November 2020

In the market for your dream car? Well, there is no better place to find it than Barrett-Jackson. Unfortunately, 2020 threw a curve ball on what in January seemed like another great auction year. With the worldwide pandemic forcing the shutdown of mass gatherings, events like Barrett-Jackson have been forced to go into hiatus.

Well after a nine-month break, Barrett-Jackson was back where it all begins in January, in Scottsdale at the West World fair grounds, but unlike the January behemoth, the fall event was limited to only 6,500 attendees that included staff, support crew and sponsors. Luckily, Torq Talk had a front-row seat.

Our first impression upon arrival was not the cars but the lack of the 120,460 sq-ft tent, the largest in North America. In January when the weather is a little brisker, the tent provides shelter for the array of collector cars as well as home to hundreds of vendors displaying an array of products. Instead of the enclosed tent, a series of open-air awnings were put in place to provide some shelter from the sun, but also as an open-air alternative to allow people to social distance while drooling over their favorite cars. 

One might think that with all the restrictions put in place, why even bother having an event. Well, Barrett-Jackson has changed channels, gone is Discovery Channel’s Motor Trend and in is History Channel and FYI Network. With a new station also come new hosts, so this auction was like a dress rehearsal for January 2021.  In many ways, the entire auction was a test to show the Arizona CDC that they could put on a show while following the safety protocols to prevent the spread of Covid19.

Well, how does an auction look like in the age of Covid19? For one, as we stated earlier, only 6,500 people were permitted to attend the three-day event and there were less than 500 cars. Everyone was required to wear a facemask; no exceptions and people were asked to stay at least one Bugatti Veyron’s distance apart at all times. Besides all the safety precautions, the auction was just like every other Barrett-Jackson. There was just about every make model and style of car to please most collectors, including a car from Ken Block’s own personal collection.

Block auctioned off his 2016 Ford Focus RS RX from his famous Gymkhana series, Gymkhana nine, with the proceeds going to charity. If you are familiar with these videos, Block uses purpose-built cars and this Focus was actually built in collaboration between Block, Ford and M-Sport in the UK. It sold for $200,000—a bargain in our opinion since it would cost two to three times as much to build one new, not to mention the historical value from being immortalized in a viral video with millions of views.

Another notable sale was a 2018 Ford GT, which sold for $1.21Million. Unlike most cars in this auction, the Ford GT could not be bought by walking into a dealer, Ford had to approve who could buy the car and the owner could not sell the car for two years. Outside of these two unique examples most cars sold for reasonable amounts, and in some instances for a lot less than you would pay to build the car.

So how is the health of collector car market during these times? We did not notice a huge drop in pricing from previous years. Unlike the January auction the spring, summer and fall auctions do seem to draw lower bidding prices. This could be due to several factors, unlike the big auction that spans seven days, the later auctions are only three days long. With a 3-day auction the time a car spends on the block is a lot less as are the number of bidders competing. Unlike the big auction, which has three times the number of cars and ten times the attendees, the smaller auctions usually have less bidding wars to show off their net worth. The big Scottsdale auction is about the show, and most bidders fall into the bidding war trap, especially when cocktails are flowing and the lights and cameras are front and center.  This is still the case for the smaller auctions, but the airtime is much less and usually not on primetime.

The Next Barrett-Jackson is scheduled for January 16-24, 2021. Let’s hope this dress rehearsal was proof enough that you can hold a successful event while following the Covid19 safety protocols. Time will tell if the big auction actually happens, lets cross our fingers and hope for the best.