models916
02-02-2007, 05:26 PM
This is an article a friend sent me about scams at the Auction
> January 27th, 2007 by fourwheeldrift
> As a collector car journalist, I have been watching the
> Barrett-Jackson auction for years. For the last five or so years, it
> has been very apparent that the Scottsdale auction is at best a
> bastion of gross consumption...but now some hobbyists are claiming a
> worst: fraud.
>
> I've discussed B-J with collectors, dealers and enthusiasts, many of
> whom would be considered "insiders," meaning they've bought and sold
> cars at B-J and other auctions, or are well-known in the collector car
> hobby. For some reason, it is this year that people are all finally
> grumbling and passing rumors in unison.
>
> The bottom line is that Craig Jackson and the B-J company seem to have
> really screwed themselves this year. Apparently, a well-known judge
> (legal, rather than concours) selling a vehicle at B-J this year has
> filed papers with the court, because B-J contracts specifically
> promise every car three minutes on the stand. Evidently, he was one of
> the sellers who had his car short-timed. He communicated the story,
> which got broadcasted via the Classic Thunderbirds List. According to
> the grapevine, this is already being discussed as translating into
> class-action status for the benefit of other sellers.
>
> According to this judge and other sources, it appears Barrett-Jackson
> was operating a bit on the same level as an evangelical healing show.
> Allegedly they had assistants milling around asking what specific
> sellers thought their cars would bring. Armed with this information at
> the control desk, if a lot passed the value at which a seller
> indicated he'd be happy, the car would be rushed off and the gavel
> would fall - even if bidding was still very much alive.
>
> Because the event was televised on live television via the Speed TV
> network, the plaintiff(s) now have video/audio proof that buyers were
> signaling increased bids before the three-minute marks, but were
> denied by a too-fast last call and hammer.
>
> While this all might cause Barrett-Jackson to have to pay money to
> sellers in the form of a judgment or settlement, it is something else
> that might land Craig Jackson in jail.
>
> It is no secret that Barrett-Jackson owns many cars that are run
> through the auction - it was something I suspected many, many years
> ago. This was proven when they started maintaining a showroom of cars
> in Arizona. This is not illegal, but stay with me.
>
> Along with many collectors, I've always suspected that the cars owned
> by Craig Jackson and the B-J company were often driven up by shill
> bidders working for the company. Essentially, the strategy works in
> the sense that ever since the auction focus moved from classics like
> Packards and Duesenbergs to muscle cars, B-J has been able to shill,
> say a Hemi Cuda or mid-year Corvette 427 they own, which causes the
> value of the 10 other identical cars to increase. They wind up
> "buying" their own car back, but the others go on to regular buyers,
> who now are paying higher because of the perception the market has
> moved up.
>
> This suspicion has been supported by at least one auction attendee
> this year that says he witnessed cars sold at auction headed in
> trailers back to B-J's warehouse. The lawsuit allegedly points out
> that these cars also spent significantly more time on the block than
> others.
>
> If this isn't all interesting enough, during this year's auction,
> fellow collector car journalist, Keith Martin of Sports Car Market,
> was booted from the Westworld premises and his media credentials
> revoked for voicing loud, specific concern regarding the event while
> sitting in the media room. Barrett-Jackson accused Keith Martin of
> "holding court" and attempting to send VIPs and journalists to the
> competing RM and Russo and Steele auction events. Among the alleged
> opinions included that the cars at B-J were of inferior quality (and
> had quality misrepresented,) as well as that the bidders were
> significantly over-bidding cars, which shouldn't come as a surprise to
> anyone who has witnessed people paying six figures for cars they could
> have bought for under $50,000 any other day of the year!!!
>
> This is somewhat of an interesting twist. Keith Martin's publication
> has marketed the B-J events and has helped fuel its popularity. Keith
> is definitely one of the great "insiders" of the hobby, and has been a
> friend to Craig Jackson. In past years, Keith nor his publication have
> been critical of the goings-on and rumors, while other collector car
> journalists screamed that something stunk.
>
> It makes sense, since Sports Car Market really only tracks the value
> of vehicles and other items sold at auction, rather than via private
> sales (which really has skewed SCM's values for years!) So without
> kissing-*** to B-J, Keith would have missed insider info on the
> largest events covered by his mag. So we can only guess that Keith and
> Craig had a falling out of some type.
>
> I applaud Keith for turning the corner on his view of B-J, but I'm
> with others I've talked to about this: I hate to say this about a
> colleague, but I believe his behavior was a bit unprofessional. As
> journalists, it is our responsibility to write what we think, but
> going to the show for years, then promoting RM and Russo+Steele while
> at Westworld is somewhat unkosher. I agree that Keith, a true hobbyist
> who started out by writing an Alfa Romeo newsletter, was for a long
> time too much a part of the "circus" about which he finally rejected,
> and that SCM has to a significant degree helped to fuel misinformation
> and a house of cards regarding specific auction prices and bidding
> behavior. Keith, by all accounts, is a really good guy - an
> enthusiast, who maybe just needed to take a step back and a big breath
> and reacquaint himself with those outside of the very insulated
> collector car "in crowd" - and spend time with some car people who are
> not trying to exploit the collectors. There are plenty of guys who
> have dug themselves too deep into this little crowd, and are no longer
> fun to deal with, because they've put personal greed well ahead of the
> cars and the collectors. Keith will rebound - he has a great internal
> staff of really fantastic people, who hopefully will help him return
> to his roots.
