This other thread got me to thinking of this. After barrett-jackson started being shown on speed channel I think it really hurt the classic car market more than helped it.
Why? Because people think their rust buckets are now gold mines and anyone interested in them MUST be wanting to do a complete and total frame up restoration on it and sell it for bigtime money to someone, and by golly, they are going to get their cut of that profit from the word go.
Like an old 71 plymouth sattelite I saw once, it was sitting on 4 flats, had surface rust, a dented in quarter panel, and was literally a car that needed a complete and total restoration to be driveable. So no more than 1500.00 I thought, and that was on the high side.
I go and talk to the guy, and asked him if it was for sale his words intact to me were "The bidding starts at $10,000, I've seen these cars on barrett jackson" first off, I've NEVER seen a plymouth sattelite on barrett jackson, but anyway, his final selling point? "The engine knocks but it's a 318 with a 2 bbl."
Really, 10k for a sattelite with a blown engine, 4 flats, rotten interior, sitting in your front yard with a dented quarter.
I politely declined his generous offer, but this man was in no financial shape to restore this vehicle, and it's sad that it is going to sit there and rot instead of being enjoyed because he is so afraid someone else might make money off of it. And they never would, it's a freaking sattelite, not even a roadrunner. with a 318!
Anyone else have any such stories?

 

i agree with you there there have been an lot of cars ect going up in price because of that and other stuff. its an pitty to say the least.

 

The market will always sort it out and this certainly didn't start with BJ. A seller can ask whatever they want for whatever they're trying to sell (a car, boat, house...) but they will always be dealt a lesson in reality when there are no buyers for an object over market value. Besides, there aren't that many cars sold at BJ that influence the market in the up direction. How many cars have you seen cross the stage that were, for the most part, stolen from the owner by very low hammer price? I've seen a lot more of those than the super-priced stuff.

 

I for one like BJ. I show my wife what some of the Vettes are going for and use that to justify spending money to fix up the '72.

I think she has wised up and now counters with "great, then you can sell it on BJ and make lots of money..."

 

I have seen many cars particularly street rods etc. that are sold by BJ for less than the cost of building them. BJ doesn't set the prices, the market does.

 

I don't think The B/J telecasts hurt the market, per se. I do miss the old days when the people who knew about B/J were generally car guys familiar with the hobby of collecting old cars, instead of every dope that watches TV now. I liked going to B/J events better 5-7 years ago. I especially love the newbies who yak about "well, on B/J last night" when it was a re-broadcast from a year ago.

The Speed broadcasts have also spawned an entire new collection of "experts" I could do without.

Most people who know cars understand that B/J does not reflect the real life market and is only relevant for 1 day of the year. People that don't understand that are no different than the delusional car owners who think their car is worth 5 times what it is anyway. Ive long gotten used to walking away from sellers who start a sentence with "well, on Barrett-Jackson..." Uh, huh. I'm out.

On the bright side, I think it's sparked the hobby a bit, regardless of prices. The broadcasts on Speed as well as Mecum's on HDTV have exposed the hobby to more marginal fans who might not have been listening, and that's a good thing.

 

Amen. I am at that exact same place, last time I heard "well on barrett-jackson" I just cut the fella off and said "well then take it to barrett-jackson"

I just think BJ has been a downer for the person that honestly doesn't have a clue about their car and what it is actually work versus the ones he sees strut down the block on TV.

 

As a recent "attempted " seller, I sure haven't seen the "BJ Effect". I have a nice Vette, Not a show winning factory original, but a beautiful driver that I had priced less than a used Accord. The best I did were a few ridiculous low-ball offers. Seems like none of the buyers were watching Speed!

temvette72

 

There are some really nice museum pieces, low mileage, low production, or concept cars that are never street driven that tend to go for max $$$, and confuses the average people thinking they are all like this.
The other trend is the Resto Rod....a 6cyl Belvedere that was converted to a Hemi GTX or Tempest converted to a 455 GTO that use to bring astronomical prices, they seem to have settled down somewhat lately.
For me, I like to view museum pieces but if I own one I want to drive them and smoke the tires./
You can probably pick up some nice drivers that cross the block on thursday-friday etc before they broadcast on tv.

C3s always seem to go for low $$ unless they are an L88, even the low mile pace cars are cheap

 

Well of course us enthusiasts are a bit more realistic. I am mainly talking about the guy with the car out back rotting and he thinks it's a goldmine.

 

This is always the case. There's always decent cars early and late on most days. I found a handful of nice buys at B/J in Vegas last Fall, and most the other shows have very decent buys out there outside of TV time.

This is true, especially in the case of the low-mile PCs, because of the inordinate amount of low-miles PCs left over from the unsuccessful speculation. Those cars are always undervalued.

We should also keep in mind the fact that the B/J cars are not always the best and brightest of the used car world, no matter how much overestimation they are given on Speed and by people who don't actually go to the events. If you look closely at a lot of the cars, they aren't any better than the cars you find at most venues. And unlike popular misconception, B/J has no interest in verifying or being responsible for anything that has to do with correctness, originality, quality or condition. That's on the seller.

 

Except when they were new, they were way overvalued.

 

Part of it is because they tend to auction the cars that should bring the most $ when they are broadcasting. I was at Barrett-Jackson last January, and there were some deals that were had, they just weren't televised.

 

Precisely, especially after GM said they would make about 1500 and then spit out about 5000 more than that.

Too late for the guys that wrapped them up in plastic.

 

There were some good deals to be found on the opening days of BJ...No one there and no reserve!!! You cant tell how high the quality form TV but they looked good to me!!

 

Its still good entertainment, regardless. I like to watch and try to see how close I can guess to the final bid price that the car will sell for, especially the "tribute" cars.

 

Back in the early 70's a friend of mine offered to give me his 1 owner 68 Mustang Shelby GT 500 convertable free. He had bought it new as a dd and it was rusted in the normal areas (rear spring pockets etc). Back then the aftermarket pieces did not exist and and I had just finished another rust bucket and was sick of it, and said "no thanks".

In hindsight, I should have accepted it and just stored it, as is, for years to come especially since it had all the documentation.
Who knew, hindsight is great.

 

In my opinion, Barrett-Jackson is nothing more than a rich man`s playground. But then, if I were a multi-millionare I`d be there bidding as well.......

 

You'd probably get to meet Jay Leno too

 

done more the screw up the old car hobby than any other single factor (even the bad economy). everyone now believes their POS is worth it's rusting weight in gold.