Went to Barrett Jackson last night

[tdskip]

It was their first Orange County event, and my first time at an auction like that.

What follows are some semi-random thoughts that <span style="font-style: italic">might</span> be of interest for those that have never been. And keep in mind that my cars are all ugly, beat up, in need of welding or a smarter and more capable owner. So take my comments below with a grain of salt...

There were some very nice cars there, most of them were nice actually, but some of the practices of the dealers is scary. I saw several cars with fresh undercoating or black paint sprayed on everything under the car. Oil, dirt, everything. If you don't really know the cars it would be easy to get hammered, especially since the prices most of the cars brought were at a premium to Craigslist etc for the same quality.

Two Triumphs (that I saw) there.

A very nice TR3, claimed to be all original but had a repaint? Ummm, yeah, OK. Not all original then is it? Very-very nice however, brought a bit over $30K.

One iffy Stag, undercoat sprayed over everything under the car - and I mean everything - with a Buick V6 and 3 speed auto. Seller states "Originally these cars came with a Rover aluminum block V8. This particular cars engine was upgraded with a Buick V6 high output motor mated to a 3-speed automatic transmission.". It sold for almost $8k.

A couple (OK, a lot) of nice non-TR cars caught my eye.

This Thunderbird was exceptionally well done and sold for a bit over $50k;

Pictures don't do this Healey justice - it was a magnet for everyone that walked by, even the guys there to check out the muscle cars stopped to look. Hard to beat that color.

Lots of folks there seemed to like this custom build - guy was sweating like crazy sitting in the line-up;

My son really liked this Corvette, but for me it affirmed Sport Car Market's advise not to buy a Corvette with anything sticking out of the hood. Impressive workmanship, but it didn't look like you could actually use it in any way.

This Corvette however was hard for me to walk away from. Sold for $68K and I'd say that was fair. Just a really nice car, much better in person.

I brought the "the boy" and we had a good time, he wanted to buy a matching set 2010 Mustangs for both of us, but I think the ticket is to go early, walk everything, and then sit back and watch the bidding as entertainment. Cheap fun if you spend a day there in return for the $18 admission ticket.

 

[tdskip]

Sorry - missed an important one.

Why important, because the seller donated the car and all the funds went to a charity for blind children.

Went for $120,000.

I thought that was fantastic - the whole place started clapping a the final sale. It was nice to be there for that.

 

[Tinkerman]

How neat and interesting! Thanks for sharing that with us.

Dick

 

[poolboy]

Thanks, Tom!
I saw the T-bird and the Healey sell. I believe it was the Healey that the owner and his family guided up to the stage ?
For a car guy like you, I bet it was quite a day.

 

[BobbyD]

That Healey looks like the Kurt Tanner restoration that someone stole for $55K. They spent some air time going over that car and found it to be "perfect". The announcers were pretty shocked at the low price as most of Tanner's work goes for close to $100K. The owner had to take a bath on that sale.

The TR3 was called a barn find from some estate in Oregon and went for $30,800. The Stag was from the same collection.

 

[toysrrus]

Howdy Folks,

I too saw the sale of the Healey etc. I have only one question; How do I open some the pics that Tom had posted?? What am I "NOT" doing right??

Thanx, Russ

 

[BobbyD]

..... How do I open some the pics that Tom had posted?? What am I "NOT" doing right??

Thanx, Russ

They should open automatically right in the thread where he posted them. Is your browser blocking them? Or are you on a slow connection? Do you see the picture below that I just posted as a test for you?

 

[billspit]

I was amazed that the Kurt Tanner Healy did not sell for more. The commentators felt it must have been because it was a side curtain car.


I felt the prices at this auction were more in line with what they should be. The Pheonix auction seems to drive the crowd into a feeding frenzy.

 

[cheseroo]

I turned it on for a few minutes and at that moment they were auctioning off a SS454 Chevelle convertible. Clearly they were groveling/stalling for more time to bump the price. At one point they said one of these sold for $1.2 million a couple years ago. Car ended up selling for $230k. A somewhat rare Chevelle for $230k ok, but $1.2 mil? I can maybe see the value in a Hemi cuda convertible where less than 2 handfuls were built but some of the other stuff was just a head scratcher, particularly the cloned cars that were selling for far more than their restoration cost.

Don't get me started on the "1 of 1" baloney that those guys sell. Just because only 1 person ordered a Valiant in Lime Green with ashtray delete, bench seat and 4 speed does not make a car with a production run in the 500,000 range a "1 of 1" car. It just meant the guy liked to look flashy, shift for himself, hump in the front seat and not smoke. A Bugatti Royale is a rare car, most everything else is at best unusual.

I think I'd survive if my LBC went from $10k to $2k but I'd still be a bit bewildered at losing 80% of the value of my car in 1.5 years. There must be a bloodbath going on with the decline in muscle car values. I can recall Ferrari Daytonas going into a free fall 20 years ago but I don't recall anything like a 80% decline.

 

[billspit]

The $1.2 million Chevelle was special race car with a history. Still, I don't think it would be worth that.

The 1 of 1 comes from the sellers, not necessarily Barrett-Jackson.

The $250 thou for that car was probably right for that car. Still, I don't want something I can't or would be scared to take out on the road. Driving a 100 point collector car is a quick way to make a $100k dollar car a $50k car.

I will watch the auctions until it gets stupid.