Photography by: Zach Brehl (@zachbrehl)
If my “Head of Private Sales” title inspires confidence, knowledge, and general expertise, I sure wasn’t always endowed with these qualities. That’s at least the inevitable conclusion one would reach after hearing about the most humiliating experience of my life. This experience, though deeply embarrassing at the time, became a turning point that shaped my career and personal growth in ways I could never have imagined.
How did I get myself in such a mess
I have been fascinated by automobiles for quite literally as long as I can remember – but for the largest part of my life, cars had been just that, a fascination. This was, until the summer of college graduation, when I was presented with the smallest hint of a life I had always dreamt of.
In essence, I stumbled upon an online dealership advertisement featuring a list of “Looking for!” cars. As luck would have it, one of the cars listed in the ad, a 1990s Lamborghini Diablo SV, was spotted roaming around the Montreal suburb where I resided. I managed to get in touch with the owner, and soon, I found myself inspecting the car, placing an offer, and trying to close a deal on behalf of the buying dealership.
The deal fell through (as most of them do), but the seed had been planted in my mind—and my heart. A decent “finder’s fee” would have been allocated to me, and to me this was not only a way out of a corporate finance 9-5 job, but a way into the world of the cars I admire and love.
Long way from home
Fast forward many months later, and I was presented (through the same contact that had gotten me in touch with the Lamborghini owner) with another opportunity of the like. This time around, the magnitude of the deal was exponentially larger. A private party out of Eastern Europe was selling a 1995 Ferrari F50, which, at the time, was worth around three and a half million dollars.
As you would imagine, as a fresh university graduate in his early-twenties with little-to-no work experience (let alone multi-million-dollar car dealing experience), I was completely out of my depth. But, being in my early-twenties, I was fueled by a mix of ambition, excitement and naivety.
I picked up the phone, made some calls, sent some emails and Instagram DMs, and eventually found myself on a plane halfway across the world to inspect and potentially purchase the car on behalf of a buyer. If this seems hasty to you, it most certainly was. I hadn’t secured any preliminary offer or even properly disclosed information to both parties.
After a full day of travel, I met with the representatives of the selling party the night before the morning inspection. After a well-deserved dinner, the gentlemen entertained me with some fabulous collector car tales in the hotel lobby, at which point I was interrupted by a phone call from the buyer. You guessed it, the deal was off, merely 8 hours before the inspection was set to take place.
I came out victorious, 36 months later…
As you can imagine, the conversation that followed with the gentlemen was quite humiliating. Still, we decided to proceed with the inspection the next morning, which was naturally not a glorious moment either. I kept my cool, played the “different time zone” card and other senseless justifications as the reason for my client’s unavailability—despite the deal being cancelled the night before— and took the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the owner and the rest of his car collection. After this mortifying day, as I journeyed home with my tail between my legs, I promised myself to steer clear of anything to do with dealing in collector cars. I never wanted to put myself in such a mess again.
During my visit of the collector’s warehouse, though, I peeked at a 1994 Ferrari F512M painted in Giallo Modena, tucked in a corner of the warehouse.
It took 36 months, lots of bitter pills to swallow, other embarrassing moments, cold calls, DMs, and luck before I could see a return on investment for this humiliating trip to Eastern Europe. I sold the 1994 Ferrari F512M #101716 in February 2024 to a Ferrari collector in my hometown of Montreal and sold an additional $600,000 worth of cars to/from this Eastern European collector. This car is the very one currently being offered on Petrolicious Private Sales, as this Montreal collector has decided to part ways with it and didn’t think twice about offering it through my services.
All of this was made possible because of one thing: my undying love for cars and the world that surrounds them.
