GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

As the weather cools, seasonality normally takes charge, pushing wholesale values down for exotic and sports vehicles. But this isn’t the case this time around.

But with winter also come some of the most popular exotic and collector car auctions of the year.

According to Black Book’s Ricky Beggs, it seems everyone in the remarketing industry is “getting ready for the big collectible car auctions in Arizona next month.”

These include events such as the first Phoenix Classic & Exotic Car Auction, scheduled for Jan. 14 and 15.

Beggs, editorial director and senior vice president of Black Book, said the industry is expecting the various auctions touting exotic and collectible cars to do “very well.”

“Many people are getting their cars ready to sell, some are conferring with their financial planners and bankers, some are making airline and hotel reservations, and others are going to have friends over and watch the action live from the comfort of their living rooms,” Beggs said in the December edition of “Beggs on the Specialty Markets.”

Beggs explained the “extreme upper-end of the market is very hot right now,” which he said will lead to big spending at this year’s most popular collector car auctions.

He offered the example of last week’s  RM/Sotheby’s “Art of the Automobile” auction, which notched more than  $62,000,000 in just over two hours, Beggs reported.

Beggs explained this type of enthusiasm will most likely trickle down to the mid-range and entry level collectibles, as well.

“I don’t know if we’ll see the same numbers that we saw at the peak of the market, but we are predicting that records will be set in nearly all categories of vehicles,” he said.

Medium- and Heavy-Duty Trucks Continue to Gain Momentum

Crossing over to a very different market segment, but one that has seen similar strength, Beggs said the medium-duty truck market is continuing its strengthening trend.

Overall, 2003-2010 model-year medium-duty units saw prices fall an average of $115 in November, which is the smallest decline for this segment since August 2012, Beggs reported.

Late-model units are also relatively stable with an average decrease of $282. This is the smallest decrease in values for this segment since October 2012, according to Beggs.

For heavy-duty trucks and tractors, the story is much the same, as Beggs said during November “a stabilizing trend was apparent” in these segments.

For 2003-2010 model-year trucks depreciation rates stayed almost even with October. Heavy-duty construction and regional trucks saw depreciation of 0.7 percent, or -$218 and -$192, respectively. 

“If this trend continues, look for higher depreciation values next month for heavy-duty over-the-road tractors and heavy-duty regional tractors as well, because both segments have a good bit of aero trucks included in their segment,” Beggs said. “This trend was pretty much the same for 2012-2011 models and will most likely be evident next month with even higher depreciation values than the 2010-2003 models.”