HAMMER TIME; Your guide to the Arizona auctions.(News)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

Heading to Arizona for the January auctions? Allow us to suggest some reading material for the trip: the 2008 Collector Car Price Guide by Ron Kowalke, with more than 250,000 "proven prices.''

And once you get to Arizona, toss the book into your suitcase, because you won't need it again. Remember? This is Arizona in January, where they make prices up as they go along. Besides, it's sort of hard to determine the value for vehicles such as the "fire-breathing, car-crunching robot,'' the Robosaurus, lot 1307 in the Barrett-Jackson auction, which appears nowhere among the proven prices in any guide.

This year, there are seven-count 'em, seven-January auctions in the Phoenix area, offering thousands of opportunities to spend your children's inheritance.

Certainly, the draft horse that pulls this train is the 37th annual Barrett-Jackson event, bolstered by hours of breathless coverage on Speed TV during all six days. But because of the competition, "Barrett-Jackson probably isn't the anchor tenant of the Phoenix auctions it once was,'' says Andy Reid, auction editor of Classic Motorsports magazine. "Arizona in January used to be an event ruled and facilitated by Barrett-Jackson, but they aren't as much a factor as they once were, at least to serious customers. They have some very, very good competition.''

Reid also says the outlook for this season's auctions, mid-level cars in particular, is a bit uncertain. Since the last major sale-Monterey in August-the subprime-mortgage crisis hit, and while those people most directly affected aren't likely to be bidding on Ferraris, the tenor of the economy is less sure than it was.

"The best cars will be selling for whatever they cost,'' Reid says. "I don't think there will be a problem with what we call the full-price cars.''