Barrett Jackson Auction Week

I recorded the Scottsdale Auction week, and as I watch I'm amazed at the number of buyers who have more disposable income than they have sense. Some of these hammer prices are simply out of sight for what they're buying, and then consider that every one sold has a 10% buyer's premium that goes to Barrett Jackson for the privilege of buying at their auction. That after auction deal on the Super Snake for $5MM netted BJ a cool 1/2 Million dollars for doing nothing but allowing the sale across their stage, and processing some paperwork.

One of my boys works for Garmin Flight Ops, and one of their guys took a King Air out to Scottsdale during auction week to show their retrofit flat screen avionics package to a King Air owner, pitching it for an upgrade. He came back saying the he'd never seen so many high dollar airplanes in one spot in his life! A small piece of the 1% came to town, and they were out to impress each other....

Yeah, I didn't watch very long. No where else seems to fetch the prices they do. But it makes everyone think their ride is worth as much as the one they saw sell at Barrett's sale.

Ya forgot Roger that the seller pays 10% also.
Have sold there many times.

a car is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it . their money their call .

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Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Ya forgot Roger that the seller pays 10% also.
Have sold there many times.

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That's just amazing to me, Don, and the announcers never mention a seller fee that I have heard. They make a big deal of "...hammer price plus a buyer's premium". You're saying that the Super Snake, selling for $5M had BJ collecting $500K from the seller, and another $500K from the buyer? Insane, IMO. I guess we know why Craig Jackson is always smiling.....

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Originally Posted by shine

a car is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it . their money their call .

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Shine, I agree, but I'm also reminded of PT Barnum's famous quote about fools and their money, and another about sheep being fleeced....

collectors do not care what a bunch of hotrodders think. it is their hobby and investments . if you follow it they set the prices by what they pay. be kind of hard to call a man with several million dollars worth of collector cars a fool. the fools were all the streetrodders who flooded the auction years ago thinking they would get rich only to find their car was still worth only 25k and had to pay to sell it . i know very few car collectors who loose money but know very few streetrodders who ever break even . cars are investments just like property or anything else.

You're right, it's a different world from that of the street rodder, and I expect you're right about the guys like Ron Pratt, but when I see some of those guys paying $100K for a car that to me is "worth" about 1/10th of that I wonder that they're not going to lose money on it if they ever choose to sell, especially considering that they paid $110K, and if they bring it back to BJ they'll have to sell it for $121K just to break even when they pay the sellers fee. Even more, the guy who buys the "bargain" priced car, acknowledged as a survivor or non-restored car/truck for $25K to $50K. To me they'll wake up tomorrow with a severe case of buyers remorse, but I guess I'm all wet.

a lot like going to the auto auction in town . you go in there with your black book they will eat you alive . different world .

Yep, all auctions have similarities, but BJ seems to take it to an extreme, to me. Some interesting information about the process here, if you invest some time to read through - https://www.carbuyingtips.com/articl...n-auctions.htm

I'm with brother Shine on this subject again this year. I'm sure there were a couple (few maybe?) trust fund babies there, and probably some Madoff types who got where they are cheating people, but I'd bet 98-9% of them were smart enough to figure out how to earn whatever level of big bucks they've got. Some are probably guessing wrong on where values will go on certain vehicles, and some bought with emotion rather than knowledge, but like the man said, it's their money, they earned it, they make the call on how they enjoy it. We should leave the envy whines to the politicians and then ignore the power hungry, money grubbing bastards (meaning the politicians and their enablers).

Though not expressed here, but in plenty of other places on the web each year, I don't buy the "BJ is forcing prices higher....." whine either. Do some foolish people see the selling prices at this and other auctions and think they can get a huge pile for whatever clunker they've got? Oh yes, that's human nature. But when they ask silly numbers the marketplace sends them a message when no fool steps up (or rarely does) to give them silly money, no sale. If they get serious about selling they will eventually drop to reality, or they keep the clunker and whine about that too.

BJ reflects one slice of the market, a very visible one no doubt, but only a relatively small part of it.

