
Eclipse auction fuels instant gratification
The auction of serial number 000038 was open only to potential customers who had placed $5,000 refundable deposits. (Some of those deposits had been placed between 2000 and 2002 and had been accruing "Eclipse Dollars"-to be deducted from the amount of a winning bid-at the rate of 1,000 per month.)
While the initial offering price for the Eclipse 500 was $995,000, low serial numbers have been changing hands at upwards of $1.6 million. As such, bidders could not have been expecting a bargain. Bidding for number 000038 began at $1,633,945 (95 percent of the aircraft's current invoice price plus optional equipment).
Fourteen bids later, the VLJ sold for $1,833,945 to Morten Wagner, the 35-year-old Danish owner of a European online dating service. For that price, Wagner got an Eclipse 500 LX edition; his tuition in the manufacturer's Type Rating Pilot Training program; and the right to jump to the head of the line of position holders and receive immediate delivery of the aircraft.
For Wagner, who currently flies a Cirrus SR22, that last benefit was the most important factor spurring his bidding. "Waiting for three years? I would do it if I had to," he told BJT, "but if I can grab one now, I would much rather have it." Wagner said he would have bid as much as $1.9 million for the aircraft, which he plans to fly home in January, after he is trained and the Eclipse receives its European avionics upgrades.