84 GT350 Sells for 65k at BJ Scottsdale

[Droog]

I agree. But I wouldn't be too sure that time has come....yet. I think these results are due more to the fact that they are brand new 30 year old cars. These time warp cars are hot as a pistol right now. You have this $71K Fox, the $100K T/A. About 6 months ago, a 1978 LTD Country Squire wagon with 1,300 miles sold for $43K, I think. Just recently, a 1974 Javelin AMX, a nothing car normally, with 400 miles sold for $41K. Ford GTs that have delivery miles are selling at a $100K to $200K premium over other GTs with just a few thousand miles on them. I think collectors are seeing the extreme desirability of originality for the cars of the 50s and 60s, so they feel the original examples of the 70s and 80s are the next smart play in the hobby. Love em or hate em, these "wrapper" cars are the best of the best when it comes to originality.

This is true, but it bears repeating that this a cycle that repeats over and over again. Pristine, low-mile originals always jump first, and the average ragged-out GT hatch is still worth the same money it was on Wednesday morning. There was a time long ago when even less-than-perfect Deusenbergs weren't worth much more than scrap price.

But once the genie's out of the bottle, you can't put it back in again. It's a long process, but a rising tide lifts all boats eventually. This car is a statistical outlier right now, but it happened once, it will happen again and with increasing frequency as time goes on.

[plumkrazy]

Any idea when the Pace Car will cross the block? Would like to try and watch that one.

[PaceFever79]

This is true, but it bears repeating that this a cycle that repeats over and over again. Pristine, low-mile originals always jump first, and the average ragged-out GT hatch is still worth the same money it was on Wednesday morning. There was a time long ago when even less-than-perfect Deusenbergs weren't worth much more than scrap price.

But once the genie's out of the bottle, you can't put it back in again. It's a long process, but a rising tide lifts all boats eventually. This car is a statistical outlier right now, but it happened once, it will happen again and with increasing frequency as time goes on.

Also think about how it can effect full nut and bolt (correct) restorations. Setting aside the ultra low mile freaks which command a premium, 60s muscle that is fully restored, goes for about the same money as a nice driver survivor. It would be cool if someday we could get more money for a restored Fox than it cost to restore it. For me that is when the market will really start to take off and come into its own.

[vascj]

this is a very basic phenomenon, but, it does have impacts to the every day car enthusiast. It just takes a while for it to reach us, no one is completely insulated. Car guys are car guys, even at the very wealthy level of collectors. The biggest thing that separate them from your average "joe" is they have the means to get what they want (just like everything else in life, eg. artwork, etc.), so they go after the very best. And that means: best condition, most original, lowest mileage, AND what specifically they are after. These two bidders probably wanted a nice fox body to ad to their respective collections and were maybe targeting this one as a good candidate. Maybe they already had a nice 65/66 GT350 in a close color combo, who knows, but, they wanted it. They wanted something special and this particular car met those needs. Most likely they were counseled by experienced foxbody men whom already looked the car over and gave them their assessment, desireability, and projected market price range. This car was limited production, right trim options, but, most importantly...those 99 miles-which sets it apart. That's the magic with these types of collectors, they want to be able to say they have one first, and, secondly, they want to be able to say they HAVE THE BEST and the miles on this car and its limited availability were big discriminators. There are probably are only a couple dozen or so with those miles, maybe more, and most likely they are already in collections. The chances of them popping up, are fairly low so these guys went after each other. 65k is NOTHING to these collectors when they also have 6 and 7 figure cars already in their collections. Will every one of these cars be worth that, most likely not, unless you find another 99 mile car and two guys willing to tangle. What it may do is cause some reshuffling in collectors inventory...."hey, I want one of those too!" see if you can find me one of those, just as nice as his. Or, I've got one of those in my collection, but, it has 4k miles on it, now that John Holmes has a nicer one with only 99 miles on it, I want a better one, dump this one and find me a better one, or one with less than 1k miles!! Some Ford and Mustang collectors are already moving cars around, getting better ones, trading, upgrading, diversifying etc...always looking for what is recognized as the best in the eyes of the community.
Where the humor will take place is the craigslist owner with a 100k mile rusted out clapper that thinks his is now worth 10-15k because of these results...the nicer ones will go up, because the demand will go up and folks will be willing to pay more. As the gent mentioned above, the rising tide theory. We shall see, I guess I'm a little saddened, but, this was pretty much inevitable I guess. The only thing that amazes me is how quickly this storm has been built, these cars were considered junk only a few years ago by most high end collectors outside of the foxbody community, and now....something to add to their collections...wow... how things change.

