Muscle cars still in high demand at annual collector car auction

by Sam Barer

Take 165,000 car fanatics, throw them in the desert with 730 cars valued at over $27 million, and you have the recipe for the annual Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction. Taking place at its usual Scottsdale, Arizona location, the 2003 event January 15 through 19 proved yet again that it is the “place to be” for car hobbyists in the winter.

Barrett-Jackson’s annual auction helps to set pricing trends each year and identify which makes and models will be most popular during the spring and summer buying seasons. Any concerns that the continuing international economic decline would have a negative impact on the sales results were squashed as strong bidding led to a record total.

Barrett-Jackson President Craig Jackson was certainly pleased with this year’s results and speculated that making a sound classic investment could prove a wise and fun decision.

“We are seeing a continuing trend that our bidders prefer to drive away in an investment rather than relying on traditional means of diversifying their stock portfolio,” said Jackson.

Continuing the trend from the past few years, buyers went hog-wild investing in muscle cars. Many record prices were established in this segment, including hammer prices of $145,800 for a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird, $124,200 for a pristine 1967 427/435hp tri-power Corvette Coupe and a whopping $183,280 for the only factory produced Hemi-powered 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T with a four speed tranny. Other rare high-horsepower cars and better-than-new restored muscle cars seemed to hold their solid market values from last year. One notable exception was a 1966 Shelby 427 S/C Cobra, which at $253,800, failed to approach the near $350,000 record set last year.

But before you rush to place a six-figure priced classified ad for the muscle car in your garage, keep in mind that these hammer prices reflect that the cars in the auction are the nicest, rarest, lowest mileage and best documented examples of their classes. Usually, these prices far exceed what can be achieved through private sales, hence why sellers agree to the costs of selling through the auction. With this in mind, if your vehicle has a factory Hemi, high horsepower 427 or Cobra Jet engine, you can still sleep well knowing your car will continue to be desirable in 2003.

This year’s auction did see a flattening trend on the hot rod market. Fewer rods were for sale, and those that rolled across the block saw more tempered buying behavior. Six-figure bids on hot-rods, a seemingly regular occurrence at the 2002 auction, were rare and limited to only the best of the best.

This 2003 auction also saw two classes of cars that simply weren’t pulling their weight. In past years CCCA “Full Classics” along with exotic sports and racing cars dominated the schedule, with the hammer dropping on bids regularly in excess of one million dollars. This year, one had to dig through hundreds of Chevrolets and Fords to find these exotic Classics and sports cars. When they finally made it to the stand, bidders frequently failed to come close to sellers’ reserves. Among the notable no-sales in these classes were a 1931 Duesenberg J Murphy Convertible Sedan at $440,000 (the only Duesy offered for sale,) a gorgeous custom-bodied 1947 Delahaye 135 coupe at $162,000 and an alloy-bodied 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB at a $335,000 high bid. Failure to meet reserves of the highest-priced cars even carried over to the highly coveted 1957 Jaguar XK-SS previously owned by Monterey Historic Races founder Steve Earle, which mustered a final bid of a mere $950,000.

Even if you’re not in the market for a car, Barrett-Jackson is a great event to attend. It is not uncommon to see famous car owners, which this year included rocker Alice Cooper, Baseball Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson (one of the industry’s most knowledgeable muscle car aficionados) and actor Don Johnson, rubbing shoulders with the common car crazy man or woman. The event also plays home to many automobilia and antique vendors, which provide more affordable purchase opportunities. And once you’re done drooling over the high-priced cars in the auction, even the attendee parking lot is a car show on its own.

So what does it take to attend? Simply show-up in Scottsdale next year with $20 for a day-pass. If you want to bid, there’s a $300 registration fee. Oh, and don’t forget to budget 8 percent to the hammer price for the auction commission on each sale. If you can’t wait that long, Barrett-Jackson will be holding its inaugural Palm Beach Auction April 11-13.

Sam Barer writes for Apex, an Olympia, WA based freelance writing company. To submit a car for a future “Sound Classics” story, email soundclassics@apexstrategy.com

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