MAG Auctions, Arizona

Scottsdale auction week has gotten something of a reputation among car people, whether locals or the far-flung buyers who can’t make it out to the desert in January. It’s namely this: The auctions are too expensive, they’re pricing the little guy out of the hobby, nothing’s any good, and everything stinks. Well, if you’re among those who sees the seven-figure machines rolling over the transom on TV and can’t help but feel your blood boil (and judging from the mailbag every time auction season rolls around, we suspect that there’s plenty of you reading this now), have we got the tonic for what ails ya.

Over the last couple of years, MAG Auctions has proven to be the most inclusive of the sales over the course of the week. And by inclusive, we mean this: The cars do the talking, you see things you haven’t seen elsewhere 1,000 times, you can walk up to those cars and touch them and peek under the hoods like we did, and you can bid