[vxr500]

Uh oh, here we go. A gt350 eBay seller already referencing the Barett Jackson car

http://ebay.to/1KLpEO0

[PaceFever79]

Uh oh, here we go. A gt350 eBay seller already referencing the Barett Jackson car

http://ebay.to/1KLpEO0

Probably, not, yet, but this is how a trend begins.

It's still fascinating to watch anyway!

[83gtstang]

You have to remember one important thing here. These auctions are for the rich, the stinky rich. This is a drop in the bucket to the people bidding on these cars. I believe you have to have a certain amount of money to be there in the first place. Just like EBay, the people want to one up each to claim victory. Which is what one selling an item, or in this case, a car, that's what they want, a battle to get most money. I say in the real world this car is worth $25k tops. Sorry.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/Bidder/Home

[PaceFever79]

You are right! This isn't the real world!

And premium Fox Mustangs are invited to the ball?

That is a major shift in the paradigm.

[Twice_Bitten]

Buying cars might be for the rich, but us average guys can still go an enjoy the "show". Been a couple of years since I last attended. Tickets at that time for early in the week were around $20 per day. The later in the week, or weekend the ticket price increased. The quality of the car offered for sale also increases the closer you get to the weekend. Most of the cars I saw go over the block were in my opinion average, nice daily drivers, a few were exceptional, (a lot of "tribute cars"... ) cars so "over restored" with cheap replacement parts trying to be "original", and I saw cars sell for a few thousand and upwards of 60-70K. A few of the cars I saw were of such poor quality I couldn't believe anyone would bring them to sell at this auction. My first visit to BJ was a disappointment, I had this idea that only the most pristine of automobiles are auctioned, but in reality it was no different than any local auto auction, just bigger money and most of the cars are 30+ years old.

After that first visit I knew what to expect, I've gone just for the entertainment value, and still a lot of nice cars to see. I hadn't seen a "twister" fox body before, but did see one sell one year at the show.

I'm in the same opinion as you all, 70K for GT350... granted it's exceptional. Cars only worth what someone is willing to pay. Guess I should've bought that 5spd hatchback 20 years ago that my father-in-law bought at an auction to put on his car lot (he paid $450, it wasn't perfect, just over 100k miles, had a spun main bearing, he replaced just the bearings and it ran great) or took the trade that another guy wanted to make me, his GT350 for my 79 Cobra... Nah. I never liked that interior color!

[83gtstang]

Buying cars might be for the rich, but us average guys can still go an enjoy the "show". Been a couple of years since I last attended. Tickets at that time for early in the week were around $20 per day. The later in the week, or weekend the ticket price increased. The quality of the car offered for sale also increases the closer you get to the weekend. Most of the cars I saw go over the block were in my opinion average, nice daily drivers, a few were exceptional, (a lot of "tribute cars"... ) cars so "over restored" with cheap replacement parts trying to be "original", and I saw cars sell for a few thousand and upwards of 60-70K. A few of the cars I saw were of such poor quality I couldn't believe anyone would bring them to sell at this auction. My first visit to BJ was a disappointment, I had this idea that only the most pristine of automobiles are auctioned, but in reality it was no different than any local auto auction, just bigger money and most of the cars are 30+ years old.

After that first visit I knew what to expect, I've gone just for the entertainment value, and still a lot of nice cars to see. I hadn't seen a "twister" fox body before, but did see one sell one year at the show.

