Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffahart
It's the builders. It's only a few vehicles of this make and model that get the big money. At the auction there are several tents where you can look at the price of vehicles already sold. These are the stark reality tents of about what you would get for your vehicle.
No alcohol involved. I suppose there's an outlier or two. But for the most part these collectors are serious people with serious money. Neither drunk nor stupid. Nobody with a brain scoffs at $400k, but for some of these guys it doesn't come close to putting a dent in their wallet or collection budget. When they lay down the big bucks they want to know who what and how on the build.
The auction is fun, and the event has a good energy. I think it's kind of neat that the make and model vehicles we all enjoy are getting attention and bringing good bucks for quality builds. It makes me happy to see a good shop make some good return on their efforts.
My two cents, worth the price paid... a bit shy of $400k though! 
j |
I went to Barret-Jackson in January 2020. Totally agree some of the professionally built ones were bringing big bucks , but some of the driver Blazers there were still bringing $50-60K and still needed a full restoration.
How long will this Blazer phase last? Who knows! A few years ago winged cars and Hemi cars were the ones in the spotlight, today, not so much so.
I go to SEMA every couple years, and in doing so I can see where the market is going in 3-4 years. That's why I sold my street rod in 2016 and built a Blazer because I didn't want to get stuck with the street rod and lose money on it. The street rod market is dead, especially the fiberglass billet queens. In fact, I only saw a few street rods at last year's SEMA, where in 2016 there were hundreds.
Trucks are hot right now, and those hanging on to theirs's hoping they will only go up in value are dreaming. I feel we hit the peak, so now would be the time to sell, IMHO.
What is the next craze? Who knows, but the electric community was in full force at SEMA with tons of vendors showcasing their new products. Is this what I want to see? No, but we may have no choice.
One thing I do believe is in the next few years there will be legislation either banning older fossil burning vehicles, or severely limiting what we can do with them. We may have no choice to convert older cars/trucks to electric if we still want to drive them on public roads. My 2 cents.