Wyss On Scottsdale

Well, how does that explain the big prices in Scottsdale? My staunch Democratic friend Louis van den Berg would say it’s because the top 1% are getting richer. They must have been at Scottsdale.
Barrett-Jackson is the biggest auction as far as number of cars–they had a 6-day gross of $90.6 million dollars, up from 69 million in 2011. It’s amazing that almost everything sold, 1,291 lots sold of 1,294 lots offered for a sell through rate of 99%.

Up our alley, their big seller was the ex-Virgil Exner designed dream car, the 1954 Desoto Adventurer II coupe at $1,430,000 but the pre war purebred, the 1930 Isotta Fraschini Cabriolet didn’t do bad at $1,100,000. They also had two Bugatti Veyrons but those might have been on display, not auctioned. It is difficult to predict where Veyrons will go in value. They are one car that would require an owner to also hire a live-in mechanic, I think.

Gooding & Company sale was only two days but raked in $39.8 million, up from 35 million in 2011. They too had a high sales rate, selling 116 of 118 lots for a sell through rate of 97%. The top selling Italian was a white 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder at $3,905,000.
Their fifth highest seller was a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 coupe for $1,200,000 and their 6th another Ferrari, a 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast coupe at $1,100,000. This may be the first time a regular Miura (not the targa or Jota) hit over a million as the 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV coupe went for $1,100,000. In Masers, a lime green 1971 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder went for $880,000, a good amount since they aren’t considered as collectable as the Lusso And their 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso coupe went for the identical amount, of $880,000.

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The really surprising sale at the Gooding was the Iso Grifo 7 liter selling for $352,000. It was a weird purple color which might have put some off, but some who are new to Italian exotics liked it because there is no stronger engine of that era than the big block Chevy and the styling is by Giugiaro and coachbuilding by Bertone. Isos are the sleepers of the exotic car field with less than 500 built in total, making them about as rare as Ferrari Lussos. The Iso marque went from “sleeper” to being the one to collect due in part to Winston Goodfellow’s tireless promotion of the marque. Goodfellow wrote at least two books on Isos and Bizzarrinis.

Russo and Steele had a rough go, selling only about 2/3rds of their offerings, for a sell through rate of 63% and they were actually down over half a million from last years sales. It is a bit shocking to the Italian fans when a Shelby Mustang sells for more than a Ferrari but that’s what actually happened at Russo and Steele when a 1965 Shelby GT350 R model race car sold for $467,500 while a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC sold for $429,000. Another Italian there was their 6th best seller, a 1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS at $200,200 which should make the Editor unhappy as he sold his Dino only a few years ago for $80,00.

RM Auctions is a classy auction held at the Biltmore which every visitor thinks is a Frank Lloyd Wright design (but alas it’s only the bricks which use a design the builders thought was patented by Wright and wasn’t). Anyhow it’s a nice setting. They had a sell through rate of 86% but were down 31 million from 2011 for a total of $24.7 million. They had a good representation of Italian cars, including a 1957 Ferrari 410 Superamerica coupe that sold for $1,815,000 A 1973 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder sold for $990,000 and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso sold for $979,000
F40s, which sold for a million new, evidently aren’t up to their new car price as their 1991 Ferrari F40 sold for $781,000. A dowdy looking but well restored 1952 Ferrari 342 America Speciale coupe sold for $632,500.

This was Bonham’s first year at Scottsdale and their sale was only for one day but they raked in $5.7 million with 40 of 67 lots selling for a sell through rate of 60%. We didn’t make the Bonham but have some results. They were the only one to do good with French cars, with a 1947 Delahaye 135M three-position drophead coupe fetching $474,500. (see lead photo). Their top Italian car was a 1924 Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8 Torpedo Phaeton going for $447,000

We didn’t even know about the Silver Auctions, a two day event which took in $2.95 million, down from 3.4 million in 2011. Their sell through rate was 66%.and in foreign cars their big seller was a 1960 Facel Vega HK500 at $93,960.

All the auctions together took in $182 million, up from 157 million in 2011.

The problem facing the auction companies is that it’s becoming exceedingly hard to find those “star” cars. You have to have two or three “stars” in order to get the people to come. One critic pointed out that RM’s Ferrari Superamerica was really their only “star” car, though I would argue that the Shelby R-model was the star–as original A.C. Cobras and ’60s Shelbys have become the new gold standard.

Star cars would be owned by famous people (such as movie stars), racing cars with a documented history, show cars like the GM prototypes and Chrysler prototypes that occasionally show up. American automakers haven’t sold prototypes since the late ’50s so they are hard to find, and they are also deathly afraid of being sued if someone has an accident in a prototype not built to conform to any safety rules of the time. European automakers don’t seem to be worried about it and Ferrari sold the Dino Competizione prototype, the 400 convertible prototype and many other cars to clear out the barn so to speak.