Thursday, January 11, 2007
Observations
I take a week off work every January to spend as much time as I can at the Scottsdale collector car auctions. By sitting and observing you can learn. Russo and Steele does appear to have some transaction which are done by the rules. But they do have more ridiculas things taking place than any of the other auctions including Kruse and the Silver auction at the Casino. I think people are catching on to how and spot phoney bidding and bidders.
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8 comments:
I couldn’t agree with you more. More power to you – Crazy for Cars for taking the time and work to put this out there as a forum for this conversation. I took a car to Russo and Steele a couple of years ago, got pressured into the “No Reserve” auction and lost thousands. I had to buy my own car back, there were no buyers in the room and the real nag is the bidders bidding the car up were phony bidders being directed by Drew. My buddy observed the entire affair and before we left the auction that evening quite a few people came up to me and confirmed the guys bidding were Drew’s buddies and were bidding on every car that went through if it stalled out. I’ll never be back.
I’ve heard about some fishy stuff at this auction, but come on guys haven’t we all heard this kind of behavior out of all of the auctions? Maybe Russo and Steele is worse than the others or maybe they’re just not as good at covering it up. I have know a couple of guys that had to buy their cars back.
Grow up, if you want to play with the big boy’s you’ve got to play with the big boy rules.
I bought three cars last year in Scottsdale – two from Barrett and one from Russo and Steele in the post sale. My advice to anyone, let it shake out and wait for the post sale if you don’t want to get screwed. There are a lot more cars going through the post sale tent than anyone realizes, a lot of smoke and mirrors on stage and if you wait you can cut a better deal after the fact.
How can I send a contributor post?
The real question you guys should all be asking is why don't the collector car companies expose an unreputable auctions? I can tell you why, they don't want to kill the very market they depend on. Sadly, most magazines won't tell it like it is when it comes to advertisers. They know what's going on, I have a friend that writes about auction results and Russo and Steel is the big joke, but Drew advertises so they look the other way.
I've heard there is a new auction this year in Phoenix, does anyone know anything about this?
The fee structure at Russo and Steele is higher than Barrett Jackson.
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