Hello everyone,
Just checking in with the Friday edition of the update from Barrett Jackson. Not to get too far off track, but I have to let you know that the highlight of the day may have been our trip to the Desert Valley Auto Parts salvage yard. We have ordered several parts from this yard over the years so we decided to check it out first hand. We were blown away to say the least! We never expected to see that many cars in our wildest dreams. All vehicles in the yard were American made from mid 50’s to mid 70’s. There was everything from complete vehicles to completely stripped vehicles and everything in between. Literally thousands of cars in the yard and it was quite a sight to behold! No rust to be seen anywhere and many of the vehicles looked restorable. If any of you guys are in need of hard to find or non reproduced parts definitely check them out @ http://www.dvap.com. They also let us know that they are starting a reality series on Discovery Channel starting Jan. 26th at 9:00 central. I would highly recommend tuning in if you get a chance. The show will be called “Desert Car Kings”.
Well as far as the auction goes, it was another spectacular day weather wise as well as car wise. One of the first cars I spotted in the staging lane was a 1967 Impala SS convertible. The car was triple black and 100% original untouched with just over 20,000 actual miles. For me personally it is cars like this that keep me coming back every year. There is no other place on earth that you will find this many low mile unrestored classics. Being in the restoration business, the knowledge gained from seeing factory original untouched cars first hand is priceless. Oh I guess I forgot to mention this car was a 427 4-speed to top it all off! The car crossed the line at $40,000 which was probably one of the best buys of the day in my opinion.
Along those same lines of factory original, low mile untouched cars was my favorite Vette of the auction which also ran through today. It was a Marlboro Maroon ’67 427/435 roadster with 17,800 actual miles on the odometer. This survivor was still sporting its original rubber (including tires, belts and hoses)! The paint was showing some wear, but that’s what made it so cool. This Vette has won every prestigious award that a vette can win including triple crown and Bloomington survivor/special collection. This is an awesome car to look over and use as a great example for future restorations. The car still had orange over-spray on the exhaust manifolds that hadn’t quite burned off yet! By the way this car sold for $242,000 including commission (top seller of the day). Quite a bit of coin, but hey where ya gonna find another one??
Total sales today were $14,581,000. When you figure in the 10% that both the buyer and seller have to kick in for commission, you’re talking about a pretty good day for Craig Jackson and Co!
Hope you guys got to catch some coverage on SPEED and if not there will be a long day of coverage tomorrow. Saturday is the biggest and best day of the auction so it will only get more exciting tomorrow. I’ll check in with you all then.
Have a good night,
Kerry