Classic VW BuGs Scottsdale Auction Wrap up Results

Scottsdale Auction Week Wrap up

My Lil Buddy ’54 Beetle above that I restored 8 years ago went for close to 40k at Bonhams.  Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong owned this car after me!  I sold it for $22,500 on eBay 8 years ago.  The bug is a good investment.

Well the big kick off last week came and went for the Scottsdale Auctions.  The word going around prior was that the classic car market contnues to grow and cars continue to steadily go up in value.  I sat in on a Hagerty Seminar HERE before auctions started.  It is kind of a long seminar, over an hour, but I liked some good points they mentioned.

One brief point that I liked was that the VW market seems to be “immune” to market trends thus far, so that’s cool. 

Here is what I saw in the VW market this weekend;

Beetles did pretty well!  Prices went up steadily.  Some big surprises were a ’78 and ’79 Beetle Verts, the ’78 went for 40k, while the ’79 went for 31k.  Both unrestored low mile bugs, keep that in mind. 

They did mention in the Hagerty Seminar that the late 70s into the 80s, and even into the 90s cars are now showing life.  I guess that generation is coming into light now.

Have the Type 2s hit the bubble yet?  From what I saw in Scottsdale this year, only one Type 2 hit the 100k mark, and it was not even the one that everyone thought was going to hit 200k or so.  They performed lower than expected, has reality come into play?

A 1952 Split Standard bug went for 60k at the RM AUCTIONS.

In the end, the overall picture was that Scottsdale performed LOWER than last year.  40 Million dollars lower!  The state of the market looks to be cautious in the big car picture right now.

YOU CAN READ THE HAGERTY ANALYSIS HERE

Keep in mind, just because you see a car sell for a jackpot price on auction, does not mean that it dictates the market for that car here on out.  People tend to react to that, “Oh I got the same car, mine is just as nice!  I’m gonna ask this much for it now!” 

Last Updated: February 4th, 2016

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