Speaking Of Auctions...

Speaking Of Auctions...

Getting Them All, Saying Goodbye (WSJ-Sub req):

Richard J. Solove spent 38 years and millions of dollars on a singular obsession: owning a model of every Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost produced from 1907 to 1915. Now, just months after completing the collection, Mr. Solove is reaching for his next dream: selling all the cars at auction.

"I'll have to bring along a big box of tissues to the auction," the 82-year-old real-estate developer from Columbus, Ohio, says. "But people who know me understand why I'm selling them." The answer lies in Mr. Solove's commitment to a local charity -- and in the peculiar psychology of conspicuous collecting.

The collection of Rolls-Royces, believed to be unique, is scheduled to be sold in August at Gooding & Co.'s annual Concours d'Elegance auto auction in Pebble Beach, Calif. Auto fans prize Silver Ghosts, among the first Rolls-Royces ever built. Mr. Solove's cars "are in incredible shape," says Bob Austin, spokesman for Rolls-Royce Motorcars North America, a unit of BMW Group. "You can eat off of them, and they all run."

The collection will almost certainly be broken up, because different collectors are interested in different cars. In all, the nine cars, plus five more antiques he's selling, are expected to fetch between $8 million and $11 million. But with the auto-collecting market on a tear -- antique cars are favored by the ever-growing set of new millionaires and billionaires -- the lot could fetch far more.