alger (1955), a painting that comes with a whopping $140 million estimate — yes, that's just the estimate, which traditionally marks the lower end of price expectations.

Who puts an estimate like that on a painting? And publishes it.

Having already notched the record for the highest ever painting at auction—Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.2 million in 2013—it seems the auction house is talking aim at the same nosebleed territory once again. Bold move either way.

The work carries a guarantee, though the house is reportedly not saying whether it financed that guarantee on its own or has enlisted a third party, as auction houses do more and more in an effort to mitigate risk. It would take a bank or a hedge fund or some cash-happy billionaire to back that guarantee. Risky business at this number.

The Picasso was part of the legendary Victor and Sally Ganz auction that took place at Christie's in 1997 (See: 10 Game Changing Auctions),when it was bought for $31.9 million by a London dealer on behalf of a client. The consignor to the upcoming Christie's sale is a European client who has not been publicly identified.

Now, the Picasso, which carries one of the highest—if not the highest ever—presale estimates, is the centerpiece of another innovative auction, titled "Looking Forward to the Past," curated by Christie's contemporary wunderkind Loïc Gouzer, the same specialist behind last spring's much-hyped "If I Live I'll See You Tuesday." That sale featured contemporary art by the likes of Richard Prince and Christopher Wool and took in $134.6 million (see: Christie's New Contemporary Sale: A Thumping $135 Million Success and Art Market Analysis: Richard Prince vs. Christopher Wool).

"Looking Forward to the Past," features both modern and contemporary works. In an interview with the New York Times, Gouzer noted a shift in collecting patterns whereby collectors nowadays "start with contemporary, and then they start to look for other works that have quality, relevance and freshness."

Gouzer described a recent visit to the Picasso museum and said he was "blown away" by what he saw. "In a world where your iPhone is out of fashion in 10 days, everything [Picasso] did still looks so relevant and fresh."

Other works in the sale include a 1950s Mark Rothko abstract (estimated at $40 million), a 1902 Monet painting estimated at $35 million,  as well as works by Piet Mondrian, Egon Schiele, Magritte, andMartin Kippenberger.

The art market and the auction world have come a long way since the 1997 Ganz sale, not the least of which is demonstrated by the quadrupling of the expected Picasso price—in 1997, it carried an estimate of $10-12 million. At the May sale, it could likely go well above $140 million). The overall sale took in $206.5 million, far surpassing its expectations of $125 million, a tidy sum considering the Ganzes were a low-profile Manhattan couple who assembled their collection over five decades for about $2 million. (See: Epic Christie's $852.9 Million Blockbuster Contemporary Art Sale Is the Highest Ever.)

The first painting Victor Ganz ever purchased for the collection was Picasso's Le Reve (1932), a portrait of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, which he picked up for $7,000 in 1941. At the 1997 auction, that price soared to $48.4 million. Giddy Christie's employees, in the moments following the sale, opened champagne and toasted: “To the profit-sharing!"

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The Apple Watch is the only Apple product I've ever been super interested in.

The thing is going on sale on Friday, and the advance reviews are in. They're mixed, which isn't too surprising, given that this is the first generation of a new piece of technology for Apple.

I like watches and always have, and I think Apple design guru Jony Ive and his team did a great job, for the most part, in creating Apple's first true luxury device.

That said, I have no plans to buy and Apple watch anytime soon.

The watch fascinates me, and I'm looking forward to visiting an Apple Store to "play" with the "piece," as they say in the world of horological enthusiasm.

From all the advance info that came out on the device, and now the early reviews, it sounds as if the Apple Watch can do quite a few things, though it also sounds as if it does some of that stuff badly, some stuff reasonably well, and a few things wonderfully.

But the only thing I really want the Apple watch to do is tell time. Sure, some of the other features sound quite cool and probably have unforeseen potential, particular the quickie, minimalist messaging stuff and the ability to send your heartbeat to someone.

The combination of ever-changing watch faces and Apple quality is what, to me, is cool about the Apple Watch. I also sort of like the idea of owning the first of something Apple-related. I just bought a new watch, a Swatch Sistem 51 (I wrote about the timepiece here), mainly because it's the first of its kind.