>
> And Keith got his chance at revenge today, when his piece in the New
> York times said: "the red-hot market was cooling a bit." He likened
> the high auction prices to the Dot.com craze, then went on to say:
> "While the prices of some types of cars remain strong, primarily
> low-production muscle cars with their original engines ("numbers
> matching" is the trade term) or sports racing cars like Ferraris,
> other more common cars produced in larger numbers, or cars whose
> engines have been replaced, are holding their values, at best."
>
> If you want to get back at someone who owns an auction house, the best
> way, I suppose, is to tell everyone that prices are too high. Ouch!
>
> While I've never met him, the buzz among those in the hobby - both
> collectors and journalists, is that Craig Jackson is quite arrogant,
> so don't expect many to come to his rescue. He inherited his father's
> company, and has fueled B-J's admirable growth with a combination of
> intelligence, drive, ego, and greed. While there is nothing wrong with
> that combination, if it results in unethical and possibly illegal
> activities, that's inexcusable.
>
> Like many surrounding the hobby, I will be watching the events unfold.
> Will the Westworld tents come down like a house of cards, or will
> everything just go away with an exchange of a little money? It's
> happened before, like the 2006 event's Futurliner debacle when
> investor Ron Pratt allegedly negotiated a $3.0M price (after B-J staff
> admitted to mistaking the high bid), but the reported sale was for
> $4.0M.
>
> It's hard to predict the outcome. None of us have all the facts. Craig
> Jackson has become a very powerful man, and his company has pumps an
> estimated $96M dollars into the Arizona economy annually. He's allowed
> his say, and the appropriate judge/jury might very well decide he
> personally has done nothing wrong.
>
> This all being said, there's no doubt that Barrett-Jackson "jumped the
> shark" this year. Unlike when Fonzi did it, this story has Craig
> Jackson driving his allegedly shill-bid Hemicudas over the tank and
> down a ramp that could lead to six years in a minimum security
> prison-issued orange jumpsuit. If that's the case, maybe he can get
> Sports Car Market in the slammer to keep-up on Russo and Steele, RM
> and Kruse auction results.
> January 27th, 2007 by fourwheeldrift
> As a collector car journalist, I have been watching the
> Barrett-Jackson auction for years. For the last five or so years, it
> has been very apparent that the Scottsdale auction is at best a
> bastion of gross consumption...but now some hobbyists are claiming a
> worst: fraud.
>
> I've discussed B-J with collectors, dealers and enthusiasts, many of
> whom would be considered "insiders," meaning they've bought and sold
> cars at B-J and other auctions, or are well-known in the collector car
> hobby. For some reason, it is this year that people are all finally
> grumbling and passing rumors in unison.
>
> The bottom line is that Craig Jackson and the B-J company seem to have
> really screwed themselves this year. Apparently, a well-known judge
> (legal, rather than concours) selling a vehicle at B-J this year has
> filed papers with the court, because B-J contracts specifically
> promise every car three minutes on the stand. Evidently, he was one of
> the sellers who had his car short-timed. He communicated the story,
> which got broadcasted via the Classic Thunderbirds List. According to
> the grapevine, this is already being discussed as translating into
> class-action status for the benefit of other sellers.
>
> According to this judge and other sources, it appears Barrett-Jackson
> was operating a bit on the same level as an evangelical healing show.
> Allegedly they had assistants milling around asking what specific
> sellers thought their cars would bring. Armed with this information at
> the control desk, if a lot passed the value at which a seller
> indicated he'd be happy, the car would be rushed off and the gavel
> would fall - even if bidding was still very much alive.
>
> Because the event was televised on live television via the Speed TV
> network, the plaintiff(s) now have video/audio proof that buyers were
> signaling increased bids before the three-minute marks, but were
> denied by a too-fast last call and hammer.
>
> While this all might cause Barrett-Jackson to have to pay money to
> sellers in the form of a judgment or settlement, it is something else
> that might land Craig Jackson in jail.
>
> It is no secret that Barrett-Jackson owns many cars that are run
> through the auction - it was something I suspected many, many years
> ago. This was proven when they started maintaining a showroom of cars
> in Arizona. This is not illegal, but stay with me.
>
> Along with many collectors, I've always suspected that the cars owned
> by Craig Jackson and the B-J company were often driven up by shill
> bidders working for the company. Essentially, the strategy works in
> the sense that ever since the auction focus moved from classics like
> Packards and Duesenbergs to muscle cars, B-J has been able to shill,
> say a Hemi Cuda or mid-year Corvette 427 they own, which causes the
> value of the 10 other identical cars to increase. They wind up
> "buying" their own car back, but the others go on to regular buyers,
> who now are paying higher because of the perception the market has
> moved up.
