Barrett-Jackson

[Charley Lillard]

Mmmmm Good. Thanks Drew and Josephine......

[REDZ]

The bigger money seemed to be at Barrett-Jackson. I think the ZL-1 at Russo & Steele would have brought probably another $15-25,000 @ BJ. I had a musclecar dealer-broker, who has been involved in several ZL-1 deals in the past two years, tell me that the 4-speed ZL-1's and COPO's are bringing substantially more money than the automatics. He also said that the color held the price down on the car sold at Russo.

The consensus of those I talked to during and after the auction was that the market for a 4-speed ZL-1 in a good color and show condition has probably moved to $140-175,000. With original motor, add another $10-20,000.

Other big sellers not previously mentioned: '70 Boss 429 - $85,000; '70 AAR Cuda - $60,000; '70 T/A Challenger - $63,000; '65 L-78 Corvette - $116,000; '67 L-89 Corvette $210,000. Average Corvettes were soft...nice ones like these two broke the bank.

Craig Jackson did own the LS-6 convertible and it did get a good "pump". I sold it to him last fall for what I thought was a lot of money, substantially more than the one Otis Chandler bought last year. The $165,000 was surprising, but not shocking after some of the other prices. The shocking part was that I heard later that the buyer had a customer for the car who might pay as much as $220,000. Pass me the oxygen, please!

[JoeC]

It was quite amusing to watch. They even brought in celebrity pumpers. They would stop the auction then Reggie Jackson, Phil Hill, Parnelli Jones, or other race car drivers/celebrity would pump up a car that they drove some time during their careers. They even had drag racer Joe Amoto come up and pump one of his old Top Fuel show cars. Barrett Jackson sure knows how to milk the bidders. Do they give free drinks to perspective high bidders?

[REDZ]

Craig must have run out of celebrities when it came time to pump the LS-6 because he asked me, an old country redneck boy with no public-speaking ability, to tell the audience what a great car it was. Just goes to show you, they'll try ANYTHING to pump up the price.

[NWYENKO]

JOEC the bar is open all day for registered bidders. How else could you explain a guy spending $102k on a '56 Bird?? And you should see the lovely ladies pouring the drinks!! Right Charley??

[SuperCars]

I don't know Dick, I've seen you in enough car magazines, and that would make you a celebrity in the car world. I like the price on the 67 L89 Vette. Should I send you mine now?

My LS6 convertible is still in the original 1970 title, has 3 build sheets, and just about every record such as registrations and insurance cards by the original owner. Never had been touched until I had it restored, to what I feel is impeccable museum quality. Almost a survivor beforehand, but a little aging process made me decide to restore it. The drivetrain, every nut and bolt is still original though. I've said to people calling to buy it, that it isn't for sale; but at $220,000 that would change in a instant.

then, like Tom pointed out in another thread, the COPO's weren't really hitting any homerun's; and as you say the average Vettes were soft. It appears to me that it was very high quality restored car when combined with limited production numbers; that's the combo for the high bids.

Still there were exceptions to this, like above; crazy bids of $102,000 for a 56 T-bird?

[Edited by SuperCars (01-21-2002 at 02:42 PM).]

[REDZ]

Supercars...you're right on the necessary quality to bring the top dollar on the 'vettes and the COPO's. But I don't understand some of the other prices. The T/A Challenger that went for $63,000 was only average. I guess it was the color. The AAR Cuda was a nice car, belonged to the same guy that had the '65 L-78 'vette, but how do you figure $60,000? And there's absolutely no answer for the '56 T-Bird.

P.S. Guess I've lost negotiating power on the L-89. Somehow though, your price still doesn't sound any better.