I'm in the same opinion as you all, 70K for GT350... granted it's exceptional. Cars only worth what someone is willing to pay. Guess I should've bought that 5spd hatchback 20 years ago that my father-in-law bought at an auction to put on his car lot (he paid $450, it wasn't perfect, just over 100k miles, had a spun main bearing, he replaced just the bearings and it ran great) or took the trade that another guy wanted to make me, his GT350 for my 79 Cobra... Nah. I never liked that interior color!

Oops, I meant to bid there, I know people can attend and watch. Which I wouldn't mind to do one day.

[boboli]

My friend went up to Barret Jackson yesterday. Here's a few pics he took of the 84 and the 79.

[noac]

A friend called BJ just to confirm the price and make sure there wasn't any miscommunication about the sale of this car. 65k buys a lot of cool stangs, probably even a new Shelby GT350. A 500 mile 93 R got 60K at Mecum last weekend. Hope the buyer is happy. Sure is nice. I passed at 17K last summer.

[BLUECRAPI]

I don't like this. When the cool cars are priced out of the range of people who have a passion for them.... that's when a hobby turns to ****. %*/%#** yuppies...

[Droog]

You are right! This isn't the real world!

And premium Fox Mustangs are invited to the ball?

That is a major shift in the paradigm.

True story. By no objective, reasonable standard is an old Plymouth convertible with a Hemi worth 7 figures, but that's what you'd better have if you want one. It's worth what someone will pay, period.

Just as an aside, I feel like the white aero GT has gotten lost in the shuffle here. Obviously not nearly as significant as the money paid for the Anni, but 16.5k is pretty strong coin for a common, fridge white GT hatch, even one that nice.

[Travis T]

I saw a nice Acapulco blue 69 Boss 302 sell for 73k. The anniversary car doesn't even make sense in that light.

[bluemax]

Think about this...

Hopefully, now that the Fox body cars are starting to get some attention (as most of you have stated in your posts, good and bad), the reproduction parts business will follow. For those of you that have early Mustangs know what I mean. Heck, you can practically build a concours level car out of the NPD '65-73 catalog. We need correct concours quality parts (i.e. dash pads!) and typically these get produced when there is sufficient demand. As the value of the cars go up, so does the interest, and the parts manufacturers will jump in.

For those of us that pay serious $$$ for NOS parts, I would love to see the manufacturers step up.

[Droog]

Think about this...

Hopefully, now that the Fox body cars are starting to get some attention (as most of you have stated in your posts, good and bad), the reproduction parts business will follow. For those of you that have early Mustangs know what I mean. Heck, you can practically build a concours level car out of the NPD '65-73 catalog. We need correct concours quality parts (i.e. dash pads!) and typically these get produced when there is sufficient demand. As the value of the cars go up, so does the interest, and the parts manufacturers will jump in.

For those of us that pay serious $$$ for NOS parts, I would love to see the manufacturers step up.

Another side effect will be that fewer perfectly good Foxes will be getting parted out/hacked up/LSX swapped/etc.

[bullittm3]

This auction result makes me even more confident in my opinion that Fox Mustangs are really starting to get the respect I feel they deserve. I can't really quantify it or prove it, but I just have this feeling that there is some momentum building in the interest in these cars by collectors and the classic car hobby. More and more car magazines are doing articles on these cars, like Hemmings doing an article on the 93 Cobra and the Mustang Times cover feature of Jason's beautiful cars.
My Dad and I both have a few cars and we keep our cars at our own, separate locations. However, I have an 88 SSP car that my Dad really likes, so he wants to keep that car with his cars, which are mostly cars from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s.Five or ten years ago, whenever anyone came to see his cars, they wouldn't even notice my SSP. But in the last couple of years, about every two or three times people look at his collection, they go nuts over the SSP. Then my Dad tells them about my cars, which are all 80s and 90s cars, mostly Fox Mustangs, and they want to come out to my place and see my cars. This phenomena has happened enough times that I would have to call it a trend. It really excites me. I feel a sense of vindication. For years I have been saying that these are great cars and I was either ignored or laughed at, but it seems the worm is turning in our favor, and I for one LOVE it!

