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

I was WITH the owner/ seller at the show AND on stage to assist with the cars showing and sale. I saw this firsthand. My account of the event is as good or better than the owner. This is a accurate account of the event. I do think potential BJ customers should be aware. I can appreciate the interest in accuracy, but do you really think the owner is going to seek you out for your buy in?. This post is to share common knowledge and experience as should be assumed accurrate unless otherwise proven.It is being pursued legally and the car under an impound as of Monday.

 

lot 1252.1 Sold for $330,000

History of the car, HERE

Hagerty considered this one of "the ten cars to watch."

 

330,000 equals 300,000+10% buyers premium?

I thought it was 12%. No matter, instead of watching Barrett Jackson, I left the Camaros and Mustangs in the garage and cruised a Ferrari.

Interesting story, because what I did watch, I was wondering why the auctioneer spent so much time trying to get from 172,000 to 175,000 on a 57 Chevy, and on others they were sold so quick and cheap I wish I had gone down there.

 

i had hoped that the owner might post on this site if he was aware of the discussion concerning his car...yes, this does happen quite a lot on this site. as i mentioned , i am not a fan of craig jackson and would like few things more than to see his house of cards fall...he is a glorified horse trader that no thinks he is a reality tv star. a bit like paris hilton really.

thank you for responding and explaining your role in the event. i hope you all have recourse!!

pcb

 

Good lord, it's hideous. And who is Dan Nicopolis? And where do you drive this? I guess I just don't get it...

For $300K, Ferrari prices suddenly seem very reasonable.

 

Dean Nicopolis.

Big Chrysler guy. Hemi nut. NHRA Drag race driver, super stock?, motor builder, inventor and all around car guy, at least according to the articles I could find with Google.


GOOGLE HIM!!

DM

 

The car is a real hemicuda and a many time national event winner in the NHRA circuit . The real value is the race history more so than the Hemicuda attribute. I did forward the article / thread to the pre barret -owner. He does deserve allot of credit for his efforts on a great presentation and showing of this car. I hope he finds a fair resolution. Just for some related trivia, Dean is an F car fan along with the hemi stuff, and may even have one. Thanks for the interest and well wishes on the story and please be careful should you consider an auction. I do not intend to discredit the new owner ( post Barrett) in anyway, but did find the auction unconventional as mentioned. Thanks for the feedback and interest.

 

Dodgeboy, first off, don't take this as an attack, I wish your friend would have sold for $1M, and hope he gets this resolved. In fact, a whole table of guys with the hemicuda gear were sitting at the table next to us Friday night at dinner in the Monterey (Spelling?) Grill next to the tent. Seemed like very nice people.
But I was at at the auction and need to point out a few things. First, because all cars are auctioned at no reserve, there are two things you always see there; 1. people outside the tent who just hit the lottery after the car sold for crazy money, whooping it up, high fives etc.; and 2. people who are ready to burst into tears and throw up when their car did not sell for what they thought. Hemi Cudas were down this year - look at lots 1306 & 1328; both were appraised and expected to hit $1M; both sold for $440K & $360K respectively. I met the guys who were trying to sell 1328; they were expecting at least $850K - how bad of a hangover do you think they had on Sunday??????
Nobody wants to see a car sell for more than $1M than Craig Jackson himself - both for the commission and the publicity.
Also, people who have not attended need to realize that there are 18 bidders assistants who work specific areas of the crowd to spot bidders. (Not just Amy Assister who gets the most airtime)
Many times the auctioneer will stop the bidding to clarify someone's bid. the auctioneers are extremely fair, in fact Jackson and 'Spanky' got into a heated arguement after Jackson thought Spanky dropped the gavel too quick on one of the concept cars. These assistants are hawks, and that's why they have the cowbells, whistles etc. They work their assess off.
I have no motives and/or interest in the auctions, but there are always conflicts - in any industry - when a seller does get what he expected. but that is the risk you take when there is 'NO RESERVE'. A lot of muscle cars were flat to declining this year. The LAST 67 vette was also expected to top $1M, it got $600K.
I wish you the best - let us know the outcome.
Thanks.
Kevin S.
Orchard Park, NY

