Car auctions bring in $122.6 mil despite storms, recession

Umbrellas and tornado warnings aside, the cry of "sold, sold, sold!" rang out hundreds of times this past weekend as the Valley's three largest car auctions finished with $122.6 million in sales, up 8 percent from a year ago.

Scottsdale-based Barrett-Jackson led the pack with $68 million in sales, followed by Gooding and Co. at $35 million and RM Auctions with just shy of $20 million.

Gooding scored the week's top-selling car, a 1956 Jaguar D-Type Sports Racer, at a revved-up price of $3.74 million.

The collector-car industry was pleased with the results of the year's first series of auctions in light of disruptions from flying tents and storm-battered auction sites.

"I think this weekend proved that the collector-car market is quite resilient and healthy," said Rick Carey, Car Collector Magazine auctions editor. "I don't think there were any cars that brought silly money. People were bidding with their heads and paying appropriate prices."

"Appropriate" is a relative term in the high-roller world of collector cars where the recession and one of the state's worst storms in memory failed to slow the sale of some of the world's most coveted automobiles.

Close to 3,000 bidders and 180,000 car enthusiasts turned out at the 39th annual Barrett-Jackson auction at WestWorld in Scottsdale, often braving the rain until the weather finally cleared Sunday.

A 1929 Hamilton Metalplane H-47 was Barrett-Jackson's top-selling vehicle.

Craig Jackson, Barrett-Jackson chairman, was pleased with the sales and that 40 percent of the bidders were new to his auction.

"I think everything has stabilized" in the collector-car market, he said. "It's the best thing to have a good stable increase and not huge spikes."

Barrett-Jackson managed to continue sales on Thursday night as the worst of the storms battered Scottsdale's tent at WestWorld.

Russo and Steele's auction site less than 3 miles away was not so lucky.

Two tents blew down, damaging dozens of cars and stalling traffic on Loop 101 when one of the tents landed like a crashed kite on the freeway.

Under sunny skies, Russo and Steele resumed sales on Sunday and continued through Monday.

Russo and Steele owners Drew and Josephine Alcazar did not have sales figures available. But they dropped the hammer on hundreds of cars, and Josephine's father, Steve Messana, peddled his coveted cannolis and cream puffs for the 10th straight year in the auction tent.

A controversial 1948 Tucker convertible was bid up to $1.5 million but did not reach the reserve price set by its owner, Justin Cole of Madison, Wis.

Russo and Steele did manage to sell a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Series II for $797,500.

Everyone was pulling for Russo and Steele to pull out of the ditch after the storms shut down the auction, Carey said. "Nobody relishes that even for their competitors," he said, adding that he thinks Russo and Steele will survive the calamity.

Results from Silver Auctions at Fort McDowell were unavailable.