Heavy storm conditions were predicted for Southern CA that week. We left for AZ early Tuesday morning before the weather hit. It was a nice ride to AZ with no rain at all. At home though it was a little different. About 40 miles out of Phoenix I got a call from my wife. My city at home was under Tornado watch. Water spouts were touching land and forming tornado's. This scared the living hell out of me. Who ever heard of tornado's in California. For the next 2 hours, I feared for my family and home, and there was nothing I could do about it. All worked out OK for us, but some businesses and house were badly damaged. Nice start to our trip.
We arrived at Scottsdale at about 2pm, checked into our motel and then off to Barrett Jackson. Tuesdays prices from what I saw were about average retail. There were not many Corvettes but the ones I saw seemed to bring good money.
Wednesday we were up early. We spent a lot of time inspecting cars. It was another reality check that auction cars are not all what they are made out to be. The quality of corvettes for the most part leaved a lot to be desired. Most of them looked pretty to the unsuspecting buyer, but not to the trained eye. I found many cars that had replacement trim tags and or restamped engines. Lots of replaced body panels and rusty frames made to look good. The sad thing is that most of these cars were sold for much higher than average retail prices. With that said there were lots of fantastic examples also, which sold for very high prices. Bottom line is buyer beware. Good cars with pedigree bring big money. We were done with Barrett Jackson. At these prices, there was nothing we could buy.
Thursday was another day. The storms from Southern CA hit AZ, hard. We decided to give Barrett Jackson a miss and try our luck at the Russo Steele auction. In years past this is where I had bought most of my cars. The weather was terrible. It was freezing cold and poring rain. Inspecting the cars was a challenge in the mud and rain but we got it done. The auction started and I came close to buying several cars, but no luck. I remember being the second highest bidder on a black 59 vette. Something told me to stop bidding, so I did. The guy that won the bid came up to me and told me he would have paid a lot more for it and apologized for not letting me have the car. That was nice of him. No big deal lots more to come. At about 4pm the fire department and auction officials evacuated everyone from the main display auction tents. We did not know why. This made it very difficult to see what cars were coming up and to do last minute inspections while the cars were running. I asked one of the security guards what was going on, he said that some of the tent pegs were getting loose. The strong winds combined with the wet ground were causing the main tent poles to sink which was causing the tent pegs to get loose. That didn't sound good. I didn't really think much of it, so I was walking in between the auction tent and the display tent. Then it happened. I could not believe my eyes. I saw the far end of the tent peal upwards. That whole side of the tent then caught the wind like a sale and blew away. I could see the tent poles as they feel on the cars crushing many of them. If that was not bad enough, I could see the tent ropes blowing around with the tent pegs still attached ( these pegs were 3/4 ' steel rods about 3 foot long). They kept flicking the gravel rocks through the air, like a machine gun shooting at the cars. I remember hearing Drew making the announcement to evacuate the auction immediately. I was already on my way to the exit, but I could see the crowd coming towards the exit in a made panic.
Dave was in the car resting still suffering from jet lag and missed the whole thing. The second tent blew over shortly after. Masses of police and fire trucks with sirens blaring came to the auction site. In shock we went back to the motel and watch the news.Friday Russo Steele was closed, so we went to the Silver auction at the Fort Mc Dowell Indian Casino. Well the tents blew down at this auction as well. Fortunately the cars were not under the tents yet so there was no damage that I know of. By later that night the auction was under way. We ended up going back to Barrett Jackson for most of Friday as the other main auctions were closed. The prices of cars where a lot higher and people were getting ampt up. We couldn't buy anything, but we had a look at all the vendors and displays.
Saturday at Russo Steele was open to car owners, but the auction was still closed to the public. We ended up going to the Pavilion car show in the morning, but the bad weather kept most people away, so we went back to Silvers Auction. After a whole day, we only ended up with 2 cars. Hardly worth the effort, but it was better than coming home empty handed.
Sunday was our last day. Russo Steele was finally open for business so we went there. The place looked like a bomb had hit it. 1.5 million $'s of car damage. Apparently a lot of the car owners pulled their cars out Saturday. I saw that Black 59 vette I mentioned earlier. It had a tent peg through the rear quarter. There were some of the cars that were crushed by the tent poles still there, and many of the cars had what looked like bullet holes from the gravel being shot around. It was so disappointing and sad to see all these nice cars damaged. "The show must go on". The auction finally started. It was evident early that the buyers were only bidding low prices, and most of the reserves were not being met. By lunch time we had enough. We decided to go home.
All in all a bad trip. I blamed it all on Dave's bad luck.
