It's the World Cup sans vuvuzelas. The Super bowl without cranky, overpaid pretty-boy quarterbacks or the Masters Golf tournament without, well,  golf. It is, in fact, the greatest week in the Classic/Collector car market, and this year, there are 12 days of auctions crammed into four days. (more on that in a bit).
In other words, it's total insanity on the Monterey Peninsula, one of the prettiest (and still, despite it all) most expensive pieces of real estate in the western hemisphere.

How could this happen? Isn't it/aren't we in the worst recession in living history, with a high jobless rate? Don't daily worries about whether we are on the edge of inflation or deflation lead the TV news every day?  Don't we owe more money to everyone then ever before?

Yes, yes, yes and more yes. Pass the champagne bottle over here, please. Have you tried the shrimp?
Some things just defy logic.

Monterey is not one of them.

Despite the constant barrage of seemingly endless bad news, there are those, there always will be those, with enough money to buy toys. Combine that with a renewed interest in proven fine collectibles, and an astute automotive investment no longer seems unwise, frivolous or even self serving. Unless of course, it was unwise, frivolous or self serving.....

There are five auction companies that will be holding auctions. (Bonhams, Gooding and Co, Mecum, RM and Russo and Steele) With multiple nights (and in some cases, days), of auctioning automobiles, the math works out to over 100 hours of car sales crammed into a very short span of time.
Be ready, and remember, sleep is highly overrated.