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The start of 2008 saw six major sales held in
the Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona area from January 13th to the 20th. Due to
the seemingly endless stream of bad economic news leading up to the week,
there was plenty of apprehension among auction houses and consignors.
Would this be the year this desert lovefest for old cars finally came
crashing down?
Kicking off the half-dozen events was the
ICA auction in Gilbert. This auction tends to offer lower priced
entry-level type vehicles, and it gives first money buyers a chance to
pick up a few bargains. Cars at this sale were generally rated in #3 and 4
condition, and it was heavily attended by east-coast dealers.
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biggest sale by far is the Barrett-Jackson "Lifestyle Event".
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As has been the case for several years now,
Barrett-Jackson took center stage from their home in North Scottsdale at
the West World Entertainment Complex, with a reported 1,159 lots revved up
for action. When the dust had settled, the top sale was a beautiful 1963
Corvette Pininfarina coupe at $1.6 million. Another notable lot was the
1963 Ford Italien fastback. It was also expected to top the million mark,
but was snapped up by Barrett-Jackson Bidder #1, Don Williams of the
Blackhawk Collection, for $600,000.
Following recent custom, all lots were
offered at no reserve. Total revenues were reported at $88 million, which
included an estimated $6-million from their Exposition sale, a separate
area from the auction where prices were posted and interested buyers could
negotiate with owners. Sort of an upscale car corral, really. This means
that actual auction sales were around the $82 million mark, or about $27
million less than the record breaking 2007 event. A number of factors
played into these numbers, one being that there were fewer high-profile,
big ticket lots available this year.
The main competition in terms of vehicle
mix for Barrett-Jackson was the Russo & Steele sale, conducted almost
within spitting distance of West World. One of the hurdles Russo had to
clear this year concerned the very property they lease. Owned by the the
U. S. Bureau of Land Management, the parcel came up for bid this year.
Barrett-Jackson was an active bidder, claiming they needed the property to
park their transport trucks. While we were not give the full "skinny" on
what happened, at the end of the day Drew and crew were able to hang on to
their location.
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| One of
the "stars" of the 2008 Barrett-Jackson Auction was the 1963 Ford
Italien, beautifully restored and fetching a bid of $600,000, a
bargain to many observers. |
In an about face, R+S dropped their "all
no-reserve" formula this year, and held their first "all with reserve"
sale, which turned out to work just fine for bidders. While exact numbers
were still being tallied at press time (R+S seems to have issues reporting
prompt sales numbers), preliminary figures show a 61% sell-through rating
on a little over 400 vehicles. Estimated sales look to be around $19.5
million at what most people say was the fastest paced, most fun auction of
the week.
Appealing to a selective and grounded group
of collectors, RM Auctions presented their 8th Annual showing at the
Biltmore Resort in Scottsdale on Friday. A total of 93 lots were offered,
with 88 of these selling for a commendable $24.2 million in sales, plus
the 10% sales commission. Several cars broke the seven-figure mark,
including the one-off 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt hammered at $1-million. A
beautiful 1934 Packard Twelve Dietrich coupe won the approval of the crowd
as it was bid to $1,850,000.
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| Big
classics have returned, this beautiful 1934 Packard Twelve Dietrich
Coupe was hammered sold at $1,600,000 during RM Auction's Biltmore
sale. |
A newcomer to Scottsdale, but not the
industry, was David Gooding of Gooding & Company. He pitched his
luxury tent at a high-end shopping mall and offered up 71 select lots on
Saturday the 19th. Sixty six of these were called sold for a total of
$19.2 million, plus the 10% commission. Posting the high-water mark for
all the 2008 Scottsdale auctions was his sale of a 1959 Ferrari 250-GT
California Spyder at $3,000,000. Several other lots also topped the
million-dollar mark at this sale.
Rounding out this weekend was Mitch Silver
and Company at the Fort McDowell Casino about 15 miles east of Scottsdale.
Totals here were still being calculated and a full report will be found in
the next issue of CCMR, but our first look suggests good numbers in terms
of both sell-through and prices.
Overall, we calculated that about $147
million in sales were realized during this important week, close to the
numbers
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| Taking
the top money of all five auctions was this beautiful 1959 Ferrari
250GT California LWB Spyder, hammered sold at $3,000,000 at the
Gooding and Company sale. |
we saw last year. It was apparent, too,
that most of the really crazy money found at Barrett-Jackson was missing,
not a bad thing in our view. After a preliminary analysis, the numbers
suggest that the collector car market is still reasonably robust and that
fears of a big decline in Arizona this year were unfounded.
Kruse International was slated to run
their sale starting the following weekend. This was after the deadline for
this issue, but results will be published in the next issue along with
deeper detail and analysis of all the desert sales.
-- Phil Skinner
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| One of
the top sales recorded at the Russo & Steele Auction in Scottsdale was
this sharp 1966 Lamborghini 3500 GT coupe, hammered sold for a bid of
$258,000. |
There's
always interesting stuff in Arizona. This Messerschmitt showed
up at Mitch Silver's sale. |
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