Topic: Barrett-Jackson Trans Am's Values

[Dinero]

Have you all noticed how much Trans Am's are selling for at Barrett-Jackson this week?
Richard Gas Monkey even bought a 77 Black SE for $75K. Than a 1980 for for $170k(7 miles on it).
Today there is another 77 SE going up for bid and I think Burt Reynolds himself will be there to see it auctioned. He was on TV yesterday.
Given these are super nice cars, what they sold for is just unheard of.
The 1980 that went for $170k, I had seen it previously for $90 from a private seller.
The word from Barrett-J is that they are finally coming in on their own.

Any thoughts? Thanks

[mikekop]

The $170K car was not a 1980, it was a 1979 10th Anniversary Trans Am.
There was a 1980 Turbo Trans Am SE that sold for $100K
And the -77 SE was not "another SE", it was THE existing car with the closest history to the Smokey & The Bandit-movie. It was owned and used by Universal Studios as a promo car. It sold for $500K.

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[winks79]

A lot of  "tomfoolery" going on with that promo car. Been a lot of discussion on other forums about what really went down with it. It is not really as special as they make it out to be. That car was sold off e-bay last spring with bill of sale only. BJ was saying that they found a lot of movie info in the car, but that is not the case. They added that to their story. If people believe it, then it must me true, right? Here is the listing on ebay, and the vin matches the one at BJ. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pontiac-Trans-Am-1977-TRANS-AM-SMOKEY-AND-THE-BANDIT-EDITION-/171726980082?forcerrptr=true&hash=item27fbb9c3f2&item=171726980082. They hyped it up saying how they found this car, like it was hide or something. Heck, it was for sale for any of us to buy off Ebay, even the previous owner did not think it was that big of a deal. He was selling it for a parts car, it was roached. If it had been preserved as a survivor and documented well over the years, this would change my opinion of the car. IMO the car is just another SE, that has a small dash plaque added to it, they even had the window sticker made up with an extra $1000 charge as a Universal Studio Promotional Car. For me, I would want to see the original window sticker, I bet it does not have that on it. If it had been one of the actual movie cars, then I could see them having something special that should bring big bucks.

[72blackbird]

Owners of these 2nd gen TA models shouldn't get too excited- clearly some uninformed money people got into a bidding war and it turned into a pissing contest. They will all loose their asses when they try to flip the cars in a year or so.

Geno

[JupiterBandit]

That's the car? Wasn't it missing the original motor too. The plaque looked homemade. Wow.

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[79ban1]

With people watching auctions like this make then think their pos parts car is worth a fortune. I remember you could buy a nice driver for about 3500.00 not to long ago. With these car auctions and rich crazy people bidding just makes it hard for us every day enthusiast. They drive up the prices so far up the average Joe can't afford the cars anymore. This happened to the challenger, cuda, charger, road runner.

[Dinero]

i also noticed that other good T/A's went for in the teens.  All those looked like daily drivers but in good shape.  So yes, nothing to get excited about. Still it is very interesting that some went for high $'s.
Great points brought up by everybody.

[21black21]

Not that it makes it worth $170k, but the '79 10th car only had 7 miles on it. There were also a number of the TA's advertised as survivors and original when clearly some of them had been repainted.

[ta9590]

Yahoo put this out there the other day.  Kinda sums the whole thing up.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/crazy-money-turning-70s-pontiac-trans-ams-into-165434147.html

[Dinero]

Exactly, plus just leave that T/A alone. Save your money and let it appreciate on its own.