Major League Baseball settled its labor dispute last week, so spring training is intensifying quickly in Florida and Arizona.

But wholesale prices softened another 0.64% last week, prompting Black Book to wonder when dealers are fully ready to embrace the spring season.

In the latest installment of Market Insights, Black Book on Tuesday said, “week-over-week adjustments are still larger than typically experienced this time of year, as the market still waits to see if we will see the ‘spring bump.’”

While not as much as the previous week, Black Book indicated car segment values on a volume-weighted basis decreased more than the overall market, softening 0.81% last week. For reference, the previous week’s decrease for cars was 0.97%.

Analysts said prices in all nine car segments declined last week, with sporty cars pacing the decreases at 1.33%, marking a third week so far in 2022 with drop exceeding 1%.

Perhaps showing some preps for spring retail activities, Black Book noticed that prices for compact cars softened the least at 0.38%, reducing the previous week’s value decline (0.72%) by more than half.

The value decrease decelerated among trucks, too, as Black Book’s volume-weighted data showed overall truck segment prices decreased 0.56% last week; which was not as much as the previous week’s drop of 0.85%.

Almost like clockwork, analysts said prices for full-size vans rose another 0.37%, increasing for 59th week in a row. Black Book pegged the average rise during the stretch at 0.62%.

And with a gallon of gas well above $4 nearly everywhere, analysts pointed out that values for full-size SUVs still are showing stability, ticking up 0.01%.

Meanwhile, Black Book said prices for sub-compact and compact luxury crossovers declined 1.02% and 1.11%, respectively.

One other metric to mention before getting into Black Book’s newest expectations. Analysts said that the estimated average weekly sales rate has started to pick up over the last few weeks with the latest estimate at 65%, noting that this is “a positive indicator of a traditional spring/tax-season market.”

Last spring, Black Book recapped that the estimated average weekly sales rate increased around 10 percentage points during a six-week period, rising from about 64% to 75%.

“The lanes are heating up as dealers plan for a spring/tax-season market. Franchise dealers have been somewhat absent as they continue to purchase upstream or at grounding, but large independent dealers and rental companies have been hot and heavy in lane,” Black Book said in the newest report.

“With several manufacturers freezing fleet sales, rental companies have struggled to meet demand and have been actively purchasing vehicles both in lane and at dealerships,” analysts continued. “It seems like rental companies have started being more active in lane as COVID restrictions are rolled back and Americans prepare to travel.

“As wholesale values continue to decrease — this week at 0.64%, more than twice the depreciation seen this same week pre-pandemic — some sellers are still holding tight to their floors while others sell it all,” Black Book went on to say.

“With additional production constraints due to chip and raw material shortages, and OEMs warning against aggressive dealer market adjustments, used vehicles will be in the spotlight again as we head into the first big buying season of the year,” analysts added.