>
> This suspicion has been supported by at least one auction attendee
> this year that says he witnessed cars sold at auction headed in
> trailers back to B-J's warehouse. The lawsuit allegedly points out
> that these cars also spent significantly more time on the block than
> others.
>
> If this isn't all interesting enough, during this year's auction,
> fellow collector car journalist, Keith Martin of Sports Car Market,
> was booted from the Westworld premises and his media credentials
> revoked for voicing loud, specific concern regarding the event while
> sitting in the media room. Barrett-Jackson accused Keith Martin of
> "holding court" and attempting to send VIPs and journalists to the
> competing RM and Russo and Steele auction events. Among the alleged
> opinions included that the cars at B-J were of inferior quality (and
> had quality misrepresented,) as well as that the bidders were
> significantly over-bidding cars, which shouldn't come as a surprise to
> anyone who has witnessed people paying six figures for cars they could
> have bought for under $50,000 any other day of the year!!!
>
> This is somewhat of an interesting twist. Keith Martin's publication
> has marketed the B-J events and has helped fuel its popularity. Keith
> is definitely one of the great "insiders" of the hobby, and has been a
> friend to Craig Jackson. In past years, Keith nor his publication have
> been critical of the goings-on and rumors, while other collector car
> journalists screamed that something stunk.
>
> It makes sense, since Sports Car Market really only tracks the value
> of vehicles and other items sold at auction, rather than via private
> sales (which really has skewed SCM's values for years!) So without
> kissing-*** to B-J, Keith would have missed insider info on the
> largest events covered by his mag. So we can only guess that Keith and
> Craig had a falling out of some type.
>
> I applaud Keith for turning the corner on his view of B-J, but I'm
> with others I've talked to about this: I hate to say this about a
> colleague, but I believe his behavior was a bit unprofessional. As
> journalists, it is our responsibility to write what we think, but
> going to the show for years, then promoting RM and Russo+Steele while
> at Westworld is somewhat unkosher. I agree that Keith, a true hobbyist
> who started out by writing an Alfa Romeo newsletter, was for a long
> time too much a part of the "circus" about which he finally rejected,
> and that SCM has to a significant degree helped to fuel misinformation
> and a house of cards regarding specific auction prices and bidding
> behavior. Keith, by all accounts, is a really good guy - an
> enthusiast, who maybe just needed to take a step back and a big breath
> and reacquaint himself with those outside of the very insulated
> collector car "in crowd" - and spend time with some car people who are
> not trying to exploit the collectors. There are plenty of guys who
> have dug themselves too deep into this little crowd, and are no longer
> fun to deal with, because they've put personal greed well ahead of the
> cars and the collectors. Keith will rebound - he has a great internal
> staff of really fantastic people, who hopefully will help him return
> to his roots.
>
> And Keith got his chance at revenge today, when his piece in the New
> York times said: "the red-hot market was cooling a bit." He likened
> the high auction prices to the Dot.com craze, then went on to say:
> "While the prices of some types of cars remain strong, primarily
> low-production muscle cars with their original engines ("numbers
> matching" is the trade term) or sports racing cars like Ferraris,
> other more common cars produced in larger numbers, or cars whose
> engines have been replaced, are holding their values, at best."
>
> If you want to get back at someone who owns an auction house, the best
> way, I suppose, is to tell everyone that prices are too high. Ouch!
>
> While I've never met him, the buzz among those in the hobby - both
> collectors and journalists, is that Craig Jackson is quite arrogant,
> so don't expect many to come to his rescue. He inherited his father's
> company, and has fueled B-J's admirable growth with a combination of
> intelligence, drive, ego, and greed. While there is nothing wrong with
> that combination, if it results in unethical and possibly illegal
> activities, that's inexcusable.
>
> Like many surrounding the hobby, I will be watching the events unfold.
> Will the Westworld tents come down like a house of cards, or will
> everything just go away with an exchange of a little money? It's
> happened before, like the 2006 event's Futurliner debacle when
> investor Ron Pratt allegedly negotiated a $3.0M price (after B-J staff
> admitted to mistaking the high bid), but the reported sale was for
> $4.0M.
>
> It's hard to predict the outcome. None of us have all the facts. Craig
> Jackson has become a very powerful man, and his company has pumps an
> estimated $96M dollars into the Arizona economy annually. He's allowed
> his say, and the appropriate judge/jury might very well decide he
> personally has done nothing wrong.
>
> This all being said, there's no doubt that Barrett-Jackson "jumped the
> shark" this year. Unlike when Fonzi did it, this story has Craig
> Jackson driving his allegedly shill-bid Hemicudas over the tank and
> down a ramp that could lead to six years in a minimum security
> prison-issued orange jumpsuit. If that's the case, maybe he can get
> Sports Car Market in the slammer to keep-up on Russo and Steele, RM
> and Kruse auction results.