Barrett-Jackson-itis

Its been awhile since I talked about a disease that has been going around in the Hot Rod world, the last one was Kustom Syndrome. Anyway there is a disease that has been going around for a few years now that hasn’t been mentioned and that is Barrett –Jackson-itis!

            I have nothing against the Barrett –Jackson auctions, sometimes I watch it when I am bored and nothing is on what I am warning you about is how a lot of car owners caught a nasty side effect from watching Barrett –Jackson-itis!

            What is Barrett-Jackson- itis? Well it is when classic car owners see the prices the restoted, custom and rare model cars are going for on Barrett-Jackson that they assume there poor or mediocre conditioned classic that has been sitting in there garage is worth tens of thousands of dollars!   

            You probably have seen it before, maybe looking around on craigslist and you find a 1968 Chevy Malibu for sale that need paint, the 350 in it needs work, the interior needs to be redone and the guy thinks its worth $25,000! Or maybe you found a shell of a car like a Plymouth Roadrunner, it’s a good condition shell no rust, but at the same time no motor, tranny, suspension or interior so you think $2,000 sounds fare but the guy wants $20,000 for it “cause it’s a Roadrunner, the one on Barrett-Jackson went for $30,000!” which is an excuse you will commonly hear.

What to do about it?

Now do you really think I would tell you about Barrett-Jackson- itis and not tell you how to treat it? Here are a few things you can do.

The wear them down method- Chances are when you find a classic car on Craigslist and you go and meet with the owner, 9 times out of 10 you are there only interested buyer! If you really want to confirm this watch craigslist for a few weeks and you will see several of the same cars been reposted in new ads.

Since you are most likely the only potential buyer you can use this to your advantage! What you can do is keep trying to wear the owner down over a period of time. Show up once to ask about the car, here the owner mention the ridiculous price, leave and come back a week later do the same thing. After a few weeks you will wear them down to a reasonable price.

Traditional Haggling- You could always try the traditional haggling method, when you are there with the owner. Maybe bring up some real facts, if the car is a project car (most likely it is) explain to the owner that it needs lots of work before its worth $20,000, maybe try to show them the difference between the cars in the Barrett -Jackson Auction and how there car isn’t worth $20,000 yet or just play Hardball and just try to lower price that way.

Barrett-Jackson-itis has been come a problem for a lot of Hot Rodders, hopefully we can stop people from believing there unfinished cars are worth tens of thousands of dollars.