Yes, another great evening for the 1979 Hurst Olds and for Charity last night at Barrett Jackson. A black/gold one that was Linda Vaughn's car (?) at the gavel was a cool $140,000. Great event, great charity, great car, great to see it! Way to go to all who bid on it!

 

Nice. The same car sold at least twice last year for as much as $300,000 and was donated back to B-J to auction again each time. Glad to see it being used to raise so much money for charity.

 

Prepare for craigslist post...... "1979 Hurst Olds. One just sold for over 100k at BJ. That means mine must be worth at least 40k".

 

Cars sold for charity always bring more money than they're worth. That's a fact of life. To base the selling price of even a well preserved 79 HO on the BJ scale is complete and utter nonsense. I have a friend who has his 79 HO up for sale (pending BTW) and it's not anywhere close to the numbers being flogged on the 'real' market, no matter who owned it previously.

Charity cars are a win win win for BJ. They raise $$$ for the charity, the buyer claims a huge tax deduction, and the auction gets huge publicity out of it. IMO it's deep pocket buyers creating a dream world of artificial valuations.

 

The nicest 1979 HO on the planet will bring about $14K US; one-tenth of the selling price of this charity car. Nice examples of 1979 HOs can be had for less than $10K any day of the week.

 

Just this week Velocity began for us through Direct TV.
A few minutes ago a 71 442 Thorton unit went thru, 81K, on BJ.
Not for a charity, a big blond girl got it.

 

Just saw another 71 442 vert go through. A red one. It must have been a W-30.
4-speed car, 1 0f 183. BJ just called it a 442. 100K. Scottsdale AZ. Info says 1st
aired today, 1-16.

 

Allan's right on all counts per above, charity is what it is. It's nice to see people stepping up for a good cause (and a GREAT tax write-off!) but it's plain the actual car values are not often based in reality. I watched that red 442 go off last night, $100,000 or something like that? My advice to that new owner is to get some driving done with it, and in the words of Jay Leno, turn that $100,000 car into a $70,000 driver!

 

One more thing, here's a real test. Check out Barrett Jackson's docket for tomorrow. There is a beautiful 1971 Cutlass S to be auctioned, 25,000 miles, green, great original car, green interior, clock delete, bench seat, AM radio. Let's all see what that one goes for. Man, if I had some room.........

 

Clock delete? Really?. Now we are going to have to have a clock delete discussion to go with radio delete & heater delete.


Sorry. No such thing as clock delete. The car simply did not have the clock option so the gauge area received a blank insert like all the other cars that were not optioned with clocks.


Nice survivor car none the less.

 

Yes, a plate instead of a clock. My apologies if it is called something else.

 

This has nothing to do with the car value, as anything over the nominal value of the car is a tax write-off. In fact, I'm sure the buyer's 2015 returns will have the LOWEST possible value for a 79 H/O as basis to justify as large a deduction on the charity contribution as possible.

 

Excellent point, Joe, excellent point indeed. Someone sent me a photo of this auction, I'll post it later today.

 

While this is ultimately the truth, it's often misunderstood by many of the viewers who interpret the selling price to be what people are willing to pay in the real world. Charity auctions are a real world unto themselves though, and do not represent actual selling prices the hobbyist market works with in the 'other real world'.

 

Sadly, this is true. Expect to see this auction touted in 79 H/O ads on ebay in the future. People are idiots, especially when it comes to big name auction sales. Understand the facts, not the claims.

 

A black/gold one just went off on e-bay for just under $20,000 but I am uncertain about that one. Seller, buyers all had zero feedback. I really wouldn't be surprised if that one shows up again in a few weeks. And the tach was wrong too, a big red flag.