[MultiMopars]

I read several car make specific web forums, and this subject is always the same. Most of the guys that are writing their "opinions" on the prices paid are enthuesists for one particular make/model and follow Ebay and other sales sites for those cars. They don't always understand that a high bid price for an "unsold car" really is no indicator of the market. People put items up for auction all of the time and are NOT going to sell their car unless they get what they want for it regardless of what a buyer at "that particular time" is willing to pay. Not everyone is in financial straits and suffering from this economy. If the have a RARE car and don't HAVE to sell then they don't sell it. It is still a supply and demand market for sales of limited production number cars. If someone wants a 1 of 10 cars built and there is only one for sale at any given time and the buyer has a bottom line number that he will take for the car, that is what a buyer is going to have to pay for it since it is the ONLY one for sale. Otherwise he is going to have to settle for something else.

Back to the auctions. Many enthusiests live in a very small world on these Internet car make/model specific forums compared to the rest of a much larger hobby. This is proven time and time again by the prices paid at these auctions. Many of these buyers JUST LIKE CARS and simply buy what strikes their fancy. They are generally busy making money and set aside time to go to these auctions where they have a big selection of cars available for sale that are actually going to SELL and could care less about searching the Internet for the best possible deal. They value their time that it takes to fly all over the country to look at cars only to be dissappointed. They can physically inspect these cars at the auctions and often speak directly to the owners prior to the bidding.

The thing about the B-J auctions of late is that they are NO RESERVE auctions, and they hold EVERYBODY to it. If you want to buy your car back, you pay the sellers fee, the buyers fee, AND the sales tax, as the car is really no longer theirs as it is consigned to a dealer. In AZ. there is no sales tax for private sales between private parties but when puechasing from a deal you DO pay sales tax. B-J is a licensed dealer so you pay sales tax to buy your own car back. So you better think twice and know all the rules before you consign you car to sell with them.

The bottom line here is that they are true sales and are a driving force in establishing sales prices and book values in collector price guides. So don't poo poo these prices. SOMEONE actually paid these prices weather you like it or not. Does this mean that people always make rational decisions about what they buy? According to some of us NO. But the buyer was happy with it at the time and maybe could care less what he gets for it down the road if he ever decides to sell it.

Not just my opinion but facts that are proven by these sales.