Rand Workman Friday update

[427TJ]

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BJ forces people to list their car with no reserve or they won't take it across the stage and even then the sellers can bid on their own car to buy it back.

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By allowing owners to buy back their own cars BJ still collects the 8% fee. (I think it's 8% of the selling price, isn't it?) Anyway, Craig Jackson makes his money either way. Any businessman will tell you that guaranteeing payment is just good business.

And no one "forces" an owner to participate at BJ. The rules are posted beforehand and an owner decides to play by them or not. If the no-reserve clause scares an owner, then that owner can go somewhere else to parade their car in front of people. Craig Jackson is running a business as well as an entertainment spectacle. Anyone with a serious intent to sell should know that the show spectacle that BJ has become (live TV, huge tents, people with large amounts of money to spend on cars) is a great place to sell their car, IF they truly want to sell it.

The Rand Workman auction is being criticized here on Y-net because the high reserves and no-sales seem to prove that owners are just shopping their cars with no serious intent to sell--that is, unless a bidder meets the (high) reserve set by the owner. Perhaps Rand Workman is an "anti-BJ" in the sense that owners want more control over bidders. Well, it looks like only about a dozen bidders showed up at Rand Workman. What does that tell you? (Hint: How many bidders register and show up at BJ Scottsdale?) Bidders want more control to buy and so they flock to Scottsdale where there's no reserve. Looks to me like no-reserve clauses bring in the bidders.

So all Craig Jackson is doing with the no-reserve clause is 1: ensuring that he makes his money--and who here doesn't want that for themselves? and, 2: in doing so, he ensures that bidders, who know a car will sell no matter how low the bid, become emotionally involved ("This can happen!") and make those sky-high bids such as the $300K for a '68 Shelby. That bidder let his young son make the call and dad kept bidding up and up and up. You know darn well that Shelby owner wasn't expecting to get $300K for his car but he was glad as hell to take the money and run.

A good auctioneer such as Craig Jackson deserves an honorary PHD in all fields of human behavioral study.

[ANDY M]

So which auction brings in the "stupid" money and which one brings in the "smart" money?
I have never been to an auction like either one of these.
Not that I've got anything against stupid money, is the point here that you have a better shot at getting some at BJ?

[427TJ]

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So which auction brings in the "stupid" money and which one brings in the "smart" money?

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"Stupid" money is the shockingly high amount someone else pays for a car and is also an amount I will never be able to afford.

"Smart" money is the "stupid" money I collect when I sell my own car.

[Jeff H]

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By allowing owners to buy back their own cars BJ still collects the 8% fee. (I think it's 8% of the selling price, isn't it?) Anyway, Craig Jackson makes his money either way. Any businessman will tell you that guaranteeing payment is just good business.


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I agree it's good business for Craig Jackson but my point was that it does nothing to help indicate true values on these cars when owners can bid on their own car. This weekend's auction is almost the same situation when the auctioneer can bid it up for the seller. I wonder how many of the cars were bid up close to their reserve because of this policy. But it doesn't show us if there are really 2 or more interested parties bidding on the cars. Regardless, the results seem to show that the timing of the auction was bad, the buyers are drying up or there were a lot of people out fishing for prices. Are there any auctions where the seller is not allowed to bid on his own car or the auctioneer bid for him? Just curious.

[427TJ]

Point taken. I'd have to say that "true values" is a highly subjective term. Serious auctioneers have NO interest in the true value of a car, they only want the highest possible amount that can be quickly extracted from each item.

"True value" nowadays seems to depend on the amount of "stupid" money someone is willing to fork over in a televised, highly emotional pressure-cooker situation (gavel held high, about to DROP). In that case, a car's true value often has gone out the window--and is thus re-defined upward. It may be "stupid" to pay $125K for a questionable Daytona Yellow '69 Z/28 but every guy who has a '69 Z/28 knows his car is now worth more because of it.

Money + ego + competition between bidders + emotion + TV cameras + beautiful cars + beautiful women watching + kids telling dad to keep bidding = a great and dazzling spectacle, good entertainment, and solid profits.