Whatever happened to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Robin Leach’s TV series motivated class warriors and aspiring entrepreneurs alike, fortifying the former group’s conviction that they had a sacred duty to redistribute wealth (if only on aesthetic grounds) while inspiring rappers, coke dealers and other venture capitalists to redouble their efforts to reach ever-greater heights of conspicuous consumption. These days we have federal stimulus packages and MTV’s Cribs, which doesn’t include a single golden bath fixture (or a single book, but that’s another story). Ah, but we pistonheads will always have Pebble Beach, where we can watch old money compete with modern-day robber barons to pocket the world’s automotive crown jewels. One can almost hear Robin’s Harrow twang calling the tune: “One lucky collector bought home this 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Special, Ettore Bugatti’s personal car, for $1.38 mmmmmillion dollars.” Leach-like, the majority of the MSM would have you believe the collector car market defies economic gravity. The New York Times sets us straight.
As expected, total dollar volume declined — to about $117 million this year from $138 million in 2008. Gooding & Company was again the overall leader with just over $50 million of sales.
But the total amounts that changed hands don’t tell the whole story: overall results were puffed up by sales of high-price cars like a 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe that brought $7.25 million including buyer’s premium (the weekend’s high sale) at the Mecum Auctions sale; a Ferrari California Spider sold by Gooding for $5.1 million; and a Jaguar C-Type that brought $2.8 million at the RM auction . . .
Clearly, buyers at the very top end of the market still have no qualms about writing checks for very expensive cars. The 10 highest single-lot sales came to more than $40 million, or a third of the total.
But the situation was less rosy further down the line. More common cars and those in less-than-perfect condition sold, in many cases, for much less than their low estimates.
Keep in mind, this is Pebble Beach (doncha know). The financial reality is carefully hidden behind velvet ropes. And the action at lesser auctions (for lesser vehicles) is grim, with prices collapsing and a large percentage of cars failing to make their minimum. Not that you’d know from the media coverage, which always focuses on the top sellers.
Bottom line: if you have champagne wishes (and a bullet-proof bank balance), it’s a good time to buy the best. If you have caviar tastes on a hummus budget, TV coverage is still your best bet. Just remember: the revolution will not be televised.
As in all ups and downs of the collector car market,I’ve seen for 30+ years, one thing remains constant, the cream of the crop will always bring the money.
What, no million dollar E-types? No million dollar muscle cars? It must be the end of the world.
Even though I live close to Pebble Beach, I gave up going to the big weekend because I can’t stand all the focus on money and celebrity. Give me a grimy little local show ‘n shine any day.
While the weekend definitely was down, saying the “overall results were puffed up by sales of high-price cars” displays an ignorance of what goes on out there: There are always seven-figure sales at Pebble Beach. From a long-term perspective, sales were skewed downwards by a lack of big sales.
The denial of the obvious isn’t limited to Pebble Beach and its attendees.
A recent editorial in Hemmings Classic Car lectured readers that they shouldn’t expect bargains because prices weren’t really collapsing – even though the featured 1962 Pontiac Bonneville had declined a whopping $10,000 in value in a little over a year.
After all, sellers had to recoup the money they had invested in those cars, and, dang it, they DESERVED to get their asking prices.
All of which sound suspiciously like the excuses homeowners were giving as to why they were justified in holding out for asking prices that their homes would have fetched in 2005.
The auction houses and collector-focused magazines like Hemming’s know it’s in their best interest to tell everyone that the collector market is robust. If not, their phones won’t ring.
On the other hand, how many guys have you met who are absolutely certain that their car or motorcycle is unique, very few are left and therefore, their ride is worth top-dollar?
For me, that’s been a lot. As long as one of the above groups caters to the other, then the message will be “The Collector Car market is robust!”
Meanwhile, those of us with a discerning eye, and a good memory for details of cars and prices paid in the past, well, we know it’s a great time to buy.
^geeber; that’s exactly the point. At auction a car is only ‘worth’ what any two people are willing to pay to have it. If you’re foolish enough to spend three times what a car usually sells for on a restoration, you’re investing in your own ignorance.
Major factual error here.
Robin Leach would be horrified to be called an Aussie.
He is, in fact, English.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Leach
Davos88:
Text amended.
Am I the only one who sees a Duesenburg? Robin Leech? That was the 1980’s Let it go.
I posit that the collector market has been in an artificially inflated bubble for the past decade or so.
Driven by debt, and six-figure, moderate-production-volume, muscle cars it went a bit loopy. When “rarity” is being determined by option packages (“One of only 12 made in Wild Plum paint with the pistol-grip shifter!”) something is obviously askew market-wise. Televising the Barrett-Jackson auctions and making them into a sort of professional-wrestling type atmosphere hasn’t helped either.
World-class hardware with provenance will always bring big money. Garden variety muscle cars, resto-mods, and hot rods shouldn’t.
–chuck
Still it’s not weak enough for my checkbook.
I agree with Chuck. I went to a show in El Segundo, CA on Saturday — your local show-and-tell, not a concours — and there were a couple of cars there with elaborate homemade signs proclaiming the rarity of their cars. One was a ’68 or ’69 Mustang, and the sign gave an elaborate breakdown of how it was the only car in that particular color with that engine in that body style with a four-speed. As a piece of interesting trivia, fine, but when it becomes an excuse to try to run up the price, it strains credibility. Yes, it may be the only one of that combination, but it ain’t a Bugatti Royale.