Try watching the Mecum Auctions on Discovery HD instead.
Originally Posted by Larry Hitze
Besides most of those cars look like trailer queens. You would have to be insanely rich to pay that much for ones of those and then take a chance and drive it.
You should see those cars in person - most of them are actually kind of a mess as far as the paint goes. Some are downright horrible. One of them, lot 651.1 (a black and silver over red 1957 Fuel Injected Corvette), used to look seriously bad until last night. I spent a few hours buffing it out since the builder ran out of time and didn't get it buffed out before he had to trailer it from the East Coast to Las Vegas in time for the auction. This car is crossing the block on Saturday, and so is the 1970 Hemi Cuda Convertible recreation built by the same guy. This car is actually going to be one of the Haggerty Fantasy Bid cars and it is gorgeous - B5 blue with white convertible top over white vinyl.
There are at least 4 Austin Healeys up for sale too, and all of them are gorgeous (easily my favorite cars at this event). Two of them are by Kurt Tanner out of Phoenix, and his cars always bring top dollar among big Healeys. They are stunning works of art.
But most of the cars, the vast majority really, are just used cars. Many are in only "good driver" condition (nothing wrong with that) and far from "trailer queens". They certainly aren't junk, but they aren't as nice as they appear on TV. Yes, there are some very nice cars here, but they tend to not be the very high end of the market. For that you need to go to RM Auctions or Gooding & Co. During the Scottsdale, AZ auctions every January B-J is by far the biggest - most days, most number of cars, highest dollar volume. But lat year they sold 1,100 cars for a total of about $63 million over 5 days. Gooding & Co. had a one day auction and sold 100 cars for $32 million. One tenth the number of cars, half the money. Guess who had the better cars?
B-J hasn't sold a million dollar car in almost two years. Last month in Monterey RM sold 16 cars over a million, several in the $2 - $4 million range. Except for a '64 Shelby Cobra there was no American Muscle in that crowd.