The Barrett Jackson this week

[jrjmac1]

Barrett Jackson have become pure greed on their part...I saw several people get hurt on the No Reserve auction.

But then again, it was their choice to participate.

Mecum is my choice for a fair priced "reserve auction".

Anybody hear how Russo-Steele did this year?

[eric johnson]

If it wouldn't have been for that one BJ regular bidding up and buying everything, it would have really been a soft auction. From the looks of things there they are really full of themselves - some staff wearing sunglasses,etc.

[csx4910]

Not very well. I was there every day due to my superformance going across and at least 40-50% or the "featured cars" didn't hit their reserve to sell. CSX 2009 hit $1 Mil but it was not enough to sell. a 65 GT 350 got up to about $500K but didn't sell. (It would of been a record price for one I believe. There were quite a few Mustangs and Camaro's that didn't get even halfway to their reserve. A Factory Five race prepped car with $125K into it didn't get past $50K in Bidding. They are not posting results in real time like Barrett Jackson but I am guessing at least 20-25% down from last year
CSX 4910

[A-Snake]

Originally Posted by csx4910

...a 65 GT 350 got up to about $500K but didn't sell. (It would of been a record price for one I believe.

If that was the R Model 5R530, $500K is far below the record.

[csx4910]

My Bad. You are right it was an R model

[95CobraR]

The 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 Mk 11 sold for $467,500.
http://www.sportscarmarket.com/aucti...x_01-16-09.pdf

http://www.sportscarmarket.com/aucti...e_01-17-09.pdf

Despite the gloom and doom of the economic soothsayers, preliminary indications are that collector cars are doing just fine. The above two auctions totaled $50M ($4.9M on one Ferrari 250 GT SWB).

[Nedsel]

I note that the high bids on cars that did not sell at RM were included, but not so for the Gooding auction. Of the 2 Cobras at Gooding, CSX 2122 was bid to $350k and CSX 3287 got up to $625k, but neither was sufficient to buy the cars.

[SPF2245]

Marco, I agree 100%. I also think your seeing alot of nice cars which have been built over the past two years when people started seeing all the straight silly prices people were getting for cars and thought they could get in on the hype. I actually like seeing the Corvettes, GTOs, Camaros and such going for the much lower (and honestly reasonable prices...because really, how long was these cars going to keep going for six figures (it's not like they only made a couple hundred of them)??? Reminds me of the crash in prices after the 80's.

[NC427SC]

I haven't noticed as many of the usual suspects. Those that I do recognize do not seem to be interested in as many of the cars. Not certain whether this is due to the economy or the catalog. There also seems to be fewer registered bystander/bidders who drop out half way. The hype is that the economy has had no affect, but it obviously has. Amy Assiter is still a joy to behold.

DVR is the way to go.

[Got the Bug]

Prices didn't collapse, but they sure came back to earth a bit. There was a lot of nice land yachts from the late 40's and 50's that seemed like a steal this year. Seemed like sellers unleashed a flood of Corvettes and Camaros this time...way too many.

There were a couple of auctions where you knew the Barret Jackson folks were sweating bullets about the low bids.

[cobra25]

You guys are the experts.
Sure the super restored rare Camero's and Hemi's have come down in price a little. BUT, I do not recall ever seeing a 66 Shelby Mustang(fully restored) sell for over 200k.

I also noticed a lot of one and two owner cars instead of the usual trading Corvettes back and forth with your friends.

[jwd]

Originally Posted by cobra25

Sure the super restored rare Camero's and Hemi's have come down in price a little. BUT, I do not recall ever seeing a 66 Shelby Mustang(fully restored) sell for over 200k.

Hemi prices down a little? Try 50-80%. Numbers matching, totally restored 69 Hemi Roadrunner for $65K or a 70 Hemi Cuda ,numbers matching, restored for $130K. 2 years ago, they would have sold for $300-500K. A Boss 429 sold for $500K 2 years ago. This year, $190K. The only thing that I saw that didn't drop was 53-67 Corvettes.

[cobra25]

You are exactly right. Some cars sold for a lot less than previous auctions. But, a Superbird "recreation" sold for 551,000 and a late model Mustang FR500CJ sold for 412,000.