 

I appreciate and agree with many of your points. The issue with this auction was that is was 72 seconds long and bids were offered beyond the sold price duing the auction window. This seems out of the oridinary as most auctions offer a "going once, twice" kind of closure to assure its over and often in 7-10 minutes. The price was only another indicator of the poor auction proceedure. HAd it sold for 300 AFTER a genuine attempt there would be no issue. Its the minimized effort that troubles the sale. Most attendee's commented on it. I should have mentioned that point more so than the price as I agree on the ups/ downs of these cars. One posible angle for Jackson NOT to optimize commissions may be to serve a bigger goal to cater to a favored customer for larger gains in the future. I have no facts on that comment , but know the world is not a perfect place too. Thanks

Thanks

 

Were you with group at the restaraunt Friday night, by chance? Just curious.
Kevin

 

12% is the premium for absentee buyers.

 

FWIW.....if any of you were MOPAR guys growing up, or still are now, you wil know that the Ramchargers Hemi "Cuda is "the" car......if you are into collecting race cars. There is none more colorful or famous IMHO. I saw this car race live back in 1975.

I personally don't know what it could be worth, simply because last year at BJ, Bobby Allison's fully restored race winning NASCAR Hemi Daytona only went for $300K +/-. The LS6 Chevelle that sold for $1MM + last year was insane, and the Ramchargers car, while more memorable and historic IMHO, brought much less. Who knows......

The allegations of shill bidding and other nefarious activities as suggested here, inr egards to this car and others certainly do merit more investigation however.....and as much disclosure to the public as possible. Telling the truth is not libelous.

 

This is a late 1960s drag car. Please explain to me why it's racing record in the mid-70s through the 1980s is so important? I would think what matters is it's success in the period when it was new. What am I missing, as I am not a "muscle car" guy...

 

Hey Doc.....

The car in question was a 1970 Cuda........the Ramchargers are the famous team of Chrysler engineers who actively raced in the NHRA.......having started out in the early 60's when the whole muscle car/drag racing thing got started......

This car was the Chrsyler equivalent of the LS6 Chevelle convertible that went for over $1MM........except for the fact that the Ramchargers were much more prominent and famous than "what's his name" who raced the overpriced Chevelle.

 

OK, thanks....but I still don't quite get why it's racing record in the 1980s matters. I would think it's early racing history, from say 1970 through 1973 would be more important.

 

Stu,

After 1970 the US did not produce cars that were progressively better from the standpoint of dragracing. Therefore, the muscle cars from the 1960s and very early 1970s remained the car of choice for many years.

To put it another way, look at the stats of cars made in 1982 vs. 1970 you'll get the picture.

Regards,

Art S.

 

Buried somewhere deep in my archives, I still have a model of the Ramchargers dodge with the red stripes that I built back in 1967 or so. Ramchargers, Sox & Martin, Stone, Woods, & Cook, Big Daddy, TV Tommy Ivo.......Ahhh,....the classics of 60s drag racing!

 

Lets see if this works, well not really but hopefully if you're interested you can click on it and bring up the files. I went through and did a year over year comparison for '06 and '07 for all cars at the auctions.
Not all cars were directly comparable, but I tried to match models and years where possible. I then averaged the prices paid for each year - even though some times it was just a single car. I did take out some obvious outliers and there are variations in certain models with convertibles, various engines and so on mixed together. However, I thought for the most part it would not matter for the more popular models as each auction would probably have similar sets for a certain model.
I did include columns that show how many cars of that model were at the auction. The last column shows whether or not there was an increase in the average prices paid from 2006 to 2007. The last line is the sum of the averages for each year.

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johnei - Great analysis! thanks. I'm tracking Shelby's personally.
Kevin S.
Orchard Park, NY

 

A friend of mine who is a dealer just visited me today.

He was at BJ and he watched the Ramchargers HEMI Cuda car cross the block in 72 seconds. Apparently, the owner of the car is a retired judge (that should prove interesting for BJ) and he personally saw several bidders offer well over the $330K it went for "before" it was hammered down. He said it was a fix. This guy attends auction every week as part of being a dealer.....

