Barrett Jackson - Opinions?

[RPOLS3]

Observations from a couple of first timers and non-bidders (my brother and I are just car guys and we went for the spectacle from Thu-Sun):

- If you are a car guy - this is definitely a must see event.
- While Barrett is certainly the Big Dog and has the carnival/circus atmosphere, we thought it was a well run event with plenty of staff and a great location where you could get inside out of the weather. After 3 days of walking around we still ran into things we did not see previously, cars or otherwise. Plenty of washrooms, good food vendors, transportation, security, etc. Well thought out.
- We were able to also go to Russo & Steele Friday morning, the Pavillions on Saturday early afternoon, and some other attractions around the area - we'd highly recommend this to really get the full effect of auction week.
- We were surprised at the lack of bidders in the evenings. On Thursday night they were telling non bidders to come in and sit in the bidders area, assumingly to fill seats for the TV coverage so it did not appear that there was no one there. We were able to sit in the 3rd row. We were also surprised that on Friday night there did not seem to be as many cars breaking above the $100k barrier - where it seemed in the past it was just the opposite - that not many on Friday night were under that $100k amount. We did not keep a spreadsheet to scientifically prove this but that was our perception. After the Steven Tyler car went off the place kind of emptied out.
- Not sure what to say about the prices, other than a lot of the people we talked too said their perception was that they were off 20-30%. Reasons we heard......maybe the supply and demand curve is changing, maybe a strong stock market, maybe it is just the normal fluctuation, maybe, this event in the past artificially inflated prices due to poorly informed non-car guys with some money paying more than market to get in the game, maybe there are more people like us that are there for the spectacle and not to buy or sell.
- As for us - we really enjoyed it and will probably make the trip again. The cars were great, but the people we were able to meet and talk to is what we enjoyed the most.