The madness has begun.

[av8]

B-J in January isn't a particularly good place to flog your street rod or custom. They invariably sell for well under their creation costs. I don't know that you're likely to find a more favorable forum elsewhere, however, but the rods and customs seem to falter when stacked up against the current market darlings -- Corvettes, Camaros, and ChryCo musclecars of often dubious provenance.

No matter, it's a fun way to spend some Winter hours, fantisizing using other folks' dollars!  

Mike

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Don't forget most of the purchases at Barrett-Jackson are " I want" purchases.... hence more money for a restored car over original.

The guy wanting an original was not in the crowd that night or had little money perhaps.

I spent several years attending the B-J auction as a mechanic and a seller a few times.  

When you can get past looking at the cars and start watching the people on the bidding platform it is very interesting.  IF you are actually on the platform the energy level is very intense.

Craig Jackson made an interesting anology about the current high dollar sales on muscle cars and street rods..... he said these cars are the what the Duesenberg, Packard , Cord cars were to the older buyers of the auctions years ago.

[JOECOOL]

For what it's worth,years ago I worked in a machine shop and we made 427  Corvette blocks and sold them to a guy building 427-tri-power cars. We would use 396 or 427 blocks and had molds made of individual casting #'s and epoxy them on a block ,sometimes changing the date code. Drill and tap a hole above the  oil filter for the oil cooler line and machine them, spray with chebby orange and they went in as original tri powers.
Thats why I don't trust a lot of this original stuff.
Rumor had it that the guy in the Ferrari hat that bought the 3 million $ Olds last year was the guy that started the Discovery Channel. May be true maybe not. If so the 3 mill. probably didn't hurt him much.
The guys are better this year but still put out a lot of bogus info. About an hour ago a Hot Rod went thru and the guy said  when he saw the Jag IRS with a quick change back on it that it was a rare two speed rear end.
Go figure.

[40]

I was amazed during an interview with Craig Jackson and his manager when they said they had selected the cars for the auction out of some 6,700 or so applications! The auction today actually had some cars go thru that,while way out of my budget,seemed to be fairly priced by todays standards.I missed the streamliner going for $4 mill.....did it go to the same museum as last years $3 mill concept car? I understand that bus was 1 0f 12....wonder if the guys that own the others are scrambling to get them ready for next year  I also heard the same museum bought the Pontiac concept for $2 mill+ also? He must have hired another agent....I didn't see that dufus with the Farrari attire anywhere this year!

[Dave]

I also heard the same museum bought the Pontiac concept for $2 mill+ also?
I saw it sell but cant remember who won the bidding.


He must have hired another agent....I didn't see that dufus with the Farrari attire anywhere this year![/quote]

He was there had his arm in a sling :?:  He acted bout the same as last year.
It was a long weekend for us here after dads passing and i didnt get to watch near as much as i wanted to. Well im sure they will rerun it.
Dave

[Rochie]

Daryle,
I had an accident in the shop a week ago last Saturday which kept me out of the shop this past weekend, so I got to see a lot of the auction.  Ferrari hat guy was there, but he was getting out of the bidding on a number of cars.  The GM Streamliner and the Pontiac Bonneville special went to the same museum in Chandler Az. I thought the 1.15 Mill for the Ray Allan LS6 Convert was just nuts.  I got a kick out of the guy that bought it though.  There he was, drink in one hand, a brunette perched on his knee, and spending stupid money.  He also bought the "Elvis Linc limo".
I started thinking about all the big buck muscle that went across the block. I went to the "how many are real" thing as well. But a thought crossed my mind viewing all of this.  Does anyone else think there may be some profit taking going on this year. IF all those people wanted to get rid of their muscle cars, why?  They just get tired of them or are they worried that the bottom is going to fall out of the market. The guys that bought 1 or 2 years ago bought at a substantially lower price than those that were purchased this year.  I guess it was something that made me go HUMMMMM.
And I agree with Roadstar that some of the street rods just simply couldn't be built for what they were sold for.  How about "Loaded"? I think it went for low 100's. I'd bet you couldn't buy the parts for that. I saw a glimpse of the owner as the car sold and he didn't look happy about it at all.
Wayne

[jaybee]

I caught part of the Sunday show, the first time I've ever watched.  Agreed that some of the prices were hot & cold, but that's an auction for you.  I enjoyed it but wouldn't make a special effort to watch.

Did anyone else sit straight up in their chair when they rolled the Packard stretch limo across the platform cam?  There was a lot of surface rust underneath but what really caught my eye was the frame splice.  I backed up the Tivo and froze it just to be sure.  Could be just my eyes but what I thought I saw was ugly, bubble gum welding that didn't go all the way to the edge of the butt welded C channel and no boxing plates or fish plating of any kind.  That's OK, it only went for $250,000!