Barrett-Jackson ejects Keith Martin/For all you Barrett-Jackson fans...

Mmm... I've got an image in my head of a trial lawyer playing the tape of the Futureliner auction. Jackson gavels the Futureliner "SOLD!" at $4.1 Million.

...but there's no $4.1 Million bidder.

Jackson scrambles. There's no $4 M bidder. There's no $3.9 M bidder. He's got to go back to Pratt whose high bid was $3.8 Million, and Pratt says on live TV "So What" that he had the $3.8 M bid on a sale of $4.1M.

...in the meantime, the $3.7 Million bidder is saying "call the FBI" to the Speed TV camera crews.


Dude. What do you think Jackson is going to say when the Trial Lawyer asks him to produce the $4 M and $3.9 M bidders?

What is Jackson going to say when the trial lawyer asks him why he went to Pratt, the $3.8 M bidder?


You think that Jackson would *win* that case? That no jury on Earth, not even OJ's, would vote to convict?!

 

Spotting shill bidders is near impossible, for some shills can be actual bidders for other lots. For ex. I recently spoke with a gentleman who had several cars on consignment that were scheduled to roll across the block later in the day. He saw an interesting car and began bidding with the help of a bidder's assistant (BA). Soon the bidding was just between himself and another bidder who rather obviously wanted this car quite badly, so this bidder told the BA he was out. The BA then told this bidder to KEEP BIDDING, and that the auction house would cover him. The BA kept raising the bids for the bidder, who was very uncomfortable with what was unfolding. He asked when the bidding would stop, and the BA told him that he would let him know when. A signal was given to the BA from on the block and the car was awarded to the other bidder. From all appearances it looked like any other auction lot, and only if one could listen in on the conversation as the BA spoke into the bidder's ear, would one know that the winning bidder paid $30,000 more for the car than he should have. This worked only because this bidder was a recognized seasoned veteran of this auction, having bought and sold numerous cars across their block, and full well understood the implications of a "quick hammer" threat on his 3 cars due to cross the block that day. Needless to say, this bidder will never set foot in that tent again.

 

I'm pretty sure that in the 30 years or so that I have been following major car auctions, there has not been a single indictment regarding shill or chandelier bidding, let alone a conviction, yet the accusations regarding these practices is endless. If the authorities could find a way to make a case they would. And Craig Jackson, as imposing as he looks, is no Sammy Gravano. Now if he starts killing people because they cause him trouble - maybe you have a valid comparison.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that Craig Jackson's smirk looks simular to W's?
The difference is, I think Jackson's a tad bit sharper...and less vacant.

On another note, I had aquaintances that sold a pair of car on Saturday. After the Shelby show for 5 million and the Beatles stuff, their stuff went on 2 1/2 hours late. An hour and a half after Speed coverage had lapsed. They estimate they lost close to 100 grand in potential value by the time they finally got on stage. Besides that, they had a phenomenal time at the show.

I think that BJ went overboard and as someone mentioned earlier, has jumped the shark. Didn't they jump their percentage up to 10 this year? And the internet bidders were at a 12% commission. It will be very interesting to see how the Florida auction goes.

kcv

 

Best comment yet!

 

On a tangentially related note, potential shill bidding scandal brewing at eBay UK:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2570050,00.html

with the alleged culprit basically saying, “Why would eBay stop me considering the money I generate for them?”

Maybe the dirty little secrets are coming out on different fronts.

 

Maybe you're right. I wonder what people were saying about Sotheby's back in 2000, though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotheby%27s
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation had been investigating auction practices in which it was revealed that collusion involving commission fixing between Christie's and Sotheby's was occurring.

In October 2000, Brooks admitted her guilt in hopes of receiving a reduced sentence, implicating Taubman.

In December 2001, jurors in a high profile New York City courtroom found Taubman guilty of conspiracy. He served one year and one day in prison, while Brooks received a three-month home confinement and a penalty of $350,000."
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Actually, Craig's smirk reminds me more of Bill Clinton's grin after a session with Blowinski.....and his third blunt of the day.

Jack

 

Autoweek's new article:

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070129/FREE/70129002/1065

 

Surprised to see Speed TV leap into this fiasco: "Rick Miner, a Speed Channel senior vice president, said Martin was dropped from the Barrett-Jackson lineup because his knowledge of sports cars was becoming less “germane” in the muscle car-dominated auction setting, and because of the columns."