[jwd]

The Mustang was a 1 of 2 prototype that has a very interesting history (still overpriced if you ask me). The Superbird was a charity car so it's basically a tax write-off for the buyer who gets his 3 minutes of TV fame.

[Bill Bess]

It's just like the housing market (inflated), there have been too many rich guys,full of booze, paying over inflated amounts for these cars in past years. This year has produce a little reality....fewer rich guys , full of booze and paying slightly less... and so what's the deal?
There were a few bargains for certain really nice cars, but most were still way up there in the "collector range" and not good for normal folks that are spending their 401K's.

Fun to attend and see the actual cars in person. Bill

[COBRA427]

I was there on Tuesday and had a lengthy conversation with the owner of an Ultima Can Am. He's from Michigan and likes to do some flipping of cars. This past summer he sold a Corvette, can't remember what year, plus added cash to buy an Ultima for $70,000. Shipping from the UK is included to closest port (NY), then, had paid $1100.00 for shipping to Michigan. $20,000 later, and with help from some friends, the car was completed. While breaking in the motor, a rod broke and he had to remove the back end of body and extract the motor to replace the rod, I think he said that set him back a few grand. He finally shipped the car to Barrett-Jackson via Fed Ex, at $1300.00 and was encouraged , by BJ, to put the car on the blocks for Friday evening to get the best price. So now, to have the privelege of selling his car there and during prime time, that set him back another $1600.00. He was in Arizona for 5 or 6 days, so add lodging and meals, let's say, $100 per day. He told me he was expecting to fetch about $140,000 for his car, sadly it only sold for $47.000. He had $90,000 into it just in the build, and once he paid the 8% seller's commission, well,... that poor guy will probably never set foot back in Scottsdale.

[Madmiles442]

Let's focus on the positive

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by Madmiles442

Let's focus on the positive

Agree 100%. Great smile and fun to watch during the auction!

Sad to find out that she's married to Spanky Assiter!

[cakeman13]

In regards to the shelby lawsuite, If he wins his latest lawsuite, we are all in trouble he then will want all of us to give him money because we drive replicas . old bastard even is sueing the london club because he wants the money that they give to MS. This man and his so called company are sick, and no one to look up to. If I ever see him at a car show again IWILL tell him what I think of him and his GREED .

[csx4910]

I will apologize in advance for the lengthy cut and paste but here is the story from our local newspaper this morning. I think they are all delusional for calling a 28% drop in sales "encouraging" but these are the prelim sales figures for the auctions last week.
csx4910

" Sales dropped 16 percent at fourValley car auctions but still managed to hit a combined $130.7 million for events that ended Sunday.
Auction houses still attracted hundreds of wealthy buyers who paid six- and seven-figure prices for dozens of rare, highly coveted automobiles. Given the economic slump, the sales decline was not a surprise; in fact, many in the industry expressed relief the falloff wasn't more significant.
Barrett-Jackson and RM Auctions each reported drops in sales of close to 30 percent, and Russo and Steele reported a 14.5 percent drop. Gooding & Co. increased its take in the collector-car auctions by 54 percent.
"The whole collector-car world was watching, fearing we would fall off a cliff," he said. "We didn't, so that's a good thing."
Scottsdale-based Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. led the auction week, reporting $63 million in sales at Scottsdale's WestWorld, down 28 percent from a year ago.
Attendance at Barrett-Jackson's eight-day event exceeded 200,000, on a par with attendance in recent years.
Company Chairman Craig Jackson was upbeat.
"It was truly a celebration of our hobby and its resiliency," Jackson said. "Sales were solid from start to finish and exceeded expectations."
Gooding also had the top-selling car of auction week, a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider that sold for $4.95 million, and six others that sold for more than $1 million each.
RM Auctions saw it sales at the Arizona Biltmore dip 32 percent, to $18.2 million.
The Canadian auction house had two major sales collapse when the bidding did not reach the seller's reserve price: a $4.9 million bid for a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport and a $4.5 million bid for a 1937 Bugatti Atalante Coupe.
Russo and Steele reported preliminary sales figures of $17.1 million, according to company President Drew Alcazar.
"I'm counting it in the win column," he said, given economic conditions.
DuPont said that prices were off for run-of-the-mill muscle cars but that rarer cars with a documented history are still drawing top prices."