Collector Classics: Barrett-Jackson 50th Anniversary Auction

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Veteran car dealer Wayne Darby admits it’s been harder than ever before to find the right collector vehicles to take to market. Two years ago, the owner of Vancouver’s Chevrolake-Darby Motorsports took 45 classics to the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. This year, he shipped 42 vehicles south. Seven enclosed trailers carried by TFX Transport out of Toronto: convertibles, muscle cars, full classics and hot rods.

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“It’s Barrett-Jackson’s 50th anniversary and I was trying to get 50 cars to the sale,” Darby says.

He couldn’t quite get there. One of the main reasons for that is European and Australian buyers are scouring collector car ads in Canada and scooping up all the goods. Thousands of cars were bought by foreign buyers last year with container loads leaving Canadian ports every week. It’s never been more competitive to buy prime collector cars for resale.

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Before Christmas, Darby shipped 20 of his own cars to Arizona, many purchased in the past year in anticipation of world attention paid to auction week in Scottsdale with five auctions running simultaneously offering thousands of collector vehicles. Darby will represent 22 vehicles at the auction for Canadian collectors.

The auctions are attended by tens of thousands of enthusiasts from all over the world with many online and telephone bidders making purchases. The Barrett-Jackson auction spans nine days starting January 22. Collector vehicle auctions running the same week in Scottsdale include MAG Auctions, Gooding & Co., Bonham’s and RM Sotheby’s.

Craig Jackson, Chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson Auction, says cars consigned from Canada represent top quality. He is predicting the strongest sales in history as pent up demand for collector vehicles has soared during the pandemic with buyers seeking hard assets in uncertain times.

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“The value of collector cars is going up and so is the quality,” Jackson said during a telephone interview from Scottsdale. “With our last January auction in 2020 (COVID concerns caused the 2021 January auction to be postponed to March), the sale brought in $141 million. This year, we have one thousand more bidders registered, the highest number of bidders ever, and a lot of great cars that had been held back are in this sale.”

The Barrett-Jackson auction will feature 1,900 collector vehicles at its flagship 2022 Scottsdale sale with more than 325,000 people expected.

Wayne Darby notes that Barrett-Jackson will be auctioning $100,000 cars on Wednesday for the first time. Most of Darby’s cars will cross the auction block on the prime-time days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

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“The only black cloud is COVID, but the auction companies have done a great job in putting stringent health measures in place to protect staff, buyers and consigners,” he says. “Most people are frustrated and perhaps this is an avenue for the return of feeling good.“

Darby has been selling cars at U.S. auctions for three decades and he says Canadians are noted for bringing quality collector vehicles. “Most Canadian sellers strive to bring the best cars they can sell. In this game, reputation is everything,” he says.

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This year, he sent some rare and desirable cars south to be auctioned:

Darby anticipates the 42 collector vehicles he will auction this month in Scottsdale will bring at least $2 million.

“The January auction always sets the barometer for values but it’s always a crapshoot. This year, all indicators are the January auctions will have sales in record-setting territory,” he says with characteristic optimism.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected]