I just returned from BJ. Overall, I was very disappointed. We took what I would consider a couple of "junk" cars as well as some very nice, correct, and highly documented cars. While we made out alright on most, they still went for considerabily less than expected, both by us and BJ. I bought the best car I took back. I came away with the feeling that there was not much appreciation for originality or correctness, and that that the buyers were more responsive to the resto/customs. We were told by BJ staff that there was 50% new bidders and that a large percentage of those were from Canada. We heard that the Canadians have to pay 30% to get the cars back across the border. I don't know that to be true, it is what we were told by more than one Canadian. Obviously that would have a large impact on thier bidding. Of the 9 cars we took, we know that at least 4 of them went to Canada.
There were a lot of things that I, as well as others were complaining about besides the price of the cars. Foremost, was the auction layout. Auction cars were either located inside the showroom pavilion, or outside under the tents. These two locations were at least a 30min walk from each other and neither were close to the bidding arena. The staging lanes were located near the tent cars. It was IMPOSSIBLE to look at a car in the staging lane and be able to make it to the auction block in time to bid on it. I know because I tried it, twice, and missed the cars both times and I even had a golf cart! I had cars in the showroom, cars under the tents and my entire weekend was literally spent manouvering from location to location. If you were looking for one particular car, you didn't know if it was in the showroom or under a tent. Most people I talked to didn't even realize that there were cars in two separate locations. To sum up, the layout was beyond horrible.
Also, the bidders seating was inadequate and leaning towards some sort of ill-thought favoritism. I've been reading on the boards and see a lot of mention about all the empty bidders seats. No doubt there were not as many bidders there as we are used to seeing in Scottsdale, but as a bidder I could find lots of empty chairs, but could not find a place to sit. That is because unless you were special enough, for whatever reason, to have your name pasted on a chair, there were no chairs available. The whole front two sections of seating were reserved for people who were Not there more than they were. So okay, maybe somebody like Ron Pratt deserves a front row seat. Maybe there are 100 people just like him that deserve a front row seat. But reserving 2/3's of the bidding section with half of those people not sitting in their chairs is just wrong. As a consigner, I would much rather see a bunch of first time registered bidders sitting in chairs than watching my car go across the block and looking out at a bunch of name tags.
Overall, it was a disappointment. I know the economy plays a big part in the price of the cars and that's not BJ's fault, but the Vegas venue has a long way to go to begin to come even close to Scottsdale. It all sounded good. Go to the auction during the day, gamble and do the Vegas scene at night. After walking around for miles in circles three days in a row all I wanted to do was lay down. The only time I even saw "Vegas" was when I was looking out of the airplane window coming and going.
