The New York Times-20080127-In Desert- the Prices Keep Their Heat

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In Desert, the Prices Keep Their Heat

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THE clatter and the chatter of a Champagne brunch gave way to sudden silence as the elegant yellow Ferrari crept onto the stage.

Only a very special car would have such an effect on the crowd, here for the Gooding & Company classic car auction on Jan. 19. This Ferrari, a 1959 250 GT -- one of only about 50 long-wheelbase California Spiders ever made -- certainly qualified. Its V-12 engine purred. Its wire-spoke wheels sparkled.

The bidding opened at $2 million and continued among several aspiring owners at $100,000 increments.

How high would it go? Good question. Previously, such a Ferrari might have been valued at $3.5 million, but here the bidding slowed as it passed $2.7 million, down to increases of just $50,000 at a time. The audience seemed to be holding its breath.

These are uncertain times in the world of automobile collecting, values rising and falling with the health of the economy. In the past, when the economy came down with a cold, the classic-car market lapsed into something close to pneumonia. Now, as the economy shakes with the onset of chills and fever, potential buyers seem to be loading up on healthy doses of caution.

The Ferrari and its driver waited motionless on stage. The auctioneer, Charlie Ross, is a proper Englishman with an accent to match. Conducting the sale with the same decorum that prevails at his fine art auctions, Mr. Ross politely but firmly tried to coax higher amounts from the two bidders still competing for the Italian beauty.

Down to $25,000 increments now, the bidding paused at $2.975 million.

Do I hear $3 million? the auctioneer implored, looking plaintively at a hesitant bidder. Three? No?

The vast auction space, decorated like a hotel ballroom, was silent, save for the tinkling of crystal chandeliers.

Two million, nine hundred and seventy-five thousand, Mr. Ross enunciated slowly.

Once! he snapped. Twice!

He paused again.

Now $3 million! he shouted exultantly, as the lagging bidder answered with a nearly imperceptible gesture. Now $3 million. Do I hear more, sir? He turned to the other man.

Alas, it was over. The bidder signaled No. The gavel came down. And the Ferrari idled off the stage.

The audience was momentarily stunned, but then the applause started, growing to a roar as the realization sunk in: the yellow Ferrari was the star of not only this show, but of every auction held nearby.

There were, in fact, at least six major auctions in central Arizona over the course of two full weeks this month. Nearly 2,000 collector cars and items of automobilia changed hands, worth a total of $160 million, according to results supplied by the auction houses. But the yellow Ferrari, which ended up at $3.3 million with commissions, easily topped them all. Sixteen other cars brought prices of more than $1 million.

Arizona in winter is where the rich and weather-weary come to play and pay, a draw for conventions, golf and tennis tournaments and, of course, the auction season for collector cars.

The mammoth Barrett-Jackson sale, with its 600,000 square-foot big top tent and a river of hopeful sellers, is the blazing sun in this universe, its gravitational pull attracting the other auctions to town. It is well worth visiting some of those planets, like the boutique Gooding auction, which came to the Scottsdale gathering for the first time this year. Although its location, in a Dillard's department store parking lot, might have lacked a certain cachet, the 72 cars it offered were all first-rate -- including a Lincoln Continental customized for Raymond Loewy that sold for $451,000 -- bringing in $21 million in total sales.

RM Auctions, which also caters to a high-end clientele, rang up $27 million in sales in its seventh year at the luxurious Arizona Biltmore. RM's totals included six of the top nine transactions over all -- two of which, a 1934 Packard Twelve coupe and a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K, exceeded $2 million each. These were reserve price auctions and all but 5 of the 88 vehicles offered were sold.

The sales percentage wasn't that high at Russo & Steele's 200,000-square-foot auction tent on vacant state land in northeast Scottsdale. Of 509 cars offered, 311 sold, said Drew Alcazar, the company's president, for a total of $19.4 million. That compared favorably with last year's total of $20 million. Our top transaction this year was $412,500 for a 1969 L88 Corvette, he said.

Barrett-Jackson reported $88 million in sales, including sales of automobilia like porcelain signs, gas pumps, pedal cars and souvenirs. A year ago, the Barrett-Jackson event -- it includes concerts, a nonautomotive shopping mall and other attractions -- grossed $111 million, according to Luke DeRouen, a spokesman. Barrett-Jackson offered 1,163 collector vehicles in no-reserve sales, compared with 1,271 last year.

Over all, Tom duPont, publisher of The duPontRegistry, called the totals impressive.

While many had predicted a classic low-revenue, low-sales meltdown, it was quite the opposite, he wrote in an e-mail message. When sellers were faced with reserve prices that were ahead of the market, many promptly dropped the reserve and generally got a good price. This would be a return to normalcy in the market, rather than the speculative frenzy of the last few years.

Mr. Alcazar of Russo & Steele said prices had hit a plateau at his auctions, rather than dropping. Selectivity, he noted, is now crucial. Buyers aren't hunting with a shotgun anymore, he said. Now, they're snipers.

Mr. Gooding conceded that although a number of his offerings sold at the low end of expectations, he was encouraged that the special cars all exceeded our expectations.

Most sellers hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst. They seemed to come away, for the most part, relieved and even pleasantly surprised.

At Barrett-Jackson, with its 39 hours of nationally televised auctioneering on the Speed cable network, the scene played out more agreeably than last year, when buyers, sellers and even the press tussled with company officials over auction prices; a defamation lawsuit filed by the company against a 2007 customer was settled just before this year's event.

The top seller in Barrett-Jackson's weeklong event at the Westworld fairgrounds was the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Rondine concept car, built by Pininfarina for that year's Paris auto show, that brought $1.6 million.

Also auctioned were such oddities as the 40-foot-tall Robosaurus robotic dinosaur (for $575,000), a pop-culture icon, and a '69 Chevy Camaro tribute car modeled after one owned by Dale Earnhardt -- and was advertised as having an engine block from the Intimidator's 2000 Daytona 500 racecar.

Charity auctions raised $2 million from sales of a 2009 Corvette ZR1, the very first 2008 Dodge Challenger and a one-of-kind 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: STAR CARS: Clockwise from top, 1936 Mercedes 540K; Robosaurus; Raymond Loewy's Lincoln; Corvette ZR1; Corvette Rondine show car. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JERRY GARRETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (LINCOLN, ROBOSAURUS); BARRETT-JACKSON (RONDINE); PAUL MORTON/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY (ZR1); RM AUCTIONS (MERCEDES)) (pg. AU2); PRECIOUS METAL: Top sale of the Arizona auctions was a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY GARRETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. AU1)