Why I hate the Barrett-Jackson auction...

Either last year or the year before, some guy paid over ONE MILLION for a drop-top Hemi car, I believe at B-J, one of the big auctions... BUT, get this... BUT...

he DROVE IT HOME! I guess he was like "where's the keys?" and the auction people replied, "well, get your trailer, we'll load it up for you" and he was just like, "To hell with that, where's the keys?" And proceeded to light em up first thing and did indeed drive the car home... Talk about bumming a bunch of too-rich-for-their-own-good clueless asshats out....

One millions dollars.... he was in Hot Rod or Car Craft or one of those magazines, the guy has like 20 super rare muscle cars and drives em all... he owns a construction business or something....

Sady, muscle car prices will keep rising for at least a few more years... GTO's and SS Chevelles are on the rise now...

I paid 2000 for a 67 Tempest a few years ago, it's my daily driver when the streets aren't covered with salt, I dropped a 400 in it and it's a fun car. Some guy offered my 6000 last month and as bad as he wanted it, I could have probably got closer to 10 out of him... it is getting ridiculous.... Now I realize I should have took the money and run....

I blame alot of it on these TV shows that have gained recent popularity....

I still smile though everytime I think about it:

One million bucks and the guy lit em up right there, first thing.....

 

I don't really have a reason to hate BJ but I do enjoy watching the show. When you consider the other garbage on TV, it's a pleasure. Anyway, I don't think any of it is harmful. Every time a car is sold at an unbelieveable price it just re-enforces one of the reasons I have a hot rod and thats value. We all hope that the value of our cars will go up some day (they will) and thus we make a little money and can build another. I could never pay some of those prices but I know what I have in mine and when that gavel falls it makes me feel great. Look at it this way, a lot of people make money in the stock market because they are adventurous (sp?) and work at it. The only people complaining about them are the people who didn't have the balls to play the game. This also raises another point: Do you think a rat rod is looked at in the same way? Do you think you can count on that baby being worth more money in ten years? Or, is it going to rust away in the driveway. Just something to think about. Now, back to feeling better about my "investment".

 

Same guy dropped two million on a '70 'Cuda convert this year. Hope he lights 'em up on the way out today.

JH

 

like any one of us wouldn't have done the same thing... although I am sure we would have NOT bought the convertible and instead,bought every 32 or 33 ford we could find. that's what...do the math...about 1000 cars. and with what was left over, you could drive a different one every day for 3 years. sell all the stuff you didn't use, and make 1/2 of your million back.

just don't ask me to help you find the keys for "the black one..."

 

what we need is for the TV shows to go away, B-J to go away, the internet to go away, all the cheap aftermarket parts to go away, so those of us elite few that were doing this out of love since birth can go back to hunting for YEARS to find that one part, or that one perfect car. that way we can spend hundreds of dollars in long distance calling every salvage yard in the country looking for a clock bezel, instead of going on ebay and buying one quickly. let's go back to the days of having to join a make specific club for every car you own so you can stay abreast of the parts situation. let's go back to when old speed equipment was JUNK to everybody, when a guy would be more likely to sell it for scrap value than hold onto it cause he seen one on ebay or TV go for big bucks.

sometimes i just sit back in awe and think about how this hobby has changed in the last 10 years or so. sure prices may have gone up, some cars have gotten more popular, but the bottom line is it helps us all in the end.

 

Someday, the "gold chainers" I hear about (who the hell are they, anyway?) will be looking at a "numbers-matching Prelude" and arguing about whether a '89 Civic DX is more or less valuable with the purge line & injector update installed. And a '98 Mustang LX will carry a six figure pricetag.

And my '54 NY'er will still only be a $2-3K car.

Just the way it goes.

I'm just happy I was never able to invest in a brass-era car in the late '70's. Look at what they sold for then, as opposed to now. Ouch.

Land isn't being produced any more, and there are always more people coming along who'll want it. Old cars are being reproduced/replicated, and there will come a time where the public will move on from whatever year car you have.

Moral: your old cars to me are a shitty investment - give them to me!