Shine & Bob, you're both 100% right and I should have just ignored the urge to rant. I've got nothing against the guys who're paying six & seven figures for the super collector cars, for as you say they were sharp enough to amass the big bucks to let them play in that playground. An example of my pet peeve is the announcer, talking about a car that just hammered for $20,000 saying, "Now you may think that $20,000 is too much for a 1966 (fill in the blank) that's a very nice driver, but it's a [I]very nice (repeat) with lots of nice features, and for only $20,000 you can say that you bought it at Barrett Jackson", as if that adds value. That, to me, is a load of caca, and I'd say that buyer's values are out of touch with reality.

Now I agree that at that moment in time, the "value" of that car was $20,000, and actually $22,000 with the buyer's premium, but to think that it's truly "worth more" because it was purchased at Barrett Jackson? Not to me, and I'll shut up now. ;):);)

Ah, you don't have to shut up Roger................................besides, nobody believes you would anyway!:LOL::LOL:

That stuff is all showmanship, hyperbole for the sake of the program and selling advertising time. But it also wouldn't surprise me if those guys believed it to some degree. We both know people who believe some of the most ridiculous things that politicians tell them.......................:eek::D

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Ah, you don't have to shut up Roger................................besides, nobody believes you would anyway!: LOL::LOL:eek::D

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:eek::LOL: Dang! Now I gotta clean the coffee off the monitor and keyboard!:LOL::LOL::LOL::p

The thing that bugged me this year was the 3 clowns that were roaming the grounds attempting to provide insight for the cars that would cross the block later. The young gal, although nice to look at, was IMHO worthless and the "tweets" and "hashtags" drove me nuts. I did notice that much later in the broadcast she was being used to apply sold stickers to the vehicles, a good place for her.
And as per usual there were a number of cars and trucks that sold for much less than they cost to build, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and other times you break even.
All in all it was well worth watching and if for nothing else an amazing car show.

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Originally Posted by rspears

Shine & Bob, you're both 100% right and I should have just ignored the urge to rant. I've got nothing against the guys who're paying six & seven figures for the super collector cars, for as you say they were sharp enough to amass the big bucks to let them play in that playground. An example of my pet peeve is the announcer, talking about a car that just hammered for $20,000 saying, "Now you may think that $20,000 is too much for a 1966 (fill in the blank) that's a very nice driver, but it's a [I]very nice (repeat) with lots of nice features, and for only $20,000 you can say that you bought it at Barrett Jackson", as if that adds value. That, to me, is a load of caca, and I'd say that buyer's values are out of touch with reality.

Now I agree that at that moment in time, the "value" of that car was $20,000, and actually $22,000 with the buyer's premium, but to think that it's truly "worth more" because it was purchased at Barrett Jackson? Not to me, and I'll shut up now. ;):);)

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All so very true, Roger, and I agree; that sort of stuff does not usually impress me in the least, and I would most likely dismiss it as pure vanity. However, I think that if someone picked up that "nice driver" for a decent price, and then took it to their local cruise, or show and shine, and let it be known that they had gotten the car from B-J, it might just impress the he&& out of some folks - braggin' fodder for the unwashed masses.

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go to a farm auction . they will drive you nuts !
but BJ is to the collectors like the nationals are to hotrodders . it's their big event out west . many of them follow every auction. buy a car in dallas sell it in florida.

The three people roaming the grounds and previewing the cars each have their own reality car shows on Velocity. This doesn't make them experts by any means but makes them part of the show. I think the prices are way to high too, but then again I have to get a bank loan to make a down payment on a postage stamp.

there are people from all over the world converting their money into assets. russians are buying cars like the chinese were a while back.

Something you might not know about BJ, I had a friend who went down to Scottsdale to buy a AC cobra (original) we knew he had plenty of cash but where surprised to see him all over the TV, right up on stage several times. He told us that both the buyer and seller pay commission (everyone knows that) but if the car you buy rolls by on camera they tack on extra money for "air time" depending on how much air time it was on TV for!!! Every way you turn the auction company comes out on top!!