VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions BARRETT JACKSON

Good news, that makes my 1957 worth more

A 1929 Ford Tri-Motor airplane, fully restored back to it's 1929 appearance, just sold for $1,100,000. That was a good buy considering how much it would cost to restore a plane of this caliber.

On the other side of the coin a 1956 Thunderbird sold for $600,000!

Also, a 2010 Camaro sold for $350,000!!!

Total sales so far is $45,541,000 and the auction ain't over yet!

The one that puzzeled me is the ZL-1 Camaro. I think they were working to get it to $250,000. It had to be a fake, they only made 69 of those aluminum block 427 cars. Every one is documented, no one said it was a "tribute" car. All of the original cars VIN's are known along with the selling dealer. Don't get me wrong $250,000 is a lot of money to me, but in the world of BJ it seems to be pocket change. These guys come in from all over the country with their cash with the intention of spending it.

As far as the t-birds, I have a good friend of mind who is into them and said it has been rumored that the big t-bird guys will sell a "shill" car at a stupid price to them selves to then create a feeding frenzy on the next birds that come across the block. Really in a no reserve auction where you can buy your own car back if you don't like the price there is nothing wrong
John

I get a kick out of watching the auction. It is hard to tell if prices are higher or just about the same as other years. I have noticed that auction-feaver takes over on some cars and they end up selling a lot more than I think they are worth. I have noticed that is also true of those cars where the sale price is going to help some cause. As far as the economy goes--I live in a small town in Utah. I have a brother that sells cars for Chevrolet. He tells me that car sales in his dealership are running about normal. We hear on the news that new home starts are down and the construction folks are hurting, but homes are selling quite well around here. One might say that we have not seen the problems that the news media talks about. By the way, my company has not decreased their projected employment goals. We continue to hire at all levels of touch labor, engineering and management. Today is the last day of the auction, I would like to know where all these "money" people come from to buy these cars. Not too many of them show up at car shows in Utah...

Good economy or bad, the old saying is still true: "A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted!"......especially at Scottsdale!

A lot of these cars come east, I have seen a few.
John

Forget Barrett-Jackson, someone paid $4.95 million for a 1960 Ferrari 250 California Spider at the Gooding and Gooding auction in Scottsdale yesterday. To top it off, this was an unrestored car. They sold seven cars for more than a million each and reported $31.8 million in total sales for the one-day event.

RM auctions at the Biltmore in Paradise Valley near Scottsdale sold $18 millon in cars on Friday.

While I have no figures, Russo-Steele Auctions and Silver Auctions were also auctioning cars this week in Scottsdale.

Also, that figure is plus the 10% buyers fee and, unless the buyer is a dealer they also pay 9% sales tax. Thus, a $100,000 car actually costs the non-dealer buyer $119,000.

The CEO of Haggerty Insurance said that at Barrett-Jackson good cars were selling at good prices, however, buyers were knocking down for any flaws. When we walked around Barrett-Jackson we noted any flaws of cars in our catalog. As we see the prices cars are getting and compare to NADA Collector prices or Gold's, we would agree with Haggerty.

1927 Chev 4 dr Convertible (lot 1517)that sold for $7500 on Sunday. (B-J uses convertible, not roadster or touring in the catalog)

I missed seeing this one come across the block. I am not sure they showed it on Speed but if they did, did anyone see it auctioned off? If so, was there something wrong with it?

I saw it Tues and it looked good to me but did not hear it start up and run. If I had know it would go for $7500 I would have been very tempted to go there today and bid on it. It sure looked like a nice car in person. I must have missed something.

They did now show that auction on TV.

An absolutely beautiful, fully restored 1916 GMC flat bed truck with a matching flat bed trailer just sold for $140,000. Both units were from the GM Heritage collection.

Now that it is over I'd like to make a few comments about this year's auction. I am also very interested in what others thought.

First, in my opinion there is no doubt that Creig Jackson puts on the best auction show, period. As he says, it is not just an auction, it is a lifestyle. You have to be there to believe it. I went to three of the Scottsdale auctions last week, and while others had good cars, B-J is THE auction experience.

Here in Scottsdale Jackson is known as a tough man to work with, his way or else. Perhaps some of you saw that he had the new mayor of Scottsdale on at one point, and Jackson made a few cutting remarks about the last mayor and her administration. Many in the Scottsdale area feel she almost drove this auction out of Scottsdale. It has been said that Jackson started the new one in Vegas in part to warn the city he could move it. It must have worked because they threw her out of office. Because of this, expect the new mayor to make some major improvements to the site next year. The site where it is held, Westworld (which is usually a facility for horse shows), is owned by the City of Scottsdale.

