At Barrett-Jackson, all cars are offered at no reserve, so every car sells. If the owner is discontent with the high offer, he can bid the car up. However, if he is the high bidder, he has to buy his car back, in effect paying the commissions.
As the sun went down, we spotted Ed Meyer and his girlfriend walking quickly across the Barrett-Jackson grounds. They were anxious to get into the sale.
"I had to look at four cars for a guy, so I just got here," Ed explained. He was disappointed there were no Boss 429s, his passion, at Barrett-Jackson. The day before, he had watched KK-1220 bring over $300,000 at Russo and Steele. He had already found out about the '6811/42 CJ that brought "400 and some thousand," or what he called stupid money, at Barrett-Jackson.
"They called it the Hemi Hunter?" Ed asked. "That's totally out of line."
Actually, out of line prices may be the face of the future. Our assessment is this: As the cars age and get more valuable, more of the collectors sell out for big money. In a way, it's sad, but as they say, it is what it is.
Guys like Jim Wicks, Ed Meyer, Rick Parker, and hundreds more meet in Arizona in the heart of the winter. They rent nice places to stay. They escape the cold to warm up, weather-wise and friend-wise. They tell old tales of cars and the way it used to be, some true, some myth. They marvel at high prices. And so, they let the vintage tin go and their cars fade away. But like old soldiers, the cars never die. They just cost more.
Interview with Drew Alcazar
MM: Who are the people buying these cars? Are they aging baby boomers?
Alcazar: By and large, that's probably the case. The thing I find most interesting with collectors doing business with Russo-Steel is they are genuine, knowledgeable, and savvy enthusiasts who will have anywhere between five and a dozen cars in their collections.
MM: So, they are collectors?
Alcazar: Oh, yeah, very much so. They are not what some might think to be first-time baby-boom buyers who are buying a bobble. They know exactly what they are buying. They'll have a couple or three cars consigned to an auction. They'll bring four or five out to sell, sell three or four, then buy two or three. They have a small collection that is sort of moving and rotating. As their tastes change and they become more educated on what they are buying, they'll continue to grow their collections and even upgrade to more significant cars.
MM: How do you explain the high prices?
Alcazar: I think they are a byproduct of the demand and the enthusiasm behind the cars. I don't know if the prices are high, to be honest with you.
MM: $220,000 for a '66 Shelby GT350?
Alcazar: That was an award-winning car built by Shelby-American judges. That car was correct from head to toe. Just the parts alone to build the car were probably $50,000. It was built by a professional shop getting paid a reasonable rate, probably between $80 and $100 an hour to perform the work at somewhere between 3,000-5,000 hours. I think when you take all those things into account, the prices are not that out of sight.
Shelby Auction for Charity
At Barrett-Jackson, the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation generated more than one million dollars to set a new record for money raised for children's organ transplants and research. Ford teamed up with Barrett-Jackson to auction off the rights to purchase the first 475hp Shelby GT500. The final hammer price was $600,000, with all proceeds going to benefit the foundation. Later, Gary Goudie of Knoxville, Illinois, won the Win-A-Cobra raffle, which generated $485,000 in ticket sales, all benefiting the foundation. As the winner, Goudie took delivery of Carroll Shelby's personal aluminum-bodied Shelby Cobra CSX 1000 during the SAAC Does Vegas event in Las Vegas.
To complete the million-dollar day, when a '66 Shelby Cobra CSX3000 sold for $594,000, seller Melvin Jones graciously agreed to donate 20 percent of the final auction price above $350,000, or approximately $50,000, to the foundation. After the sale, the buyer of the Cobra, Michael Armand, agreed to match the $50,000 donation.
"I'd like to thank all of the thousands of big-hearted people who reached into their wallets to help us out," said Carroll Shelby. "By purchasing tickets and bidding at the auction, each of them will help us in our efforts to provide assistance to children whose families might not be able to afford the procedures, as well as donate funds to further research in this area. I just want everyone to know that those donations will help us make a huge difference in the lives of these deserving youngsters."
You can learn more about the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation at www.cscf.org.