State of the Ferrari/exotic market

indeed there were only 18 Ferraris listed and not many in the crowd that appeared interested. The main interest is where the money went. I did not enjoy the auction, nor the poor presentation of the Ferraris that were offered. They did not fetch big bucks, but then again, the bidders were not interested in Ferraris, it seemed. As oner said after winning another overpriced "muscle car", it will continuie to appreciate...yes that is what they said about the Ferraris in the late eightees.....funny how history repeats itself...

 

BJ is a "Ferrari" sort of place. Wrong venue, wrong auction company, wrong marketing and definitely the wrong crowd. The BJ buyers are middle aged American males who have gotten rich owning a bulldozer company. They want hotrods and muscle cars. A Ferrari is nothing but a "Furrin" car.

If I wanted to buy or sell a Ferrari at auction... I would go to a Bonhams or RM auction. Not BJ or Kruse. They just cater to a totally different market..... and why not? They do great in their markets. I really dont understand why anyone would register a Ferrari to sell at BJ.

Many of the sales at this auction were nothing more than ego. Guys just totally unwilling to be a "loser" on national TV. BJ are masters at bringing this out and milking it. If I had a Camaro to sell.... it would be at BJ no doubt!

Guys talking about the BJ results impact on the Ferrari market or it showing some weakness in the market.... nonsense. It has nothing to do with the market for any foreign cars really. BJ is BJ. Its not reality. Good Camaro Z28s can still be bought for $35K. Just because some moron at BJ paid $112K..... that does not mean anyone else out there is going too.

Terry

 

I couldn't believe how much money those custom rods were bringing. When I saw that 55 Chevy do over $200,000 I was in shock. I have a 55 Chevy prostreet, and although mine is no where near the one that brought 200K, mine is still very nice. I am sure everyone who is holding old american muscle is very excited after watching that auction. I am seriously considering bringing my chevy to the Barrett Jackson Palm Beach in March.

The musclecars that brought big money were all low production, special option cars. They were not run of the mill chevys and vettes.

 

A few thoughts. The cost to make a custom car or hot rod is way more than you think. There are hot rods being built today that will wind up costing a million $ to build. A major F car restoration can run that much as well. The buyer is never wrong. Auctions are the place to find out what things are really worth on that day. This is what buyers paid today. The F cars listed,except for the 51, are not collector cars, they are used cars. None of them are interesting to collectors. That's what they are worth.

 

Let me sum up all these comments this way:

'It is worth what someone is willing to pay for it'

 

I think Tspringer summed it up very well. American Iron is in vogue right now. Its a combination of a lot of things likely including reactions to 'the Fast and the Furious' import culture, 9/11, and most of the programming on SpikeTV, TLC, and the Discovery Channel. Additionally, the guys buying were all of the generation that saw the emergence of Mustangs, Camaros, and Corvettes as objects of automotive national pride. This is the same reason that pre-war cars were fetching such low prices. For this crowd, a pristine Z-28 is much more an object of desire than a 330.

Seems like it might be a good time to buy a Ferrari.

...and respond to Ksullender... an object is worth what someone other than the owner is willing to pay for it at the time the owner is willing to sell it. The thing about an auction is that if you buy something, you are likely to be the person that thinks it is worth more than anyone else does. I just hope the buyer of that $400K Lincoln gets a lot of 'joy of ownership' out of it because it will likely never sell for that much again.