Looking for a Rare Classic Car? This Is the Guy Billionaires Trust

Inside the underground world of the agents buying and selling the world’s million-dollar classic vehicles.

1958 Mercedes-Benz 220 S Cabriolet.

Photographer: Matthew Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company

“Looks like I’m buying dinner tonight!” Steve Serio grins broadly as his friends slap his back and give him fist bumps.

Across a wide, white tent in dusty Scottsdale, Ariz., a round of applause breaks out in approval. The Boston-based car dealer has just sold his 1958 Mercedes-Benz 220 S Cabriolet for $140,000, beating the estimate that auction house Gooding & Co. had set for the silver droptop to fetch that day.