But I'm not going to buy the Apple Watch when it goes on sale, because I intend to wait three years and pick one up used, when perhaps the only thing it can still do is function as a watch. I don't expect Apple to crack the planned obsolescence curve with the watch — my family has numerous old Apple devices that kinda, sorta work, like a 10-year-old iBook that is a glorified typewriter and a first-gen iPhone that takes awful photos. Basically, they have been reduced to performing a single duty.

In the watch world, depreciation is a much-discussed subject. The bottom line is that almost all the watches ever made and being made will be worth next to nothing almost right after they're purchased. Even watches costing $500 to $1,000 will not be worth very much on the resale market.

The two brands that reliably avoid depreciation are Rolex and Patek Philippe (there are others, but those are the Big Two). The right models from these major Swiss watchmakers will hold value over time, though they will depreciate somewhat (they can retain about 70% of their original prices as a baseline, and then depending on what model you've bought, even appreciate over the decades).

If you're an aspiring collector, the advice you'll most often hear is to buy a used Rolex or Patek, with all the correct certifications and documentation, at auction or from a reputable dealer. The deprecation from new has already taken place, so you can wager on the value of watch remaining somewhat stable over time.

The buy-in here is maybe $5,000 for a Rolex — a Submariner, for example — and substantially more for a Patek, perhaps $10,000 to $20,000 for an iconic model, such as the Calatrava.

These are watches with automatic or mechanical movements that, if cared for properly and serviced on schedule, could last forever — or as long as replacement parts are being made.

The Apple Watch isn't a mechanical watch, so presumably it will suffer a much bigger initial drop in value. I don't want to fool with the entry-level model, which has an aluminum case. The larger stainless-steel version, with the link band, is where I'd start. My understanding is that it will be priced at about $1,000.

The significance of the watch may prevent it from losing half its value straightaway, so I'll assume that there's a "newness" premium that it will retain. But I still think its loss of functionality and displacement by newer Apple Watches will grind the value down. Plus, if people wear their Apple Watches every day, they're going to beat them up.

So for me, the sweet spot to pick one up will be at the midway point of the second upgrade cycle. Apple Watch 1 will have been displaced by Apple Watch 2, and we'll be eagerly awaiting Apple Watch 3. I'm guessing that Apple will update the watch on a two-year cycle, so that means I'll be buying sometime in 2018.

My wager is that I'll be able to find the model I want, in reasonable working condition but with outdated technologically, for about $100, maybe a bit less. It will still tell time, but that's maybe about all it will be able to do. And if not, well ... I have a few old watches that don't work anymore that I sometimes just wear because I like the way they look.

Now, watches are more collectible than old iPhones, so there's every possibility that other collectors may have the same idea — and that a resale market for "vintage" Apple Watches may develop that keeps prices higher than they would be otherwise. And perhaps it would make more sense to avoid buying Watch 1, waiting for Watch 2, which will have a lower historical value.

We'll have to see if that happens. I may have to cough up $200.

Anyway, I will own an Apple Watch. I just won't own one until I'm a bit older and grayer.

And as an aside, I certainly expect Apple stock to be worth more tomorrow than it is today. So it would be interesting to take the $800 to $900 I won't be spending on a new Apple Watch and buy Apple shares instead.

SEE ALSO: Here's the thing about the Apple Watch — it isn't really a watch

Join the conversation about this story »

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A piece of cinematic history will be awarded to the highest bidder when the 1993 Toyota Supra driven by late star Paul Walker in the original "Fast and the Furious" movie hits the auction block at the Indiana State Fairgrounds next week, according to FOX Sports. 

The iconic orange sports car is known for being Walker's second of many rides throughout the "Fast and Furious" movies - some of the most successful ever, with a worldwide box-office gross of $3.8 billion, according to TheNumbers.com.

FOX Sports says this particular Supra has the added significance of being the one used in many of the films' stunt scenes, including the final race between Walker and Vin Diesel's character at the end of the first movie.

Mecum Auctions will be offering the famous Supra and believes it can fetch upwards of $200,000, according to FOX Sports.

"Furious 7" - Walker's final film - grossed $1.4 billion worldwide. Diesel has already confirmed that there will be an eighth installment to the street-racer epic, set to be released in April of 2017.  

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Apple's stock price may be up, but the personal value of CEO Tim Cook is down -- at least by one measure.