[qikgts]

cringes @ Reagan-era muscle

I'm thinkin' "Mullet Muscle©" may be an appropriate term... lol

[mrmustang]

Uh oh, here we go. A gt350 eBay seller already referencing the Barett Jackson car

http://ebay.to/1KLpEO0

And the BJ trickle down affect has hit craigslist

http://greenville.craigslist.org/cto/5423283531.html

[tulsa]

i sure am glad i bought my gt350 vert for $2,500...

[bullittm3]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just watched the Hagerty 2016 Scottsdale seminar on the collector car market, and the first question was what is the car/cars to buy for future price appreciation. The first three panelists to answer all said the Fox Body Mustang as one of their choices. This is big to me. These guys are the movers and the shakers in the hobby, and they are loving the the Fox Bodies. Respect. I love it!

[75coug]

Craigslist turds just jumped 5 grand. The Barrett Jackson Syndrome continues.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Sad, but true.

[vascj]

uh oh.......perception is reality I guess...yes the beginning of the end for us as we know it....well...i knew it was coming and it was a lot of fun while it lasted....I have to say that this ride was a lot more fun than the 60s muscle car era for me. I got to enjoy those 60s cars much later in life and not in their heyday as much. At least with the fox body mustang, I was there at the beginning (drove a few off the showroom floor), middle (drove them literally as daily drivers all year round, everyday), and now the end (as sunday drivers, weekend warriors, cruise-in cars, show cars).....so much fun and enjoyed just about all stages. I've enjoyed this great ride, oh what a joy to be able to experience first hand so many different model years at such a reasonable cost. Hard to believe it all started with needing a new family car..a little 84 economy coupe (not cool back then-just cheap transportation), then a thirst for the performance GTs, then the limited edition GTs, then the lightweight coupes and nasty Cobras, and now back to a nice balanced comfortable GT convertible driver...the one that I envied other guys having back in the mid 80s. I always wondered what it would have felt like to live through a complete cycle.

[PaceFever79]

uh oh.......perception is reality I guess...yes the beginning of the end for us as we know it....well...i knew it was coming and it was a lot of fun while it lasted....I have to say that this ride was a lot more fun than the 60s muscle car era for me. I got to enjoy those 60s cars much later in life and not in their heyday as much. At least with the fox body mustang, I was there at the beginning (drove a few off the showroom floor), middle (drove them literally as daily drivers all year round, everyday), and now the end (as sunday drivers, weekend warriors, cruise-in cars, show cars).....so much fun and enjoyed just about all stages. I've enjoyed this great ride, oh what a joy to be able to experience first hand so many different model years at such a reasonable cost. Hard to believe it all started with needing a new family car..a little 84 economy coupe (not cool back then-just cheap transportation), then a thirst for the performance GTs, then the limited edition GTs, then the lightweight coupes and nasty Cobras, and now back to a nice balanced comfortable GT convertible driver...the one that I envied other guys having back in the mid 80s. I always wondered what it would have felt like to live through a complete cycle.

I can't thing of a more fitting Obit for the untimely passing.

I too have experienced a similar ride that began in 1979 when I had a hot rod 67 GT Fastback that I rebuilt myself from the ground up (By the way, I bought it for $700 and sold it for $8000 in 1983. I thought that was big money!) Then one day my friend shows up with a brand new 79 Pace Car his dad bought him for getting accepted to college. Bastard. For 3 months that summer, I got to envy that car every time it pulled into my driveway. I loved my 67 Fastback, but I had a serious crush on that Pace Car. It looked like it was going 100 mph standing still. He never had to race anyone, like me - because the car was that cool. I knew back then, I would own one someday. I ended up owning several.

My great thrill was to work in dealerships from 1985-1990.

I got to sell, and service, lots of new Foxes!