 

If this sequence of events is correct (i.e., Martin was canned from the TV show after he wrote the column), then I'm gonna give Keith my "Good Guy" award. So No Doubt, you were right.

Dale

 

Hey Dale, why not start a poll on the BJ auction average for Florida. It's about to get interesting...

 

Has anyone noticed that Keith Martin now has a show on the Discovery channel, called "Appraise My Car"?

I get a kick out of his writings in SCM, but please, keep him off of the TV!

 

So I guess he has a new job as a pimp for collectors trying to sell their cars. Well, I guess it is no different than the "articles" in the European Classic Car magazines

 

You make a good point but you miss mine. Point is if Sammy Gravano can turn states evidence on his boss (the Gambino Mafia crime family) do you seriously think some schmuck making 25K per year for an auction firm wouldn't? Human nature baby, human nature. All you need is a reason...motivation...disaffected, disgruntled employees are as common as nuns in a monestary.

 

OOPS..I meant convent and just so we're clear I am not talking about any specific firm. Merely speaking hypotheticallyl.

 

I get your point now. There are rats in every organization and it's the size of the bait that will lure them out, but I think that these guys probably believe they are doing nothing wrong in egging a bidder on to keep going.

Whistleblowers outside of the mob and the relative safety of the witness protection program generally wind up as pariahs, especially in the opinion of people who suffer as a result of their action, who were not involved in the wrongdoing. Employees of BJ for example, who would lose their jobs if BJ went out of business due to an FBI investigation. They would not look kindly on one of their own who caused them to lose their jobs. The adjectives used to describe whistleblowers reflect the way society sees them - stool pigeons, rats, finks etc.
I think any official investigation would be hard pressed to find incontrovertible evidence.

 

Martin a journalist? Big joke. He's a used car salesman who used to work at at Ron Tonkin GT and then proclaimed himself an expert on every car. Yes, Martin the upstanding "journalist" who used to fill the classifieds of His market report with ads "borrowed" from Hemmings. You guys waste too much time on jerks getting fired by other jerks.

 

Hereth begins my little rant
One of the things that p*sses me off with the current muscle car boom is these cars are not particularly rare. I mean how can one Hemi be worth $100,000 - $300,000 and another $2 - $3 million. I know some people will say what about the difference between a 250GT and 250GTO but with the F-cars you have 2 cars that look different and one (GTO) is extremely rare, won races and is just f...ing amazing, when I look at muscle cars they quite often have one with a bigger fuel tank so it is worth 10 times the price @WTF@.
Looking at the market today I see the same thing happening in the muscle car sector as I saw in the late 80's supercar sector. In the 1980's if you had A 288 GTO in 1988 you could ask for as much as $1.0 mil US for a car made 2 years earlier that was really not that special (in the great scheme of things) and had an MSRP of $200,000. And this was a "house of cards" like the current muscle car boom
IMHO we now have a mix of two mind sets 1 - "If I buy this car I could make $1 million with a quick turnaround" and 2 - "when I was 18 I really wanted one and now I have the access to the finance/ money". These two sets of buyers are pushing the prices into crazy territory. I can only see a big muscle car crash happening and I think this will be led by people buying with finance, because if interest rates were to rise will people with lower levels of capital be able to afford to pay for there muscle cars ??. As with the 1980's supercar boom you only need to take a small sector out of the equation to see the whole market crash.
So whatever your take on the sharks perhaps Keith will be proven right and the natural turn of events may lead to B-J being taken down with the "house of cards" they helped build
Thereth endeth my ranteth
Tim

 

+1

Ten (10) pages about a guy getting fired? So what!

How about shifting the conversation back to (Ferrari) cars?

 

THANK YOU.

 

I just thought it funny that Keith Martin was being made to look like a saint by some. 95% of the people in "business" are, IMO, just tools...

 

Don't get a big head. I still have zero sympathy for amateurs who buy and sell cars at these big name auctions. Is Craig Jackson a pimp, you bet. Is Keith Martin a pimp, without a doubt (sic). Are there more pimps out there, what do you think?

If a specific fraud has been committed, the victim should take it up with the judge.

For the rest of us, it sure beats watching the boob tube.

Dale

 

Given the thread's subject title, I think this thread has stayed on topic.