Auction Tragedy in Scottsdale

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After we evacuated the main auction tent, my wife and stood on the south side of the property and watched as the wind tore down the south tent. It was unreal. We saw 6 inch diameter steel poles falling on cars. The tent fabric was flapping hundreds of feet in the air. I'll never forget the sound and fury of that tent collapsing -- it was like that scene from the movie "Titanic" where they watch the ship break apart and sink. I know many of the guys who had cars under those tents -- they must be sick this morning. There were at least two Superbirds there, plus several Hemi Cudas and an original Sox & Martin Barracuda.

Unlike Barrett-Jackson, the Russo and Steele people are actually pretty decent folks. I'm afraid this will be the end of their event, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend.
 
Damn guys :(, I live less than half an hour away from there. Im just happy my darts home safe in the garage.
 
Alaskan_Dart said:
Good to hear you made it out safely. As far as B.Jackson, ha. It's about dang time he pays back to us non millionaires...Mother nature was on our side for once IMO.
Gees, I mean come on, every freaking car that goes through there is over priced, it's stupid money that people pay for cars nowadays.
B.J. ruins it for us guys that don't make 6 figures a year to buy a mopar muscle car like we did 10 to 15 years ago. The guy at the poedium keeps yelling for the price to go up, give me a break dude.
MY 2 cents, thanks a lot B.J. sellers, jackasses.
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How the hell is that B/J's fault, it's an auction, people set the price themselves..




I'm sick to my stomach having seen that video and thinking what could have been lost under those tents.
 
Glad to hear you fellows are alright, I was planning to be there myself this year. The wife talked me out of it, we agreed to go on a trip to Cuba instead.

Anyone hear from 6pkCheryl? She resides really close to that area.

That is an ugly site to see, keep us updated guys.

Giles
 
Cheryl was also working at the auction. I hope she is okay. I am glad that there have been no reported injuries, ....at least physical injuries.
 
I'll be heading up there later this morning once the weather clears a little bit. I can tell you that it's not going to be pretty. Those tent support poles were 6 inches in diameter, and about 60 ft. high. When the south tent fell, we could hear metal crunching and glass breaking. I'm guessing many cars were simply flattened. We were standing about 40 ft. from the tent when it fell, and there were all kinds of lights and electrical lines falling on the cars. I was expecting someone's gas tank to ignite at any second. That's why we made a run for it. If one car had caught on fire, it would have been a chain reaction all the way down the line. Very scary situation.
 
I'm glad no one was hurt,but looking at it from a liability standpoint (and I'm no lawyer) it looks to me that the tents weren't as secure as they could be IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THERE WAS WARNINGS of the storm including a "tornado watch" which IS "an act of God", many insurance companies don't cover. In any event, it looks like there's going to be a lot of battles going on in resolving any damaged vehicles. Between the video posted here & what the local news showed I think R&S may have dropped the ball in terms of securing their facility--apparently they did a good job though of getting everyone out.....
 
hemicop, don't feel bad that you don't know where the risk of loss falls in such a situation. I'm a shyster, er, I mean, lawyer, and even I don't know. Auto insurance comprehensive coverage in the context of an auction is quite a specialized issue. I've never studied up on it, and I doubt that many lawyers have.

Does anybody else know who is going to bear the risk of loss in this situation? Does it depend on whether the car had been sold yet or not? I seem to recall that the insurance burden falls on the buyer as soon as he has bought the car, but I'm not sure.

If any of you auction-hounds know the answer, please lay it on us. I'm sure that many of us are curious as the debbil about it.
 
man this sucks but anyone who is blaming the companies for this. They are IN ARIZONA the rain they got the last 3 days will almost meet their yearly totals, only so much can be done to setup and event of this size and if someone is that concerned then they are sure to use a different method of selling.
 
jeryst said:
I think it was the Russo & Steel auction, not Barritt Jackson.
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Whats the difference? As long as everyone got out safe..

Agree about the greed show.Cant stand watching it and even if I had the money would not support it..

Greed has screwed the world enough..
 
I saw that too, it was the guy who always wears sunglasses announcing
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They talked about that guy the other night , they said he has trouble with the bright lights (migraines) and that's why he wears the glasses . They were probably getting tired of all the emails wondering if the guy thought he was a rock star ....
 
