The Barrett-Jackson Auction held in January 2023 in Scottsdale, AZ wrapped up a terrific week of classic car auctions here. In just one week, six auction companies rolled into town and sold collectively over 2,800 cars for $253 million dollars.
Besides Barrett-Jackson, auctions were held by the Russo and Steele, Bonhams, RM, Gooding & Company, and Silver auction houses. The vast majority of cars sold by Barrett-Jackson are sold without a reserve, so that's why they lead the field in both cars sold and total sales. They sold 1,401 cars for over $113 million.
The Barrett-Jackson auction was covered by a variety of Fox networks over the week, so snowbound fans could catch the live auction and get a glimpse of some awesome vehicles. The top selling car at Barrett-Jackson was a red, 1967 L88 Corvette coupe that sold for $3,850,000—a record for any Corvette sold at a public auction, and the most expensive car sold that week that was made by Detroit.
The highest selling car was a red, 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder that sold for $8,800,000 at the RM auction. It is one of 50 built over a three year period by Ferrari, and only one of 14 built in 1958.
A trend we've seen over the past few years is a increase in the number of trucks being offered for sale. It seems everywhere you turned trucks were nestled next to sporty convertibles and hot rods. In years past the prices of these "farm trucks" were reasonable but as they get cleaned up and restored to as new condition, the prices have risen. Just like the Cameo at the Lambrecht auction that sold for $147,000 recently, trucks are hot!
Friday night at Barrett-Jackson a custom truck sold for a Saskatchewan children's hospital charity raised $450,000. Snakebit, the custom 1956 Ford, was previously unveiled at the SEMA Show in 2013 by Gene Simmons from the band KISS. The F-100 truck had a new supercharged 5.8L V8 with a manual six speed. The truck borrowed some styling touches from a Shelby GT500 with a two tone leather interior.
Besides trucks another trend was seeing fully restored Toyota Land Cruiser. Seventeen FJ-40's were sold along with two FJ-45 pickups. The FJ-40's sold for a median price of $38,500 with a beautiful 1972 model selling for $66,000. This was truly a "better than new" restoration with stainless steel hardware and many parts powder coated. Not sure what these new owners will do with these pristine Land Cruisers but I am pretty sure this might be a record for manual transmission Toyotas sold at a classic car auction!
See ya on the road!