VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions #1 Batmobile

The number one Batmobile driven by Adam West in the TV series "Batman" from the 1960's, sold last night at Barrett-Jackson for $4,200,000!! The car was built and owned by the famous George Barris.

ow!

When they were running the camera along the bottom sides it was pretty rough...the whole vehicle was really poorly done. That turbine in the back is a plastic pail with parts attached too it. Wonder how many gallons of filler that body work took Georges brother Sam Barris to do ????

The most interesting part of the whole thing was when the two guys bidding on it , flipped a coin at $4.2M to see which one of them was to cough up the money for it. Nice to have that kind of dough to throw around. Because if it comes up for re-sale in next 5 years will not fetch that again..my opinion.

And they say USA is in a recession, not by the money I have seen spent from tuesday start until this sunday afternoon.

ya ya ya, i know there is only ONE batmobile

mike lynch

what a zoo on stage... I would have booted all those folks off. I'd like to visit an auction out there in person once... not foolin' myself though, I know i'll come home empty handed

The bad news is that there are hundreds of Kit cars of the batmobile. Sounds like a car that could be over insured...

Downright em"barris"ing if you ask me. While I know America has made George a sort of "customizer guru/god" most of his stuff on reflection 50 years later was tasteless gimmickry (the Addams Family Hearse!!, the Monkeymobile!!). Hard to believe for the same money you could have bought Clarke Gables awesome'55 MB Gullwing ($1.85M), a Duesenbereg ($1.1M) and a nice driver (lets say $100K for a nice Vette) and had $1M to spare. A fool and their money I guess still rules.

The crowded stage is always a gong show, lots of people never bid on anything up there, just hanging around with their buds trying to get possible face time on tv to stroke their egos. Think the word POSERS comes readily to mind.

The commentators are generally ill informed and the tv audience sends them internet messages to correct their wrong statements. If you don't know what your talking about , SHUT UP.

The Barrett Jackson heirarchy, with their constant bleating " this vehicle is worth way more than whats bid ". The vehicle is worth what somebody is willing to pay, not what YOU think its worth.

Prime example was Craig Jacksons own 67- mustang called the green hornet, that did not reach his high expectations and over stated reserve price so the car did not sell. Forget what it got up too but was over a million. The look on his face was priceless. He tried to revive the bidding higher and it failed and car rolled off UNSOLD. His act is like a carnival side show barker.

For those that do not know the seller pays 15% commision of selling price of their car. So car sells for $100,00 car seller pays 15% commision of the 100G thats $15,000 , now the buyer pays a further 15% commission on top thats $15,000 he is paying on top of the $100,000 he is paying for car. So if they are selling $50 million worth of cars do the math. This is why its the last year for the tents, its all going indoors in a massive new building they are constructing. Its what they said on TV. Think they can afford it.?????

mike

I agree... All of their best stuff was when Sam was around anyway. All of those TV cars were dorky looking.

All said and done it boils down to the buyer had the desire and the money to purchase it. His decision good or bad.

Mike,
You might want to check the figures on the commission charge, my son looked it up on their site and said it was 10% for the seller and 10% for the buyer, still....... So with the commission on the batmobile they made $840,000.
Also Barett Jackson does not own the Westworld Complex, I worked in the convention services industry in NYC for about 15 years its a pretty lucrative industry. I am sure they rent it for a specified period of time, load in; show; load out; I guess they take it for about 2 weeks, most likely at over a million a week for the entire complex, of which only gives them a roof and a floor everything else is at an extra charge to the renter, labor for set up and tear down, stage, curtins, electric, even tiolet paper. BJ offsets this with the admission price or gate that they keep and that went up every day Tuesday $20, Wednesday $20, Thursday $30, Friday $35 and Sat and $50 I don't recall what Sunday was The house, Westworld gets to keep the food consesions, and parking, just a guess but I am pretty sure they work the same as any of the facilities I worked at. I don't know if you were watching when they signed a deal for Reno, but it would be a safe bet to say that the convention center in Reno is city owned and they cut a sweet deal for the rental because they will fill hotels with spectators. That is what it is all about, bringing money into the town to feed the local economy
I did notice on the backdrop screen a "estimated monthly payment" figure, I guess it puts people in the seat of an old car at a number they can afford, and that is good for the hobby. I was puzzled to see a 1929 or 30 LaSalle sell for around 40K that looked real nice and these hammered up mustangs are bringing 100K plus, and for such "rare" cars there were no shortage of big block mustangs at the event
I also enjoyed the look on Criag Jacksons face with the Green Hornet Mustang not bringing what he wanted, but he said at the close of the broadcast yesterday "I just could not bring myself to part with it" For an "original" fuel injected prototype why was the skell with the sunglasses holding the original throttle body on the podium, is he trying to tell me it is not in the car?
What about that Amy Rose on the broadcast, is that a porno star/stripper name if we ever heard one?

JOHN 348..340.....
I have no idea why they want the trashy looking april rose yapp yapping away....she was a maxim girl they said last year , so guess she doffed her duds for a photo shoot, like who cares, i don't.

I thought they said last year it was 15% commission both sides but you say 10% i accept that, i am most likely wrong again... memory isn't what it was.

They were going on about that fuel injection and then he Mr. sunglasses, starts waving it around, whats up with that ??? guess did not work properly and not on car.

They also kept going on about IRS independant rear suspension they were working on for the mustang. All they had to do was to use a jaguar XKE--XJ series as the example to use to make one. I believe somebody actually produces an IRS based on the ford rear end ??