That TOTALLY sucks. I am glad everyone made it out with no physical injuries...Too bad for the cars, they can be replaced though....
 
It will probably be considered an act of god.
Your insurance will be pay.
A transaction is not complete until the paperworks done.
Unless you want to fight in court over a sellers contract.
 
longarm said:
It will probably be considered an act of god.
Your insurance will be pay.
A transaction is not complete until the paperworks done.
Unless you want to fight in court over a sellers contract.
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Well if any insurance will pay, that's obviously a good thing. But here's the thing--looking at it from the insured's point-of-view, why should my company pay for the shortcomings of the seller(auctioneer)? If that's the case my company may or may not drop me or increase my rates when I have no control over the situation. Conversely, why should I, as the sales rep (aka auctioneer) have to pay for "an act of God", something I had no control over & presented my sale in good faith? I'm not trying to sound like an wiseguy, I'm just trying to understand WHO is going to fix these valuable, (now) relatively rare cars and just where DO the collector car insurance companies stand on this sort of thing?
 
It just makes you wonder what these people were thinking,bringing there cars out in these conditions to begin with. 9 out of 10 of these cars are garage/trailer queens that have never seen a drop of rain. Seems kind of silly to take the risk they did,considering the conditions.

Doesnt anybody check the 5 day ?
 
Johnny Dart said:
It just makes you wonder what these people were thinking,bringing there cars out in these conditions to begin with. 9 out of 10 of these cars are garage/trailer queens that have never seen a drop of rain. Seems kind of silly to take the risk they did,considering the conditions.

Doesnt anybody check the 5 day ?
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AGREED!
 
Johnny Dart said:
It just makes you wonder what these people were thinking,bringing there cars out in these conditions to begin with. 9 out of 10 of these cars are garage/trailer queens that have never seen a drop of rain. Seems kind of silly to take the risk they did,considering the conditions.

Doesnt anybody check the 5 day ?
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Guy, you had to be there. I was and I can tell you it was unexpected. The locals here are calling it a 35 year storm. A tornado touched down not far from the site. having seen the carnage and what the winds did it was not pretty. some nice cars were destroyed. There is a Mach 1 with a steel pole shoved through the front and back glass. a Nova was crushed. The facilities were well prepared but not for this. The forecast didn't call for this until the day before. As far as trailer queens, I can also tell you that the majority of cars that are being auctioned are driven and yes some have seen rain to include my car. If you want trailer queens then go to BJ. They have plenty. So far Russo has been stand up. A lot of us owners see this and appriciate what he's trying to do for us.
 
Just got back from the site. Site is still closed due to high winds and the structures no being safe. Fire departments call. The Russo rep briefed all that were there. Plan is at 8AM tomorrow (Saturday)all consignors (no guests, just the consignors) will meet at the auction tent for breakfast. At that time we will be briefed on the plan. Again no guests will be admitted.

If your car is damaged you can opt out of the auction. they also have some of the bidders wanting to discuss the possibility of buying some of the damaged cars. Some owners may want to sell, who knows. Anyway, they will make every effort to allow you to load your car up tomorrow. If you have a contracted transporter they will seal up your car until it can be picked up.

If your car is undamaged the auction is on. Plan is for it to start 10:00AM Sunday and go into the late hours Sunday evening. It will pick back up again Monday. The rep said that they have been getting calls from the bidders wanting to buy cars so they are making it a go.
 
dart4forte, I believe I have worked w/ you for several days although I don't know who you are! I am totally exhausted.......
 
Hey Cheryl :cheers:, I just got back from work, I was wondering about you...

Nice to hear again that no one was hurt.
 
I was there too, just got back, weather was very nasty for AZ thought I was back in WY, serious rain and very hard winds.

Man sorry about the cars that really sucked!

Kinda ruined my outside time for 3 of 4 days i was there..
 
A storm like that had to be a surprise, I mean it`s Arizona, doesn`t Arizona get like 10 inches of rainfall annually? Maybe not even that much? That had to be a very rare occurence in such an arid region. Nobody could have predicted a storm like that. I`m glad no one was hurt but I feel for those guys that lost vehicles.
 
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