• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

The aftermath of B-J and Russo and Steele

696pack

Well-Known Member
Local time
7:09 AM
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
2,841
Reaction score
233
Location
Sedona, AZ.
I posted this over on Moparts as well, it will be interested in seeing the E body guys response. I think that many of them are still living in a world full of hope.

This was the first year in 28 concecutive years that I have not personally attended B-J. I did spend Saturday at Russo and Steele.

Here is my take on the events and the hobby as a whole right now, with some personal experience references as well.

While I did not attend B-J personally, I did watch a large percentage of it on Speedvision as well as studied the on line results.

Before I get into the treand of the auctions I will say this, The number of auctions that are taking place at the same time in the Phoenix area is definately hurting the overall market of these old cars. With as many as 4 auctions going on the same weekend for the last several years. The buyers simply can't be in two or four different places at the same time. This hurts the prices of others cars as there are no bidders for them as well as the buyers as they don't have an opportunity to necessarily decide which ones they WOULD have bid on if they had a chance to look at all of the choices.

Weather you like what auctions have done to the hobby or not, they definately drive the market for other old car sales throughout the year. Back when it was just B-J once a year there was no competition to fould the numbers.

Here is an an example of the poor economy and why some of us decide to sell during it. My good friend purchased a really nice 1967 GTO at the Kruse auction in Phoenix in 2006. It is a body off restored, California, rust free, original drivetrain car, that is loaded with equipment. PS,PB,PW, AM/FM 8 track, tilt wheel, A/C, Ram Air, Turquiose/White interior, White vinyl top. Everything works, he has driven it many fair weather miles and has kept it nice including the underside. It has trophied at shows and has been signed by Jim Wangers. GREAT CAR that he really does not want to sell, however being a Phoenix area realtor, and his income is down 2/3s for the last two years he feels that he must. This car that he paid $50K for 3 years ago only bid $30K at Russo and Steele at 2:45 on Sat. We thought it would be a GREAT run time. It turned out not to be. Why not? No bidders in the tent. As I said earlier, they were too spread out over the other auctions at that time. Like type cars to his sold the day before at B-J for $67K and $73K. BTW, the car is still for sale if anyone knows of anyone interested in a great car and it can be seen here. http://www.carsonline-ads.com/colsite/col?use=UC3_ViewPosting&cmd=showPosting&postingID=35481

Regarding Mopars, my friends tent neighbor (where his car sat at auction before running) had a 1970 440 six pack Super Bee. it was a really nice car. When it sold Russo and Steele reduced the sellers commision in the ring so he netted within $1000. of his reserve in order to put the deal togather. Many people are not aware of how many times this takes place in the ring or after the car runs. They certainly don't advertise it, but they are there to sell cars for commission as the run fees hardly pay their expenses to put these auctions on. The car sold for $46K. The seller told us he needed to sell the car as he had been feeding his construction company for the past two years in this economy. A few car ahead of my friends car was a very nice 1967 Olds 442 with A/C that sold for $16K. Super cheap, again, there were no bidders. I estimated that only about 25% of the cars were actually selling early until the evening hours of Sat. at Russo and Steele.

Now the below is based on the 2006 Arizona auctions results as the zenith year of the hobby for prices. The remarks below are based on sales at B-J as it is a no reserve auction and all cars sold so there is no having to speculate about bid prices of unsold cars being shilled up.

As has been the trend that started a few years ago, the restomods/pro tour/pro street, what ever you want to call them, were bringing big money. While tribute cars (that you would think might be in the same catagory in most people's minds) were down. These restomods were bringing more than many OEM restored numbers matching cars have been bringing.

Mustangs, especially Bosses and Shelbys were down from last year as they were the year before that also. Fords in general seem to be holding their own or possibly slight gains.

Corvettes were up for the 63-67 models as were many Chevys or at least holding their own. GM products in general seem to be holding thir own.

Mopars were down particularly in E bodies and ESPECIALLY in Hemi E bodies. This is not suprising as they had gotten rediculously high priced compared to other make cars with comperable sized engines. I personally think they are just settling back to reality in the comparable market. Other Mopars are down but no where near percentage wise what the E bodies are. The few Hemi B bodies that sold are down but really no more than they basicly were one year ago.

Street rods are down from where they were at their height three years ago. as they have been slowly declining the last couple of years.

Cars that were #1 V.I.N.s or very low V.I.N.s were big money this year. A 1957 Chevy 2 door post 6 cylinder three on the tree sold for $150K to a guy that appeared to be about 80 years old. Who knows what drives a guy of that age to pay a price like that for one of the least desirable 57 Chevys built. The only less valuable typically would be a 4 door.

There are always big surprises of specific cars that are either high or low but you can't judge like cars on just one example.

Throughout history nearly all old cars will have their day in the sun or 15 minutes of fame. I think that Mopar E bodies have seen that three years ago and the sun has set and the clock has ticked past the 15 minute mark. Sorry E body guys, that is just the way I see it.
 
From my observations on the B-J this year, I think your conclusions are pretty close to the mark...........I'm glad in a personal sense, since I'm in the market for a nice E-Body this year.........But, I'm sorry that a lot of the guys may be stuck with some slow sellers on high investments.
 
It's also my understand that the quality of cars has been slipping at the BJ. Don't know about Russo, but there were questions about a yellow Hemi cuda and a B3 Hemi runner.
 
It's also my understand that the quality of cars has been slipping at the BJ. Don't know about Russo, but there were questions about a yellow Hemi cuda and a B3 Hemi runner.


As I said, I did not go to B-J but all that I spoke to that had been to both (Russo and Steele) that the quality was better at Russo.
 
It's also my understand that the quality of cars has been slipping at the BJ. Don't know about Russo, but there were questions about a yellow Hemi cuda and a B3 Hemi runner.

The b3 runner was not a numbers car with new metal in it, bench seat, auto on the tree, all said it was still nice. I looked on the bid results and they show, Not Sold? Something fishy going on
 
I have saw many good deals on Mopar in the last 8 month.It sure is a Buyers market right now thats foe sure. Jim
 
The b3 runner was not a numbers car with new metal in it, bench seat, auto on the tree, all said it was still nice. I looked on the bid results and they show, Not Sold? Something fishy going on

Are you saying it was a clone, or are you saying it is a "J", but didn't have the original #'s matching motor/trans/rear? How much "new metal" did it have, or do you know?
 
Are you saying it was a clone, or are you saying it is a "J", but didn't have the original #'s matching motor/trans/rear? How much "new metal" did it have, or do you know?

Its a J car with some new Quarters and so on, but it hammered at $68,000 I believe, and now its listed as not sold!
 
Interesting. I was watching and saw it "sell cheap", and wondered wtf is up with that. Even IF prices are down, they aren't THAT far down.
 
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top