On the TV show they actually said that this is the last year for the tents and that a giant building was going to be constructed on the north end of the facility . They said that late in the show on sunday afternoon .

mike

I watched the auction on Saturday and one of the announcers on TV said that the seller pays a 10% commission fee and the buyer pays an 8% commission fee. Go figure. Whatever they pay BJ is making a ton of money!

Mike,
I had heard them say that there is a new building coming but that is not being built by Barett/Jackson. Westworld is owned by the Scottsdale Convention and Visiters Bureau, a seperate entity. No doubt the auction is driving force to build it, the bigger they make it the more they can fit in.

I am starting to think Saturday night is a script or part of it anyway sort of like pro wrestling, where the outcome is pre-determined. They know Rick Hendrick is going to buy the $1 million Vette for the sake of Charity, it is a tax write off for everyone from Hendrick to Barett Jackson to Speed Vision the Convention Center they are holding it in, most of us don't see the big picture. We don't know if the Batmobile was even sold, look at the guy with the bad dye job hair who bought the Batmobile and the blonde 20 years younger then him with the nice ***'* next to him. Then they lead to a comercial break for Viagra..... of a guy our age, weathered who is too dumb to lock his hubs on his crappy Dodge pick-up so he opts to hitch his horses to get out of the mud, go figure....

I'm am happy to see money spent on the hobby its better than seeing it fade to junk

I don't know who has the correct figures on this bidding and selling question but a site on the internet concerning the Scottsdale sale for 2013 gives the following:

"Bidders will be issued a bidder paddle number only after all items have been received and your method of payment for vehicle purchases has been approved. Bidder credentials will not be issued if the application is incomplete or if required items are omitted.

WHAT DOES IT COST TO SELL MY CAR?

To sell a vehicle at Barrett-Jackson, the Consignor is responsible for an entry fee as well as a Seller's commission of 8% of the hammer price for No Reserve consignments or 10% of the hammer price for Reserve consignments. The entry fee is determined by day and time of your Lot entry and includes tent space. Payment of fees without a signed contract does not constitute a consignment agreement.

On-site Buyer's Premium: 10%
Absentee Buyer's Premium: 12%
On-site Automobilia Buyer's Premium: 15%
Absentee Automobilia Buyer's Premium: 17%
Note: Payment is required for each vehicle purchased on the day of the sale. The Buyer's Premium is calculated and added to the Hammer Price. As the buyer, you are responsible for payment of this premium as well as all applicable fees and taxes at the time of payment."

Charlie

Hey Charlie,
I'm your neighbor at Hershey, there is financing offered I saw that on the screen behind the car as it was rolling off the stage. Looking at the number that was showing based on the bid my son and I figured it it was at 7.5% over 5 years with 20% down, same as most used car loans. I can understand the sellers fee, the buyers fee????? It would be hard for me to swallow, but if it is financed it's only a few more bucks a month. I enjoy Barett/Jackson, I had a high end restoration on a 1960 Buick Wagon (one of seven left of 299 made w/ bucket seat interior) and contemplated taking it to Barett Jackson, but I did sell it, but there really is not a lot of guys walking around looking to spend 50 -75K. At an auction the guys who spend the money to get a bidders pass are looking to buy something, all you need is two guys out of few thousand (who have bidders passes) who want it, put a third guy in with an ego and fourth guy who is a shill and you will get your money....you hope

It was nice to see some really rare classics like the pierce arrow of fatty arbuckle and other really stunning antiques. This auction is almost all about 1960---1972 muscle cars and clones or resto-mods . Thats what they seem to be trying to correct B J.

Think i had and have seen enough : plastic fantastic vettes, shelby what evers, boss 302-429 mustangs, hemi cuda--challengers either real or clones to satisfy me for another 365 days.

mike lynch

John,

Good to hear from you. Sometimes we can't pick our neighbors. Grin.

Anyway, we may be drifting from JD's original thread. As he and others point out, I am amazed at the price the batmobile brought. Wow!

I, too, don't watch much of the sell owing to not enough old cars coming across the auction block. Well, on TV at least. I agree with Mike.

Charlie

I agree, my interest is primarily pre-war stuff of any make. I'm a member of the Maritime Pre-war Car Registry (MP-WCR)which formed locally in 2000 and operates on a volunteer basis to honor the true classics (200-300 cars in the registry, all 1942 or earlier). There are no dues, but members of the registry make contributions to sustain the group, allow quarterly publishing of news (The Rolling Spoke) and organize touring events. The group meets couple of times a year and it is so good to see about 40-50 people whose interest is primarily devoted to pre-war cars, keeping them original, and sharing knowledge, parts and stories.

The Barett/Jackson website listed $109MILLION gross sales, with 300,000 paid spectators Also there were a lot of no sales.....

The whole premise of the barrett jackson auction is that its a NO RESERVE auction. This is the way they operated at the west world site for a few years , at least those on tv. They tell prospective sellers we have the buyers and if you want to put your car in our auction, has to be no reserve.

Last year 2012 they changed the policy for special really high dollar cars to insure they would get those special vehicles into the show/auction. They repeated that again this year on a limited number of cars mostly on saturday from 4 pm thru 11 pm time slot. You could hear the auctioneer say when the bidding reached a certain stalled price that the reserve was off and the bidding resumed.

I only remember the green hornet 67 mustang not selling and maybe one other. Was watching the hockey game from 6.30 to 10 pm and the auction simultaneously flicking back and forth with the action.

mike