Yes it is, and no they aren't. On TV the cars tend to look pretty fabulous, but even some of the best ones need, in my opinion anyway, a solid day or more of detailing.

If any of you saw the Haggarty Fantasy Bid 1970 Hemi Cuda Convertible recreation in B5 Blue with white top over white interior, it was built by the same guy who did the black fuel injected '57 Corvette convertible that sold a few hours earlier. The 'Vette brought $107,500 before buyer's premium (ie, commission) and I can tell you the paint was basically a mess. How do I know? Because I buffed it out the night before! The owner, a super nice young guy with a ton of talent, built both cars to sell over the weekend and barely finished the 'Vette in time. In fact, the paint wasn't quite "done" and had a bunch of sanding marks in it, plenty of swirls, etc. He all but begged me to buff it out, and I got permission from B-J to do so right there on the display floor. I did not have access to a rotary buffer so I told him it was going to be far from perfect, and it was. If he had been a "regular customer" instead of a guy scrambling to get top dollar on B-J I would have told him I needed two days and $2000 to make the car perfect. As it was, I did the best I could under the circumstances, the owner was thrilled, and the car brought very good money.

But it was still in serious need of some TLC even though he got literally dozens of compliments on it.

The Cuda could have stood a solid day of buffing too.

There was a black and silver Mustang fastback, early '70s, that was darn near flawless. And the Kurt Tanner big Healeys were, as always, stunning. But even the Bugatti Veyron needed a bit of help, but then again it sold for a paltry $700,000 - easily the bargain of the weekend. The original owner, one of the founders of Google, lost roughly a million bucks on that car in 3 years.