-bill

 

Craig Jackson is
THE DEVIL


.....Credit to 296 V8

 

The "rebodied" hemi cuda was interesting....the people that sold it admitted to a felony by disclosing that bit of info. They changed ID tags from a burnt out hulk to a usable body.....illegal...period. Cool car, but if the local cops saw the show, they can impound it without any other proof other than the tv show....then they can auction it and buy new shelby mustangs for patrol cars.

 

The Bar is free for bidders and cosigners,get those old dudes liqoured up put some eye candy out there and suddenly its a pissing contest. Bottom line its enteryainment;but secretly most of us would love to, just once, go and play big dog.What do these guys do for a living? some of them aren't buying one;they are buying 2or 3!! We could live well on thier toy car budget.
steele

 

So if the cops "steal" it and then sell it, that makes it a legal car?
That makes sense...
I'd think as long as the replacement "body panels" were documented as legally obtained it would be ok.
Otherwise, a lot of "hotrods" could be confiscated at a cops will.
(A model A on '32 rails is obviously "rebodied", and registered as what? a '29 or '32..!?!)

People "restore" cars all the time...
I know of one historic race car that had all the body replaced with hand made panels except for the panel with the serial #'s. I saw it documented in a video.
In MI that may take a large % of new body panels if its been driven in the winter?
How much body replacement is just repair and how much makes it a "felony"?
I would think the disclosure of the body source would make it legal, not admission of guilt.

 

I couldn't agree more!

 

First, Dr ....when you are the law, there is no law. Suspicion is enough to take the car.

Second.....the car was listed as "rebodied"....not "repaired"...big difference, legally and historically.

"Rebodied" means just that....a new, or different body. Not repaired, but replaced.

Either way, it has to be re/inspected, and then titled as a "new construction" vehicle. And then it will have a non oem id tag. Legally, you cannot change vin tags from one body to another....in ANY state. It's a federal law.

I'd bet any amount the tags were removed from the burnt vehicle....and attached to a different car.....illegal in any state.

I knew a factory worker in my home town that had a lunchbox full of gm id tag rivets back in the seventies.....he sold em for fifty bucks a piece.

I wouldn't feel comfortable driving a rebodied car.

 

Like quite a few others in this thread, I don't hate B-J, it is rather entertaining. And the gold chainer's keep several of my good friends in the chips, doing cars for folks who can't change a sparkplug. Just don't understand making that much money though. My ol' lady & I make pretty well into 6 figures, and I still wouldn't spend on some of those cars. I do like doing as much of my own work as possible though.

 

Amen.

 

I happen to be in Scottsdale on Wed. and went to BJ. It was incredible! If you see it in person you can't help being amazed.

If you don't like Craig Jackson you still have to hand it to him from making it such a production. I am sure he makes more off of the following than the 16% of the cars auctioned.

Production to Speed Channel
Ticket Sales 25.00-100.00 x 20,000+ a day
Bidder Registration 350.00 x 5000 bidders
Venders/ Venders/Tent
Manf. Tent (Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet)
Dillard Fashion Show
T-Shirt/Clothing
Valet Parking 20.00 per car (I spoke to the valet and he told me they parked over a 1000 cars on Wednesday Day. One of the least crowded days)
Etc.

Lastly, I have been to car shows all my life and I have never see one as nice as BJ. If you truely appreciate the cars, then just do that.

 

I saw bits and pieces of the auction last night while I was at the indoor car show in Rock Island. Some Dish Network thing had it on a big screen tv that I could see from where I was. Didn't do much for me, but everytime one of the big dollar cars came on, the crowd around the tv grew. Watching the reaction from the crowd as they wandered past at the end of each big car sale was real entertaining. Most seemed to be in disbelief of what they just saw. Most comments ran along the lines of "WOW, I wished I had that kind of money to spend on a car like that one."

Pearsonally, I think I could do OK living on the 16% commission off that 2 mil Cuda, for a few years... Then again, I probably could have lived OK on what the guy that put on the show I was at, made over the weekend, for a year or two.

