5 high-end car auctions rolling into the Phoenix Valley. It’s time again to sell the time machines.
Thousands of collector cars spanning a century will be sold this week at Barrett-Jackson’s 40th anniversary auction at WestWorld of Scottsdale and at four other Valley events – Russo and Steele, Gooding and Co., RM Auctions and Silver Auctions.
With a lineup of Duesenbergs, Cadillacs, Corvettes, Cobras, ‘Cudas, Mustangs, Maseratis, Fiats and Ferraris, the auction houses aim to eclipse last year’s Valley sales of more than $125 million.
“The market has been remarkable good, particularly the upper end,” said Rick Carey, auctions editor for Sports Car Digest. “Expensive cars have been selling fast and furious and bringing very healthy prices.”
Each of the auctions has its own personality, but all of them essentially are selling time machines – sleek, stylish, fast or uncommon automobiles. The cars, tangible investments more fun than stocks and bonds, evoke memories of past eras.
Barrett-Jackson is offering the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville ambulance that carried the casket of President John F. Kennedy from Air Force One to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, then to the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s a wild card,” said Craig Jackson, Barrett-Jackson chairman. “I’ve never seen anything like the attention that JFK car is getting on websites around the world.”
It’s difficult to predict how much it might sell for. It takes just two people who really want a car to drive the price up.
Last year, another wild-card car, a 1930 Model A Ford that John Dillinger used in a Wisconsin bank robbery, sold for $165,000 at Barrett-Jackson. Jackson said the buyer turned out to be actor Johnny Depp, who played Dillinger in the 2009 film “Public Enemies.”
Diverse selection
The Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event, one of the oldest and largest car auctions, has a diverse lineup of vehicles that appeal to a wide cross-section of buyers. This year it’s offering an acrobatic airplane, a stage coach, a horse-drawn hearse and the world’s tallest motorcycle.
Barrett-Jackson’s sweet spot is American muscle and pony cars from the 1960s and ’70s – the kind of cars that people drove to Barrett-Jackson’s first auction in 1971 in downtown Scottsdale.
“That was right back in the dawn of collector-car history,” Carey said.
Founders Tom Barrett and Russ Jackson, Craig’s father, built their auction on pre-World War II classics. That niche began to play out after two decades as buyers of that automobile era began to die off.
Craig Jackson, who took over in 1995 after his father died and Barrett retired, shifted to muscle cars, hot rods and classic sports cars.
“We’re helping the next generation build their collections,” Jackson said.
That includes such collectors as Chevrolet dealer Dave Ressler of Bozeman, Mont., who bought the third Corvette ever built for $1.08 million in 2006.
Ressler, who has a winter home in Scottsdale, is selling six Corvettes this year at Barrett-Jackson.
His friend Billy Rundle of Butte, Mont., is selling a special 2005 Ford F-150 truck that belonged to the late Evel Knievel. The daredevil willed it to Rundle, who had worked for Knievel and his son Robbie for 35 years.
Like other vehicles at Barrett-Jackson, the F-150 will be sold at no reserve, meaning there’s no minimum price.
Star cars add interest
Celebrity cars are a staple of the collector-car market.
RM Auctions at the Arizona Biltmore is selling a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder once owned by baseball great Reggie Jackson and Evel Knievel.
RM, based in Blenheim, Ontario, estimates the Ferrari’s value at $800,000 to $1 million.
A 1929 Duesenberg Model J that Elvis Presley drove in the 1966 movie “Spinout” is valued by RM at up to $1.3 million.
Over the past 13 years, RM has developed a niche for selling high-dollar classics, sports, muscle and concept cars, and last year it launched a docket of British models.
This year’s over-the-pond lineup includes a $20,000 1965 MGB Roadster and a $300,000 1964 Cooper Monaco race car.
RM, with 180 cars on the auction block on Thursday and Friday, sold $19.6 million worth of cars in 2010.
Its closest rival in the more exclusive end of the market is Gooding and Co., in its fourth year at Scottsdale Fashion Square.
Carey of Sports Car Digest describes Gooding’s bidders as being a more genteel “champagne cappuccino” crowd compared with the testosterone-fueled buyers at Barrett-Jackson.
Gooding, based in Santa Monica, Calif., has siphoned off high-end sales in Scottsdale. Last year, it reported $33.9 million, which included auction week’s top seller, a 1956 Jaguar D-Type Sports Racer that went for $3.74 million.
Gooding’s median sales price in 2010 was $148,000 compared with $88,000 for RM and $44,000 for Barrett-Jackson, Carey said.
This year, Gooding’s docket of 130 cars features a 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV, valued at up to $950,000, and a 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic, valued at up to $1.4 million.
Bitter rivals battle
Barrett-Jackson’s other Scottsdale competitor is Russo and Steele, at Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road.
Russo is rebounding from last year’s violent storm that knocked down its tents, damaged dozens of cars and halted its auction for several days.
Owner Drew Alcazar expects to offer about 650 cars for sale at his 11th annual auction.
Alcazar, who previously worked for Craig Jackson, competes in some of the same market segments as his former boss.
The two have a lot of venom for each other, trading charges of dishonesty, and they have fought publicly over use of state land along Loop 101 at least twice.
Russo did not disclose sales from its interrupted auction last year, but two years ago, Alcazar reported $17.5 million in sales. Barrett-Jackson reported $68 million in Scottsdale last year and $58 million more at its auctions in Palm Beach, Fla., Orange County, Calif., and Las Vegas.
The fifth competitor in the Valley’s crowded auction-week space is Silver Auctions, based in Spokane, Wash. In its 14th year, Silver operates at the Fort McDowell Resort Casino near Fountain Hills.
Last year, Silver sold 374 cars for a total of $4.1 million and hopes to have a larger lineup next weekend, spokeswoman Kim Betzer said.
Silver has added a “last chance” sale Jan. 29 that will conclude the Valley’s collector-car season. Article Source
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