Keith Martin - 2012 Presenter
Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than thirty years. As a writer, publisher, television commentator and enthusiast, he is constantly on the go, meeting collectors and getting involved in their activities throughout the world.
His primary interest is exploring the cultural and intellectual underpinnings of collectibility, including examining why a society values some objects and not others, and how values are assigned to these objects. All of his magazines, books, television shows and web-based properties deal primary with the question of market values and how they have changed over the years.
In addition to being the founder and publisher of the monthly Sports Car Market and Corvette Market magazines, Martin's columns on collecting and reviews of exotic cars have appeared in the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications.
His Keith Martin on Collecting series, published by Motorbooks International, includes books on Ferrari, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Austin-Healey, MG and Triumph, with more on the way. The 2nd edition of his overview of car collecting, Keith Martin's Guide to Car Collecting has just been released, the 1st edition being completely sold out. It is a compendium of information for collectors from entry-level to highly sophisticated.
The website for his magazine, www.sportscarmarket.com, contains the world's largest and most informative database of collectible cars, with more than 75,000 cars listed with serial numbers, photos, descriptive and valuation details.
Last year, Martin and eBay Motors released a proprietary value-tracking tool that will compile and evaluate the sales of all collectible cars on the eBay Motors web site. The Collector Car Price Tracker now contains verified results of nearly 700,000 collector car sales. This is the only real-time, actual-transaction-based price guide in existence.
On television, Martin has most recently hosted the show, "What's My Car Worth", shown on Discovery HD Theater, as well as series featuring the Russo and Steele auctions at Monterey and Scottsdale, for ESPN2 and ESPN Classic.
He is the Chairman of the Meguiar's Collector Car Person of the Year Award Committee, and is on the Board of Trustees of the LeMay Museum and the Hagerty-founded Collectors Foundation.
Martin is an avid if not particularly choosy collector; roosting in his garage currently are a 1965 Alfa Giulia Spider Veloce he's owned for the past 24 years, a 1964 Volvo 544 that is the family daily driver, a 2002 Boxster S pressed into service when his wife demands heated seats, a 1959 Mercedes 219 Ponton that he bought by mistake on eBay one wine-infused evening, and a 1973 Series III Land Rover 88 that offers a truly agricultural perspective on motoring.
Martin brings an eclectic background to his passion for cars. His academic history includes the study of Intellectual History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and study as a Dance Major, emphasis Modern Dance, at the Juilliard School in New York City. He founded the first professional ballet company in Oregon, Ballet Oregon, was the director of it for over a decade, was awarded an Oregon Art's Commission Individual Artist's Fellowship for new choreography, and was director of dance for the Portland Opera.
He lives with his wife Wendie and their children Tyler, Alexandra, Drew, and Bradley in Portland, Oregon.
Donald Osborne - 2011 Presenter
Donald Osborne lives for old cars, especially those of the odd European variety. The principal of Automotive Valuation Services, he appraises and consults on classic and exotic cars across the US and Europe.
A longtime Contributing Editor of Sports Car Market magazine, he regularly attends major automotive events around the world, and his writing on classic cars has also appeared in The New York Times, Hagerty's magazine, Art & Antiques, BusinessWeek Online and Road & Track.
Donald has served as a judge or announcer at events including The Concours d'Elegance of America at Meadow Brook, Fairfield County Concours, Radnor Hunt Concours, Le Belle Macchine d'Italia, Dana Point Concours and others. He is a member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America as well as many marque clubs including the American Lancia Club, for whose magazine, Lanciana, he serves as Editor.
A former Metropolitan Opera baritone, Donald lives in Palm Springs and divides his time between his offices there and in Farmington, Connecticut. Wherever he is, his singing of 'Happy Birthday' has become legendary.