I will leave the analysis of economy vs prices to others who know more than I, but will say that having seen the cars in person, the quality of cars was much better than the last couple of years. It was also clear the muscle cars were not drawing the money of previous years, but GOOD "classic" cars did.

I don't know what the impact of the GM Heritage cars was, but it must have been OK because Jackson said Sunday that he is in talks with GM on how many to auction at the Palm Beach auction at Easter.

I was pleased to see more pre-WWII cars this year.

One recommendation. If you are not already doing this, next year you may want to order the catalog from the B-J website (www.barrett-jackson.com). It is only $15. They start taking orders online around Dec, and mail it a week or so before the auction. It makes watching the auction on TV much more interesting. Not only do you know what cars are coming up, it is also a very nice collection of high-gloss pictures of the cars. I keep mine with my other books on classic cars.

Another reason to order it is that on TV they do not show anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the cars being auctioned, depending on the time of day.

Again, I feel it was a great experience for people who love cars. After all, it was 80 degrees and sunny Saturday and I spent the afternoon and evening inside watching a TV show that auctioned cars rather than chasing a white ball around a golf course.

As the Speed Channel announcers say: "well done."

I did not get to see as much of this years auction, but what I did see was great. And a LOT OF FUN !!!

It was fun because of how well it was developed and managed, particularly from a marketing perspective. I said marketing perspective because the event was organized, planned, orchestrated and carried out as a "Marketing Event." In some cases the cars were only a tool for the event itself.

Every part of the B. J. event managed and supported drove need, want, desire, lifestyle, pleasure, hype, fun, energy, reward and gratification.

Regardless if a person/club is selling a cars, parts, having a garage sale, a swap meet or ?? if the B. J. rules are followed, success would be almost guaranteed.

I also appreciate what Barrett Jackson is doing for VCCA. They are/have added interest, value, desire, advertising, promotion, hype and understanding to the collector car hobby. Which includes VCCA. And they make it ALL FUN. Smart move because if it ain't fun, people don't do it.

I enjoyed seeing more 1930-1950 "stock" cars & trucks. Seems as if there were more cars in this category than previous years.

Lastly I'm no economists or price tracker, but the prices seemed to be a little lower this year. Yet clearly the cars still had a LOT of value.

Someone said {as a joke I presume} "A fool and his money are soon parted."
In my view there are not that many rich fools. I've always carried the view that if a man works hard and becomes VERY successful to the point where he can purchase cars as a HOBBY for $50,000., $100,000, $200,000. or more he must be a very bright guy to spend it this way. So my hat is off to them. Spend I say, some of it might trickle down to me!!

Enjoy the ride,
Michael41

Hi Mike,

Wouldn't it be great if the Auctions included some of the VCCA National Award winners, and mentioned those awards?

Boy, that would spin some heads towards the VCCA!

Yes that would be great. I called Craig J. but he never got back to me, imagine ??

I also keep waiting for a charity driven VCCA member to donate his/her car and write VCCA on the side in BIG bold print. So we could get some press......

I know, when fly!!

It is all well and good but the VCCA awards do not go with the car to the new owner, come to think of it niether do the AACA awards and I did see several AACA ovals going across the block. It would be a nice mention to add to the pedigree of a car.
John

Dog:

It is going to get worse in Oregon. I see in news reports that the state is getting ready to raise the beer tax by 1900% to help increase the state's spending.

Do what the Irish did, forget the Beer tax, switch to Gin.

Buddy of mine lives in Ore-gon, Did ya know that Gas cost's more if you pump it yourself ? Hello??

No such thing as to much fun,
Michael41

Mike: The gas pumping price policy of charging more to pump it yourself must be new. We frequently drive our motorhome through Oregon on our way to Washingon. For quite a while they have been the only state where state law prevented you from pumping it yourself. They claimed it was for safety so people didn't blow themselves up pumping gas.

It was actually a make-work law to find jobs for the people who used to work in lumbering, mining, and fishing which the state has all but eliminated.

We know it was not for safety, as every time we have gotten gas for our motorhome in Oregon, not one gas pumper has asked us to make sure our propane pilot lights are out!!!

You can not pump your own gas in NJ

I had read in Motorhome News that NJ had changed that. However, I just checked and you are correct. The governor was going to change it in 2006 but was forced to back off because pressure groups claimed it would put people out of work, and people would blow themselves up when pumping gas. I guess that doesn't say much about the public school systems in New Jersey either.

i pump my own gas in new jersey. i just go to the sunoco station i used to work at. just yesterday i filled up my 30 and the new pumper there wasn`t going to let me fill it myself. i said go talk to the owner inside. the owner saw me from the office and walked out to talk to me about my car. he helped me alot when i was building it. he told his young pumper, this guy(me) can pump his own gas. i came back alittle while later with my everyday car and the pumper didn`t even come out of his little house.

Yes but that is not fair