Depreciation, What Depreciation?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Want a sports car, outfitted with an ejection seat, machine guns, radar and a nail-throwing machine? Too late. The silver Aston Martin DB5, driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger, changed hands for $4.1m at auction today.

Auctioneer Peter Haynes had earlier estimated the car could be worth $5.5m – well, off by a tiny bit. Never mind, it appreciated nicely. American broadcaster Jerry Lee had bought the car in 1969 for 12,000 dollars. He sold it to raise money for his charitable foundation, reports Deutsche Presse Agentur (via Monsters &Critics.)


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Blowfish Blowfish on Oct 28, 2010

    There used to be in sat in a glass cage belongs to a restaurant in West Vancouver BC, the rest was called Frank Baker, I took some pics back in 80s, then it disappeared shortly. That one was genuine too. I read some where as 3 were built. Is quite a machine even without all these gizmos.

    • Uncle Mellow Uncle Mellow on Oct 28, 2010

      The car that disappeared was the original trick car , which started life as a DB4. This DB5 was used to spare the original from possible damage during filming of high-speed chases, and it did feature in two films.

  • Darkhorse Darkhorse on Oct 28, 2010

    I recall seeing a classified ad for one of these cars in Road & Track in the late 60's/early 70's with an asking price of less than $10,000. Maybe I imagined it or it was after a Pink Floyd concert I'd attended? I'd take the red one. Beautiful.

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