Less is More at Barrett-Jackson in 2008

That famous quote comes from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the architect.

It probably didn't occur to Craig Jackson and Steve Davis when they coincidentally announced, as an aside to describing the early headline consignments to Barrett-Jackson's January 2008 signature sale, that they're cutting back by 250 or so cars from the nearly-overwhelming 1,270 car consignment of 2007.

Part of the rationale for cutting back is B-J's desire to "shift" some of the Scottsdale consignment to an as yet unannounced new Fall auction site, which is widely known to be Las Vegas.

The concentration on higher value/smaller numbers also may be encouraged, if not instigated, by all the new management folks added to B-J in the wake of the investment in the company by Endeavour Capital, announced on September 19.

To those of us who were at WestWorld last year watching B-J try to get nearly 1,300 cars across the auction block, sell them, manage the SPEED Channel schedule, and get them off the block and out of the way, the acknowledgement that 1,300 cars is more than WestWorld and one auction block at B-J can handle -- even in six days -- was not unexpected. Cutting the number of cars will give B-J more room for vendors and increase the vendor location rental income. It will enhance the "event" aspects of the event.

This was the 2007 crowd at the start of the auction on Tuesday. It didn't get any smaller.

B-J has already proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in West Palm Beach that the B-J team has the ability to translate the "Barrett-Jackson experience" to new venues and another venue (Las Vegas) is at once both a more lucrative and a less stressful opportunity than trying to figure out how to squeeze 1,500 cars across the WestWorld block.

It's a smart move, and not a moment too soon.

Rick Carey