anybody catch it over the weekend? wooow....great commercials too...those 60's.....speechless.

 

Watched as much as I could. I always like to see what rolls across the block. Then I hit the barrett-jackson.com to see what decent deals were had that never made TV.
I've watched B-J for years, but I have a theory that it is ruining the hobby for the everyday gent.

 

I would have to agree, didn't see too many everyday gents bidding on TV

 

I'm local, and B-J is a client, so I was there for four days. There were indeed lots of everyday gents on site, but you're right that not too many of them were doing the bidding.

 

You prbably saw more in those 4 days then I ever will... the Ultimate Car Show

 

I saw it too. It was awesome. So who were the real buyers paying those $$$ prices?

 

Some serious collectors with lots of cash, and some dealers/speculators hoping to find bargains they could resell. As you know, last year's high sale was $5.5 million, and this year's was only $1.6 million. The gossip on the street was that prices were down between one-third and one-half compared to the past two years. That's what general economic uneasiness will do to this kind of discretionary market....

 

I'm new to knowing about BJ (Barrett Jackson that is...) so I was not aware about last year's $5.5 mill sell. I did notice that there were a lot of disappointed sellers. Especially the guy who said he had put over 6,000 hours into the restoration.

And that '66 one of a kind Italian designed vette that went for $1.6 mill? I'm sorry, but that thing was...well let me just say UGLY.

 

The pix and videos did not do it justice; it was much, much more attractive in the real sheetmetal. The auction was crawling with Vettes, and I'm not a Vette fan myself, but this one really stood out as different, particularly for a concept that was 45 years old. It had a lighter feel and had hints of Ferrari for the obvious reasons. In any event, it was definitely the most unique Vette there and was well worthy of its one-of-a-kind factory authorized lineage.

 

Car collecting runs in cycles and B-J actually got started dealing with antiques and older Euro cars. As the Muscle Car craze took off and the prices of antiques and Euro sports cars softened, they moved more in that direction, and rightfully so (it is a business after all). But looking at the prices fetched at various RM auctions in recent months - like the 1911 Oldsmobile that was completely original and totally rusted with rotted tires, etc that sold for $1.6 million (yes, in that condition) - and the several older Ferraris that have recently sold at well over $2.5 million I think the tide is turning once again. I also think B-J sort of missed the boat on the changing trend. They had very few antiques and Euro cars this year (that horribly worn but completely original 1911 sell price was equal to the highest seller at B-J over the weekend remember!!) but instead had all that crazy Monster Garage crap and.......Robosaurus. Robosaurus??? Seriously??

I have always enjoyed watching coverage of this event but I think this year they may have jumped the shark.

 

I think M-I-O's observations above are correct. Gooding & Co. ran its first-ever Scottsdale auction this year at the same time as B-J, for example, and its highest seller was a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT long-wheelbase California Spider, which went for a cool $3.3 million. For sheer volume, inventory, breadth and excitement, though, there is nothing that beats or even compares with the Barrett-Jackson experience.

 

Where were all of the top-end muscle cars this year? Was it me, or where there fewer Real hemi's, LS6 Chevelles, Shelby Cobras, Boss Mustangs. etc. than previous years?

- Are they all gobbled up?
- Or did the car's owners make a calculated decision not to sell this year?

IMO, it wasn't a good sign that the top-end cars were few and far between. I think that with the easy-credit days behind us, the sellers correctly read the tea leaves and kept their cars off of the block.

Not a good sign for someone like me who is looking to unload an un-restored low mileage 73 Cougar XR7. This is the car I need to part with in order to make room for the Crossfire.

 

This story was just posted on the Arizona Republic (Gannett) web page:Frankly, I thought it would be down even more than that....

 

Maybe they were but private companies don't have to publish true numbers.

 

Barrett Jackson 2008....forever to be remembered for the $1,000,000 paid for a yet to be released corvette ZR-1 ( 1 of whatever), $650,000 paid for a GT500KR mustang (number 1 of whatever), and $400,000 paid for a yet to be released dodge Challenger (1 of whatever)!

Some serious speculation going on here.


BTW.....the Challenger was bought by Craig Jackson........one of the auction's CEO's!

 

Not to mention $575,000 for the one and only Robosaurus....

 

Interestingly, each of those cars sold for roughly ten times their MSRP.

 

I also wonder if some of the higher end cars aren't being saved for the 1st ever Vegas Barrett-Jackson?

I believe that the economy was the major factor, but could it be possible that Vegas could end up being the big money show each year?

 

Anybody going to the Scottsdale show this month?

I will be there Friday the 16th and maybe Saturday the 17th.

Those of you who have been there; any suggestions on "not to miss" stuff? Also, I will have the whole family in the area and although they will probably not go to B-J, lets say they did - anything for a 19 YO, 16 YO and a wife to do (none of which have much of a hankering for cars)?

Thanks.

 

The one that brought tears to my eyes was the Ruxton Alligator Roadster (chassis #2) that went for something like 375,000. Well bought as they put it, a serious undervaluation in my opinion.

Prices were way off, AAR Cudas that used to go for 350,000 were going for 130,000 and a Duesenberg Dual Cowl Phaeton went for 1,000,000 instead of the 1,600,000 it would have brought last year.