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| Full disclosure, whatever that’s supposed to mean, here’s my van I sold on BaT and it was an excellent experience. |
Hemmings Motor News, the
giant of classic car classifieds and magazines, has started an auction site. I’m
going to give my honest observations about this as well as comment on the
attitudes of those that believe that these auction sites are ruining prospects
for finding cheap collector cars. I can do this freely, even though my mother
would have something to say about not offering constructive criticism, (sorry
Mom) because no one reads this blog anyway.
All this and more, after
this commercial for hot, delicious, humble pie.
I love Hemmings, I get their e-mail newsletter
and always find some new, engaging, and obscure automotive knowledge buried within.
They used to publish my favorite car magazine, Sports and Exotic Car, which is
defunct for lack of interest. The other three Hemmings magazines, Hemmings
Motor News, Muscle Car, and Classic Car are still published, and that fact has
a bearing on my opinion about their new auction site. Not from a sour grapes
perspective, mind you, but from a demographic and curmudgeon point of view.
When Hemmings rolled out
their auction site a few months ago they did everything right from a public
relations and marketing standpoint; they introduced their staff in a feature
piece, they outlined their mission statement, stated their operating procedures,
and offered incentives for early bidder registration. All fine, and even
approaching dandy, but I believe that Hemmings has a fundamental problem that
may keep them from having the success they desire.
Bring a Trailer; there, I
said it. If you don’t know who Bring a Trailer is then you are not a real car
person, so may I direct you to a delightful knitting site?
Bring a Trailer, also known as BaT has
gone from a website commenting on cars for sale, to the premier site for online
collector car auctions. If you’re serious about selling your car and finding
the right audience, there is simply no better place than BaT. BaT is so
successful because it has opened up the collector car market to the obscure and
previously unappreciated. You can still find high-dollar exotics on BaT,
candy-apple-chrome hotrods, and muscle cars, just like the big auction houses,
but BaT also accepts 1980’s Honda Civics, hot hatches, and the off-beat. Their
market is broad, coving every conceivable niche in the hobby without snobbery
or exclusive value guides written from on high. Their only criteria seem to be,
“Yeah, that’s cool.”
They also, from an
outsider’s view, have done this organically. I don’t think they sat around and
had meetings asking the question, “What can we do to boost the value of 2003 Honda CivicSi’s?”
I don’t think the physical
auction houses like Barret Jackson are as magnanimous either, and even if they
were, your 1983 Escort GT would cause you to lose your shirt in auction fees
and low bidding, not to mention the expense of getting it there. On BaT, your
Escort is likely to find a home with a fellow weirdo looking for just such a
car.
All this leads us back to
Hemmings. I sincerely wish Hemmings all the success in the world. I’m not the
kind of guy who believes that one thing must fail for something else to
succeed. I also don’t subscribe to the attitude that I’m required to hate one
thing if I like another, like rooting for a football team.
I don’t, unfortunately,
believe Hemmings is going to be very successful in its auction. Why do I think
this, asked no one? The core of Hemming’s audience is the muscle car and established
collector car crowd. These are guys my age and older who have a very narrow
definition of what constitutes a classic or collector car. They have seen the
value of their 1960’s muscle cars climb into the stratosphere, peak, and then
start to decline a bit. They see cars from the 1980s and ’90s as used car junk
that has no place in their world. Small four-cylinder hot hatches, Japenese
sports cars, and European yuppy mobiles are unwelcome interlopers that have
spread the market too thin and devalued their Hemi Cuda. There are exceptions,
of course, but the exceptions do not disprove the rule. Many people get struck
by lightning and live, but I’m not about to run around in the next thunderstorm
waving a golf club.
Just pop over to Hemmings
auction site and see for yourself.
You will see the odd BMW 2002 or JDM anomaly, but for the most part, it’s a collection
of traditional collector cars.
Get me wrong not; I’m not
saying I dislike classic America iron, I’m a car guy, I love that stuff. Maybe
that market is big enough to keep them going quite well, but I don’t see the
potential for explosive growth. What I’m saying is that Hemming’s demographic is
firmly in the aging, traditional, end of the market. They didn’t do this by
design, and I believe they are trying to broaden their appeal, but they are up
against a perception that they are a stodgy enclave of old curmudgeons. This, combined
with the fact that they entered the auction arena way too late in the game,
doesn’t bode well.
Let’s go back to their
magazines I mentioned earlier. It is very telling that Sport and Exotic Car had
half the readers of their more traditional magazines and they killed it. In my
opinion, Sports and Exotic was an excellent publication that featured the very
cars that are causing Bring a Trailer to thrive. I know paper publishing is
dying, but Hemming’s is still printing the other magazines, so it must make
some economic sense.
Ironically, the same
snobbery that was trying to keep the 1950s and 60s cars out of the collector
car hobby in the 1980s is the same snobbery that won’t accept a first-generation
Sentra SE-R today.
OK, but BaT is skewing
the market for chaep, late-model classics.
I have been reading
laments like the above in the comments sections of some popular car sites. “I
used to buy cheap VW Gti’s all day long and now, thanks to the feeding frenzy
on BaT, they’re getting out of reach.” The preceding is the spirit of comments
I see of late. The claim is that the famous auction site is draining the secret
honey-hole of overlooked classics by inflating their prices. I’m going to argue
that point by not arguing it. Bring a Trailer has indeed lifted the value of
such cars like first-generation Miatas and Volvo 240s.
Value, however, cuts both
ways. It may be more costly to buy these cars now but they are also worth more.
I’m watching a car I paid $800 for, go up by a factor of 10. Not good if I want
to buy another one so cheap, but selling it will put more money in the hobby
car kitty.
Increased value also spurs
the aftermarket into gear. Parts that may not have been worth reproducing may
suddenly become viable as more people restore these near-classics. Increased
prices also save cars bought so cheaply that kids get a hold of them and
destroy them, now are becoming out of reach for the motor masochist. When a car
costs more it has a better chance of being preserved and cared for by someone
who can afford it.
Finally, when value goes
up restoring a late model car may not be the financial black hole it was in the
past.
There is still the claim
that BaT is getting too big for its britches, that it’s no fun anymore. I say
that is a load of guano. Bigger means more variety and a thriving community. I
think its broad appeal is what will keep the hobby going. Bring a Trailer cuts
across all the hobby’s demographics and creates a community where anyone, no
matter how obscure his tastes, can find kindred spirits.
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