to Auburn, Indiana to attend a classic car auction held by auctioneer Robert Kruse and his family. The event inspired the first Barrett-Jackson auto auction, held in Scottsdale in December 1971, with the Kruse family as auctioneers. The event included 50 vehicles from Barrett's collection and 25 from Jackson's, with another 75 from various sellers. The auction was originally meant as a one-time event, but was more successful than expected, garnering 3,000 attendees. It became an annual event, and eventually prompted the creation of other collector car auctions in the Scottsdale area. Jackson's wife Ellen was a car enthusiast like him and also took part in the business. Jackson's son, Craig, described his father and Barrett as opposites: "Tom was very colorful and an expert 'showman' and was the wheeler-dealer who went out and found cars around the world and brought them back to Arizona. My mom ran the front office, and my dad ran the shop and restorations. He was more the 'car guy'". Barrett and Jackson jokingly referred to each other as Mr. Loose and Mr. Tight respectively, in reference to their spending habits. After a lengthy battle with colon cancer, Russ Jackson died in 1993, at the age of 77. He had retired from the business several years earlier, leaving sons Brian and Craig in charge. Barrett retired following Jackson's death, and he himself would die 11 years later, at the age of 75. Brian Jackson also died from colon cancer in 1995, leaving his brother in charge. Craig Jackson serves as chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson Auction Company. He had worked for the business since he was a child, starting out on trash duty. Upon taking over the company, he disproved skeptics who questioned whether he could handle the business, introducing Internet bidding which further popularized the auctions. He also put out customer surveys, which prompted the expansion of the event to include vendors and live entertainment. In the 2000s, Barrett-Jackson began expanding to other U.S. cities, while maintaining its headquarters in Scottsdale. Barrett-Jackson garnered $108 million in 2007, a record that would not be broken until 2014, by about $5 million. The auction house had been impacted by the Great Recession, and business did not fully recover until 2018. In 2021, Barrett-Jackson purchased the Phoenix-based Collector Car Network, which included several classic car publications and the Future Collector Car Show. With the acquisition, Barrett-Jackson aimed