The reality is none of the people that were bidding at the auction, nor either of the show promoters got where they are from making poor decisions. They certainly didn't get where they are now becaused they were whinning about how people with money spent it. Most likely they got where they are now from watching where and how people with money spent their money and figured out a way to help them spend some with themselves. I think there are too many folks whinning about what they don't have instead of thinking about why they don't have those things and fixing the problem. If you are unhappy about where you are in life, quite blaming your trouble on everyone else. If your failing and don't make changes, you will continue to fail. I'm making changes in my life, and I can tell you the hardest change is to quit bitching about what you don't have and do something positive about it. Gene

 

Very well put....

 

I agree 100%.

 

Gene is one of the most down to earth folks I have met on the HAMB. He speaks the truth.

 

They had a 70 hemi cuda ragtop that sold for 2 mil. sure wish I had some of their money maybe I would buy a tour bus for 5 mil like the guy bought for 4 mil..

 

You guys like to bitch and moan about all this high dollar shit. Tell me if two hambers were there and had that kind of money that "Loaded" wouldn't have gone for a little more.

 

My favorite was the guy who bought his 16 year old a $300k 289 cobra for a first car. The son said "thanks" like it was no big deal. future schmucks of America.

 

You can sum it all up in one word:B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S!!! Buy LOW and sell HIGH.That is how these people can afford six-figure muscle cars.I would be willing to wager that virtually all of the high rollers at the auction made their money the old-fashioned way(to paraphrase an ad):They earned it.

 

It has good entertainment value! Definately the more money than brains club. My buddies truck went through Sat around noon pacific time and brought 85,000.00 should have brought more. Would have cost someone close to 200,000.00 to build. I have to admit. If I had the money I would have paid whatever it took for the Pontiac concept, or the Chrysler D'elegance.

 

I was surprised the museum from Colorado that bought the F-88 didn't pick up the Pontiac. Their guy was bidding on it but didn't seem as interested in it as last year. Think it's because there was only one F-88(that I know of) and two Bonneville's(one in CHi-town). If I had the money I'd have all 3 plus the futurliner. I love those 50's motorama cars! The ultimate customs in my opinion.

 

Best intertainment lately. Guys with lots of money will allways have better stuff than me! But a lot of them doughballs give me money. and I'm sure they give a lot of money to many guys here! Think; Hey you paid 300 k for that, but I can fix it for maybe 25 K????? Get it!........OLDBEET

 

Oscar Wilde defined a fool as "a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Add Hawaiian shirt and a Kenny Rogers beard, and that pretty much sums up the bidder pit at B-J.

If I ever hit the lottery, I'd get me a spot front and center in Scottsdale. When they rolled out the big star super rare one-of-zero matching number frame-off 0.6 original mile documented supersecret '68 Hemi Polaracuda GTXSS Z-69 (in the ultra rare Passion Puke color code), I'd bid that sumbitch up to $3 million or whatever it took.

When I won, I'd stop 'em from rolling the car off the stage. Then I'd turn the keys over to a pimply high school kid for $2500. Then I'd roll out some toolboxes and torches and help that kid install air shocks, spring shackles, Keyston Klassics, cheap ass Appliance headers, window decals, etc.

Why? Because that's the way those cars are suppose to be.

And also, to hear the lamentations of the "collectors."

 

Rite On Mike!!!...........OLDBEET

 

Well I just got back from BJ, and it is indeed a circus!

Pops and I meet there almost every year (for the past 5 years). He brings a car, I drive it up on stage, he sells it, and we go out to dinner- Its our yearly bonding trip!

He says this is his last year bringing cars there- Its getting a little too nutty with the baby stollers, cotton candy, and cigar smoking goobers.

I think we'll hot RM next year and hang out with the Biltmore blue bloods!

jay

PS- His 58 Devin brought $120,000-- Not bad!

 

anyone see what the red 57 chev convert fuel injected car sold for? I know the guy and definately have dirt on the car that I wont mention. The car was lot #1000.

Or is there a list of the prices somewhere? Please help if you know anything.