"My friend’s ’77 Ford Bronco Sport is about to go across the block. I’ll meet you at the Media Center," Jim Wicks said from his cell.

Everywhere we go its “old home week” at B-J. The man to the right of Jim Wicks (blue shirt on left) won $22 million in the Canadian lottery. He had some buying power. Next to the lottery winner is Ed Meyer, famous Boss Mustang expert, and Clarence Thompson on the far right.

I had just arrived at Barrett-Jackson for the start of this year’s big auction, a Tuesday, January 17th. Most of the heavy hitter action wouldn’t be until the weekend. Wow, Saturday was a long ways off.

The variety of cars is awesome. This 1965 Amphicar was "ready for the water" and featured a new interior. These cars are extremely rare.

I have attended this sale for almost 30 years, hard to believe, and I have come to enjoy the early days of the sale as much or more than the so-called “big days” of the weekend. The crowds are a little smaller, parking is easier and the deals are sweeter.

Attendees stroll through the grounds, winding in and out of giant open-sided white tents to browse through the 1327 cars.

Everybody talks about the record-setters at B-J, and they are fun. Everybody can watch them on television. As you view the sale this weekend, be sure to check out the 1948 Tucker that is one of the highlights of not just this year, but perhaps ever in the history of the sale.

Inside the white Media Tent (every tent seems to be white) on Wednesday Craig Jackson, the CEO and Chairman, stopped by to brief the press folks gathered for lunch. He fielded questions, one of which what cars would be the record-setters. Obvious, Craig said, were three cars, a 1948 Tucker Torpedo, a 1954 Mercedes Gullwing with 4,149 miles, and a 1947 Bentley Mark VII with coachworks by Franay (pronounced Fra-Nay), a car I had never heard of and had to look up in the brochure to spell correctly. These cars are part of a larger “Salon” set of eleven cars. We’ll post a photo of each car with a full description and sale price.

B-J has a reputation for getting big money for cars with "bling." Bidders like shiny cars. But, they also have a reputation for getting the best of the best, and most of the cars at no reserve, meaning they will sell. In fact, of the 1327 cars offered this year, just these 11 Salon cars have a reserve, the requirement being a half-million dollars plus.

But, at B-J there’s something for just about everybody. Jim Wicks met me in the media center smiling and laughing because his friend sold his ’77 Bronco for $15,000. That’s a low dollar figure for arguably the biggest and most prestigious classic car auction in the world. But, Bronco’s are cool collector cars.

This '56 Plymouth Suburban station wagon was covered with a “patina” of surface rust, but the 277 cubic inch V8 ran quiet and smooth.

At the press gathering, Craig Jackson- who is a true collector himself- told us at B-J they like to “stock the shelves” with the cars that people want. In other words, they want literally something for everybody. But, they know a collector car. B-J picks and chooses from cars. Every car doesn’t make the sale.

I tagged along with Jim Wicks on to see a '65 Shelby Mustang GT350 to go across the block Saturday. Wicks is a leading expert on the cars of Carroll Shelby. He is the founder of the Mid-America Shelby show, now the "Shelby Team Nationals" held every June in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

These stripes are original, quite a rarity on a car built in 1965 and a Shelby to boot. Collectors love original cars. The car owner displayed a sign with times he would be near the car to answer questions.

Apparently, Bronco's are becoming collectible and they are on the upswing The main reason Wicks couldn’t help smiling is his friend purchased this car at last year’s sale here and paid ten grand. So, he made a 50% profit on re-sale, minus his commissions and expenses to travel.

"I had another client who wanted the Bronco, but the price went a little too high. He wanted to pay ten," Jim said.

I would be willing to bet the person who bought the Bronco will make money on his or her purchase. That’s the way the hobby goes. Smart collector’s pay a little more for the good cars and then somebody else will pay then more later.

Clarence Thompson's son, Jason, found this 1969 Ford Talladega in a junkyard in North Carolina. The Talladega turned out to be a prototype Ford made for the famous racecar driver Banjo Matthews.

From the media tent, I could watch the auction on the television monitor. But, there's so much to do at a Barrett-Jackson auction. Sitting around is not the preferred activity here, whether in the media room in front of a monitor or in the main auction tent in a chair- unless one is in a bidding mood. There are even giant monitors on the grounds so you can hardly go anywhere without keeping an eye on the bidding.

The headlight bucket on the '69 Boss 302 should have been blacked out, but was painted body color, as seen here. Wicks deemed this ’69 a good car, but not a great car, probably worth in the mid-50s’.

Phil Skinner, who is the "Car Market Editor" for the Kelley Blue Book walked into the media center. Phil compiles prices for 1946 through 1988 models. He is definitely one of the authorities in the world on pricing and attends upwards of 30 auctions per year. That night at dinner, Phil asked David Grunwald, Auction Analyst for “Sports Car Market” magazine if he had noticed the “crazy weird” pricing. David asked Skinner if he meant crazy weird as in bargain or crazy weird as in higher. He pointed his thumb skyward and raised an eyebrow.

B-J is full of personalities and celebrities. On the left is George Folmer, the famous Mustang Trans Am racer.

By the next day this trend was apparent. Prices on collector cars at Barrett-Jackson were definitely moving up. Craig gave us the figure of about "fifteen percent" over the previous year.

As a possible purchase for a client, Jim Wicks looked at Jason Thompson’s 1969 Ford Talladega prototype that Ford specially built for NASCAR racing legend Banjo Matthews.

The "great weather," Craig said, "Sure didn’t hurt sales." Everybody was enjoying sunny skies and little wind. Arizona weather is not always this kind, as snowbirds who come south for the winter say. A couple years ago a whirlwind swept through the area and leveled several tents over at the Russo/Steele collector car auction. Some years the skies have dripped rain, and on one memorable occasion a combination of tiny hail and sleet peppered us.

I spotted Lance Miller, from Carlisle Productions, waiting in line to drive a ’69 T-Top coupe (charity lot 3001) into the auction. The net proceeds from the sale will go to benefit Amyloidosis Research. Amyloidosis is the disease that took the life of Lance’s father, Chip, one of the founders of Carlisle. San Diego Classic and Muscle Cars donated the car and Reliable Carriers donated the shipping costs to the winning bidder.

Craig mentioned the addition of the "Life Style Pavilion," basically a non-car related boutique for ladies.

The Lifestyle Pavilion is new this year.

"The Garage" is more of the nightclub, rocking every night. Another major development this year was doubling the number of skyboxes.

"I have seventy CEO’s in skyboxes," Craig said.

Barrett-Jackson 2012 is a far cry from 1971, the first auction. At this time Scottsdale was a sleepy little town of 30,000 population, one-tenth its current size. To give you an idea of the size of the auction, the 41st Annual B-J employs 520 people.

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