Another interesting thing is that he spoke several ex-owners of a few of the cars that did not pull what BJ told them they should get......there are some veerryyyy unhappy BJ customers out there this year....

 

The Chevelle was/is a good car w/championship pedigree. Fewer LS-6 rags than Hemicudas, as well.

http://community-2.webtv.net/musclecarkid/1970ChevelleSuper/

Ray Allen (Chevelle driver in the day) went on to run a pretty noted Pro Stock effort w/Frank Iaconio.

Ramchargers, as mentioned, was an established brand name in racing for years prior and a few after. Wouldn't have surprised to see the Hemicuda match the LS-6's #'s at Barrett. Not much surprises there, though, really. It's a no-reserve deal - known by all going in. Entertaining TV.

Some racing from the era ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnhruLK2468

 

What you all need to realize is WHO is buying these cars, and in some (most ?) cases it's guys that were kids when these cars were active, back in the 60's and 70's, these guys grew up, got rich one way or another, and are now at or near retirement, have money to 'invest' - and lots of it, and what better way to do it than to buy something they grew up with ?
These guys think of muscle cars the same way you and I think of Ferrari 312's and 512's, Porsche 908's and 917's, McLaren M6's and M8's, Shadows and Chaparrals.

Now, if you have broadband, go to the link below, and you will be so mesmerized that we won't see you back here for a week:

http://70sfunnycars.com/

 

1) No, it's not, not any more than an Enzo.

2) You ask this like he's a nobody, go research the name, he's a part of racing history.

3) See 1) above - same places.

You gotta remember - there are tons of folks on the NHRA sites that 'just don't get' what all the interest is in a car from Italy, either.

 

I presume some of this caught on tape, either way, depositions will no doubt take place.

If the alleged conspiracy illegally deprives those who sold their vehicles at public auctions of the benefits of true competitive bidding, and in turn, Sellers received significantly less for their vehicles than they would have under competitive market conditions, as ready and willing bidders were left out in the cold, despite their own best efforts.

The former Judge no doubt has already discussed with his own Dealer and respective Counsel damages and restitution for himself as a seller(s) who were harmed by the conspiracy, as well as civil penalties, costs and attorneys’ fees and injunctive relief to prevent any future anti-competitive conduct by the defendants. What relief potential Buyers potentially have will certainly play out privately and publicly as well.

Best they have another whistle-blower aside from Mr. Martin, like, say, a Bidder Assistant. Since it's broadcast has to comply with FCC Regulations and telephone bids cross State Lines, could end up in Federal Court, potentially making for a spectacular implosion of a(n) (Auction) House of Car(d)s.

 

That's less than half of the game there. The most clear-cut example of BJ doing what several people have alledged for years, chandelier bidding, was last year for the GM Futureliner.

The top two bidders on the GM Futureliner were out at $3.7 Million and $3.8 Million respectively. There was no $3.9 Million bidder. There was no $4 Million bidder. There was no $4.1 Million bidder.

But BJ somehow phantom bid the Futureliner to a $4.1 close.

That's fraud. BJ should be in jail and closed down. They're lucky that the $3.8 M "losing" bidder bought the Futureliner anyway after "losing" the auction (and no doubt he was treated "right" this year when he bought the Cobra).

They're lucky that the Seller isn't b!tc#ing about the "lost" $100,000 (official sales price was $4 Million, which no doubt was achieved out of BJ's own pockets because the $3.8 M bidder didn't suddenly cough up $4 Million). They're lucky that the $3.7 "winning" bidder didn't fully catch on to what transpired (he did threaten to call the FBI on TV but didn't follow through).

Auctions move fast. It's understandable that BJ can get away with some small amount of phantom bidding, just as a cruise ship blackjack dealer is going to get away with some small amount of palming cards for the House. In both cases the action moves too fast for most eyes...compounded by the marks being in unfamiliar territory (or at least not on their home turf).

But the Futureliner auction was clearly the limit of what BJ could scam. One phone call from the "winning" $3.7 Million bidder would have ended that show forever.