Scottsdale Auction Week 2018

Scottsdale Auction Week 2018

Scottsdale Auction Week 2018 was great!

Scottsdale Auction Week 2018 has been on my bucket list for a long time. I finally carved out the time (more than a week of auctions), and took the 2-day drive from NorCal to Scottsdale. The entire city is buzzing with car guy-energy, as this week has become one of the city’s largest events, and a huge draw for the area. As we check into our hotel room, the lobby is full of fellow car guys and gals. The weather was absolutely perfect, this is going to be a great week. Scottsdale Auction Week 2018 was made up of 5 classic car auctions, spanning over a week of sales. We covered three of them. The ones we didn’t cover specialize in European exotics and/or vintage classics, NOT American muscle cars.

Check out the LIVE FACEBOOK FEEDS we did in Scottsdale

Barrett-Jackson

BARRETT-JACKSON
Of course, Scottsdale Auction Week 2018 is based largely around the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction, which is the largest of the five auctions by far. It ran from January 13th through the 21st with some 1,700 cars for sale. Four enormous tents and two large buildings housed all the cars, with a multitude of vendors, exhibits, and eateries strewn in between. The auction itself started with tons of automobilia on Tuesday, with the cars beginning to roll across the block on Wednesday afternoon. The lower-priced cars tend to run in the early days of a big multi-day sale like this one (9 days, in this case), and this seems to have played out at Scottsdale Auction Week 2018. The first few days has thin bidder audiences and the auctioneers had to work harder to get the bids. Prices tended to be lower as the result. This would be an excellent time for a classic car buyer or investor to make a deal. The better and more expensive cars ran through on Friday and Saturday and bidding was commensurately more feverish, and prices was much stronger. As usual, the high-dollar stuff went for crazy money, while most everything else struggled. And as usual, Barrett-Jackson put on one helluva a show! Professional, courteous, clean and well-run from top-to-bottom, no one does a mega-auction better than Barrett-jackson.

I took thousands of pictures of hundreds of cars, lots of video too, along with LIVE FACEBOOK FEEDS from the auction floor. It will take some time to process all of this, but over the next few weeks you will see numerous new pages, more and/or better pictures, resulting from the pictures I took at Scottsdale Auction Week 2018.

ABOVE & BELOW: For me, Scottsdale Auction Week 2018 was about the cars. I wasn’t buying or selling. Just looking…and taking tons of great pictures & video. What does 1,700 classic cars look like? The world’s biggest car show! I was in heaven. The cars at this Barrett-Jackson auction was very mixed and eclectic, however they mix was heavily weighted with muscle cars.


Russo & Steele

RUSSO & STEELE
Russo & Steele had the only other true ‘muscle car auction’ at Scottsdale Auction Week 2018, with Barrett-Jackson being the other one. The other 3 auctions this week were predominantly European exotics. The Russo & Steele sale ran from January 17th through the 21st with over 400 classic cars, mostly American, with a healthy percentage of those being muscle cars. They too started out day one with gobs of automobilia, autographed electric guitars, signed artwork, and more. When the cars began running through, prices seemed soft with some cars obviously selling lower than expected. Again, a great time to be a buyer. The later days of this auction were blessed with the best cars and got the best prices. But everything seemed a little off, price-wise this year. Maybe its just me, the final results will tell. With the burgeoning economy, one would think the classic car market would be stronger, with more speculators banking on a bright future. Who knows? It’s an auction, after all.

ABOVE & BELOW: Russo & Steele had 400 gorgeous cars, trucks, hot rods, customs & more to ogle and adore. I had to contain my drool.


Bonhams

BONHAMS AUCTION
Bonhams Auctions is the oldest auction house in the world, having gotten their start in 1693. They run a very classy, very British auction. As far as the cars go, they had a rather small collection (probably less than 100 cars) of very fine, high-end (mostly) European sports cars and exotics. Lots of Ferraris, air-cooled Porches and Jaguar E-types. There were a few, very few American muscle cars, all modern (ie: C6 & C7 CorvettesVipers, etc.). The whole setting looked like a formal affair at some posh European country club. By far, the cars were presented better for it than the cars at any of the other auctions. The green, manicured lawns and clean, white buildings made a perfect backdrop for these gorgeous jewels.

ABOVE & BELOW: From old Jags to modern Ferraris, Bonhams brought a nice offering of sports cars and exotics.

Tune in to our Facebook Page to see our Live Facebook Feeds that we did during Scottsdale Auction Week 2018.


Auction Results

ABOVE: This 1969 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible fetched $55,000 at Barrett-Jackson. This well-optioned 351 4-barrel car just had an $86,000 restoration. Holy cow!
BELOW: This 1971 Corvette coupe is a retro-mod with an ’87 5.7 TPI V8 and 700R4. It sold at Barrett-Jackson for just $19,000.

ABOVE: This 4th-gen F-body is a 1994 Pontiac Trans Am 25th Anniversary Edition. This 25,000-mile car came with a 5.7. Barrett-Jackson sold it for $17,500.
BELOW: This sweet ’68 Pontiac GTO convertible sold for just $37,000 at Barrett-Jackson.

ABOVE: This 1970 Plymouth Cuda with 340/auto sold for $38,000 at Barrett-Jackson.
BELOW: Another nice Cuda, this 1973 Barracuda had a 440/6-Barrel retrofitted & color changed to Crazy Purple. It sold for $29,000 at Barrett-Jackson.

ABOVE: 1976 Pontiac Trans Am with 400/4-speed, it sold at Barrett-Jackson for $19,500.
BELOW: This 1970 Camaro isn’t a real SS, that’s not a factory color, and there’s a tricked-out 350 under the hood. Barrett-Jackson got $33,000 for it.

ABOVE: This 1970 Mustang fastback (Ford called it a “Sport Roof”) sold for $35,000.
BELOW: This 6.6L/4-speed, T-Top car ’79 Trans Am sold for $27,000 at Barrett-Jackson.

ABOVE: This 23,000-mile ’87 Grand National sold for $29,000 at Barrett-Jackson.
BELOW: This 1966 Olds 442 convertible fetched $32,000 at Barrett-Jackson.