In 2013, an hour meeting with Tim Cook broke auction records when the winning bid came in at $610,000. By 2014, lunch with the Apple CEO went for $330,000.

Today's charity auction closed at $200,000 with all proceeds going to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. CharityBuzz could not disclose the winner of the auction per their policies.

That's no paltry sum for an hour of Cook's time plus two VIP tickets to an Apple keynote. After all, that's about 20 original Apple Lisa computers or about 573 Apple Watches (if you go with the low-end sport versions).

It's clear though that people are willing to dish out for a brush with the Apple, both past and present. Last week, a San Francisco Bay Area school put three Steve Jobs business cards up for auction with a starting bid at $600. The price tag for those has already crossed the $10,000 mark with one day left in the bidding. 

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New York (AFP) - New York's spring art auctions have always meant big money but this season has seen numerous records smashed and more than $2.6 billion coughed up in 10 days of eye-watering extravagance.

Christie's said it sold works totaling $1.72 billion this week in New York and rival auction house Sotheby's reports $893 million in sales since May 5 -- in all a 25 percent surge on May last year, driven in particular by Asian collectors.

May 11 saw two new world records in just a dizzying few minutes.

The Pablo Picasso oil painting, "The Women of Algiers (Version 0)," sold for $179.4 million after 11-and-a-half minutes of furious bidding from four to five prospective buyers at Christie's, where two auction rooms were packed.

It was the highest price for any work of art sold at auction, Christie's said, but fell short of the $300 million reportedly paid privately by Qatar for Paul Gauguin's painting "When Will You Marry?" in February.

Just moments later, a bronze statue by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, "Man Pointing," broke the record for the most expensive sculpture sold at auction, fetching $141.3 million.

Other world auction records were set for works by artists Cady Noland, Jean Dubuffet, Diane Arbus, Chaim Soutine and Peter Doig, Christie's said.

The auction house listed the buyers as anonymous but said clients from Asia, the Gulf, Russia, Europe and the United States had competed for the top 10 lots of the sale.

Overall, bidders came from 35 different countries, it said.

The next day saw more of the same.

A Mark Rothko painting sold for $46.5 million at Sotheby's, an evening in which several records were set including one for a work by German artist Sigmar Polke.

A huge painting by Christopher Wool, "Riot," went for nearly $29.9 million, compared to a pre-sale estimate of $12 million to $18 million -- a record for a living American artist.

On Wednesday, abstract expressionist Mark Rothko's "No. 10" sold for $81.9 million at Christie's, one of the highest sums ever shelled out for his work. 

On Thursday, again at Christie's, a painting by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian sold for nearly $50.6 million, the most ever paid for his work. 

Exploding demand

The die was cast on May 5 when a Vincent van Gogh painting fetched more than $66 million, the most paid for a work by the Dutch post-impressionist artist since 1998.

According to Sotheby's, "Les Alyscamps," which depicts a stand of autumnal trees, had been expected to go for around $40 million but ultimately an Asian collector paid $66.3 million after an intense bidding war between five potential buyers.

The Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group also snapped up a Monet, "Bassin aux nympheas, les rosiers," for $20.4 million, underlining the growing influence of Asian buyers.

Simon Shaw, co-head of Sotheby's Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art department, stressed the international dimension. 

"With winning bids executed by our Old Masters and contemporary art specialists, as well as by our chairmen in Asia and America, it's clear that today's collectors come from all corners of the globe and seek quality in all corners of the market," he said.

Underlining that assertion, screens at Christie's gave prices during sales earlier this week in seven different currencies: dollars, euros, pounds, Swiss francs, yen, Hong Kong dollars and Russian rubles.

Exponential growth in the art market, particularly for modern and contemporary works, is attributed to a growing number of private investors around the world and burgeoning interest in Asia and the Gulf.

The growing number of museums in the world and specialized investment funds are also driving up prices, experts say.

More than 720 museums that are over 54,000 square feet (5,000 square meters) will open this year across the globe, pushing demand, said Thierry Ehrmann, CEO of Artprice, a world leader in art market data. 

"If a museum acquires a set of masterpieces it will very quickly get a return on its investment," he said.

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The 1993 Toyota Supra stunt car used during filming for the original Fast and the Furious movie that came out in 2001—and driven by the late Paul Walker—has sold at auction for $185,000.

