Re: Barrett-Jackson Auction
Barrett-Jackson was built on higher end antiques/classics/European sports cars. When that market experienced a down turn, as markets will do, and the Muscle Car market took an enormous upswing, B-J did the smart thing business wise and moved with it. Last January I think they seriously missed the market though. While RM Auctions and others were holding events in and around Phoenix at the exact same time, and selling older Ferraris and beautiful antiques for multiple millions of dollars per vehicle, B-J struggled to sell much of anything for over a million and instead paraded out all those rediculous (and fairly worthless) Monster Garage vehicles. In the months since then it has become very clear that the Muscle Car market has not only topped out but continues to pull back while others are coming on strong once again. Several older Ferraris have recently sold for $2.5MM to $5MM and more (RM Auctions at Monterey just a few weeks ago, for example), and quite a few antiques have done extremely well also. I think B-J sort of jumped the shark last year and it will be interesting to see how they rebound come January 2009.