Thoughts on BJ Scottsdale

[Matt Harwood]

Yeah, it seems like a kind of ambiguous area, ethically. Ten years ago, I worked at another large collector car dealership (you can see their ads at the top of this forum, actually). Some guy brought in this gorgeous Marina Blue (or whatever Pontiac's name for it was, don't nit-pick) '60s Pontaic Grand Prix convertible with a 421 and 4-speed and A/C and buckets and a all the stuff you'd want. I saw that car and knew it was a $40-45,000 car, easily. He only wanted something like $22,000 for it. I told the owner of the dealership that I thought the car was almost criminally undervalued. Of course, my thought was that he would call the seller and tell him that we could get him more money and it would be a nice bonus for him.

 

Nope. The owner of the dealership (who has subsequently done time for fraud) bought it for the full $22,000 then promptly put it on his website for $49,900 and sold it for $44,000. THAT felt wrong to me and it's one of the reasons why I didn't go with the company when they relocated. I didn't want to be party to that kind of nonsense. Not necessarily illegal, but it sure didn't feel right to me. I never spoke to the seller, so I don't know his thoughts, but I can certainly understand how that would feel like a sucker-punch. I look at it as my job, when I'm representing a car for someone, to get them the best possible result, not take advantage of their ignorance. 

 

Is the auction game similar? I don't know. But that's why I don't work for an auction company (several have offered). I think there's too much ethical ambiguity in that part of the game to make me feel right about it.

[1937hd45]

There are many ways to look at car sales, you may accept an under market value just to get cash in hand to buy something you really want, or something selling under market that you could flip and cover both deals. You never see anyone interviewed at BJ that sold a car for less than the paint job, never mind the total loss. Bob 

[CarNucopia]

For the most part, I think people buying and selling at auction should be vigilant and expect there might be some gamesmanship.

However, if BJ is secretly buying cars that come across the block, that's a problem. First, if the car has a reserve, not only do know what it is, they likely advised on it. Second, they are paying the auctioneer who, if they know BJ is a bidder, could tilt the process in their favor. Finally, they are competing with their customers (real bidders). The cars they bid on and don't win are sold at I higher price then they might otherwise be.

[Dynaflash8]

On 1/22/2019 at 10:01 PM, Dynaflash8 said:

Sounds like the AACA I remember terms used in the 1960s to me.  C'mon, time moves on.............but that doesn't include streetrods and restomods.

Not so low property taxes, super extremely high on all insurance, incl home and auto.  Where I am there is no true old car activity within 100-150 miles.  Nothing but streetrods here.  If I was young enough to contemplate another move, I'd go back to eastern Virginia and put up with the cold weather. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Dynaflash8 (see edit history)

[Robert G. Smits]

You are not alone living in a old car vacuum. College Station has 120K population and no antique car activity other than a Model A club.  Lucky's car show is the second Sunday of January every year.  Totally unorganized with no advertising or structure of any kind, cars just show up.  This year over 450 street rods were present.  Nearest AACA is 100 miles away in Houston which by the way has a population of 4 million and can't support a Classic Car Club.

[padgett]

May be that when I was growing up, the new car announcements were eagerly awaited (curtains in the showrooms) and cars got better every year. A 40 Ford was a $100 car and a Deusy was a hard sell at any price.

 

This came to a screeching halt after 1970 and suddenly older cars were better than the new offerings. The turnaround started about 1990 and was in full swing by 2000. Suddenly there were interesting cars again. Today resto-mods are big business. Slide a new powertrain/chassis under usually a two door coupe or 'vert and have all the benefits.

 

Today I'm not real sure what is going to happen but two doors of any kind (coupe/convertible/wagon) are thin on the ground and the Big Thing are crossovers/SUVs. Where once there was a rally or autocross every weekend, now we have shows with static displays with an occasional cruise (and a 3 mph cruise and a 3500 lb clutch do not go together).

 

You know it is an interesting time when one of the fastest American cars is a Cadillac.