It crossed the block last week at the Mecum Auctions event held in Indianapolis and landed right within its pre-auction estimate of between $150k and $200k.

It was one of several MkIV Supras built for the movie by Eddie Paul from The Shark Shop in El Segundo, California, and was featured in several key scenes including the final race between Walker ‘s character Brian O’Connor and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto who was in a 1970 Dodge Charger.

In real life, however, it’s unlikely to be winning any races as the car is pretty much bone stock under the skin. It’s a non-turbo model, meaning its 3.0-liter straight-six engine only musters up around 230 horsepower. On the outside, it wears a Bomex body kit, APR wing, and those now-famous graphics which were added by San Diego’s Modern Image.

Other highlights from the recent Mecum auction were a 1967 Shelby 427 Cobra Roadster that sold for $1 million as well as a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona coupe that sold for $775,000. An original matching numbers 1965 Shelby GT350 was also sold, raising $355,000 in the process.

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The Porsche 959 is a rare beast, especially on these shores, and now one is coming up for sale. Auction house Gooding & Company will be offering this sinister-looking black 1988 ‘Komfort’ model for sale during August’s 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance weekend—and the car is estimated to go as high as $1.8 million. 

Depending on who you speak to, there were around 330 examples of the 959 built and only 50 of those made it to our shores. Since the model was never federalized, most of these were brought in under ‘Show Or Display’ paperwork. One of the U.S. owners of a 959 is Bill Gates, who purchased a brand new example only to have it impounded since it was never crash tested. 

He worked tirelessly to get the Show Or Display rule passed and after a decade was finally able to drive it on the road. Now that the 959 is over 25 years old, it can be imported using standard methods and driven as the owner pleases so some have started to pop up at local auctions. 

The 959 was a marvel for its time and still remains interesting to this day. The example to be sold is a ‘1 of 3’ car, painted in a special black and spending most of its life under factory maintenance. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter flat-six that puts down 444 horsepower through the six-speed manual to all four wheels. It comes in at a slim 3,190 pounds which allows it to get to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds.

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A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by economist Matthew Backus of Cornell University, Steven Tadelis of the University of California at Berkeley, and Tom Blake of eBay Research Labs found that, in certain types of eBay auctions, suggested prices that were big round numbers were associated with lower offers and final sale prices.

The researchers analyzed a set of 10.5 million eBay listings for collectible items with suggested "buy it now" prices between $50 and $550 that had an option called "Best Offer" enabled that allows a buyer to make an offer to a seller, who can then accept, decline, or make a counter-offer. The researchers focused on this group of listings since the Best Offer system allows for the kind of bargaining behavior being studied, and collectible items like toys, coins, and stamps tend to have markets in which standardized prices are unavailable, making haggling a more important part of the exchange process.

Backus and his coauthors found a remarkable result: Listings whose suggested "buy it now" price was a big round number — a multiple of $100 or $50 — tended to receive lower initial offers from prospective buyers than items with more "precise" looking prices like $107 or $238.

This chart, from the paper, shows buy it now prices along the horizontal axis, and the average initial bid on items at each price as a percentage of the buy it now price along the vertical axis. Buy it now prices that are a multiple of $100 are shown as red circles; multiples of $50, like $150 or $250, are shown as red triangles:

The researchers found that, on average, big round number listings received initial offers and final sale prices that were 5-8% lower than offers made on items with nearby "precise" looking prices.

Despite this apparent penalty for big round numbers, the researchers found that big round number prices were also extremely common. The next chart shows the frequencies of items listed at different prices. There are huge spikes at multiples of $100:

Backus and his coauthors have a possible explanation for why big round number prices are so common even though they tend to lead to lower bids and final sales prices: Prices with a lot of zeros at the end could act as a signal from sellers to buyers that they are in a hurry to sell their goods. Big round numbers might be a kind of implicit, even subconscious code: Sellers who just want to get rid of an item quickly signal this to prospective buyers by listing at a multiple of $100.

The researchers found evidence to support this as well: Items with big round number prices got their first offers between 6 and 11 days faster on average than items with nearby "precise" prices, and they sold between 10 and 14 days faster on average.

So the next time you're selling something on eBay, if you're patient and willing to hold out for a better price, avoid big round numbers.

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