The 220k Shelby is a concours type of restoration. It was professionally restored by a highly regarded restoration shop to original 1968 condition. The red car that sold for 115k? while nice looking, it has been refurbished to an amateur standard. It is a factory A/C car, and it is now missing. No smog, aftermarket parts, chromed parts under the hood, etc. all would be incorrect in a judged show. Clearly rebuilt to the owners taste.
These two examples illustrate why; correctly restored cars, sell for lots of money.
The $115K Shelby was a decent deal if you didn’t mind that it was not numbers matching and now had a 4 speed. Come to think of it the price was about average for a driver quality car without the buyer’s premium. With the buyer and sellers premium considered it maybe sold a bit higher than it should have.
The Lime Gold Shelby was fastidiously restored, numbers matching, and a KR convertible with Air Conditioning. Unlike 98% of the 1968 Shelbys that you see, this one has the correct steel wheels and hubcaps that came on the car when new. Every visible detail is correct and awesome. It sold for a bit more than it should have. I suspect it would typically sell around $170K between private parties in a non - auction, non - intoxicated setting. But hey that’s why this is so much fun to watch on TV.
On TV I noticed more cars with reserves crossing the block this year. BJ spending a little more time with the reserve cars trying to get them to hit the sell mark.
They seemed to start with these “galleria” cars or whatever they call it back about 3 years ago…with very mixed results on even hitting reserve.
Frankly, I don’t like it…It totally blows their momentum and flow of the auction. Also, the time to buy is still Saturday night at about 9:30 local time and after. The later the better. Does the internet also shut down at that time or something? haha. It amazes me how the buyers just head out after the TV cameras are off (heck, they were right after the Ford GT!) and there are relative bargains to be had. Sunday am the same thing…
https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/ … 302-210906
$55k - This one shocked me. We spent a lot of time going over it and I expected it to get much closer to six figures.
The color is not inspiring, base level interior, headers, no smog, dinged up strut rod supports. With fees, taxes and the ride home I doubt if he were to sell it this spring he would do much better than break even IMHO
As for folks leaving at 9pm, consider that the average age of a bidder these days seems to be about 62. If they buy their first beer at 1pm with lunch and keep a steady pace by 8pm they are blurry eyed and their wife is tugging at their arm to head for the hotel room…
Did any one else notice how much old (early 50’s) Buick and Olds convertibles were bringing? Seriously, who is buying those and for what purpose? It tells me that there are still some old guys with money that are looking for garage art. Could it be that 60’s cars are not yet at the same peak level?
No doubt you’re right. My comments were more in respect to what some other lesser (IMO) Mustangs were fetching. As to that color, a lot of my Mustang friends love it for some reason.
The T/A was interesting. Before this, it seemed '73 was the cutoff for big $ muscle cars, since wasn’t '74 the 1st year of the low compression models?
About 16 years ago, I found my buddy a '70 T/A RAIII 4 speed (white w/blue). Very nice solid car that he still has. He was stoked to see a (non '69) T/A get over 6 figures.
The '73 - 74 SD455’s all had the same compression ratio. '72 was the last year for Premium Fuel engines, they were legal to produce prior to January 1, 1972 so Dodge, Plymouth, and some GM muscle cars were produced early in the model year.
