GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Attending last week’s National Auto Auction Association convention gave Black Book’s Ricky Beggs access to new information. Beggs indicated there seems to be a slight uptick in sales conversion rates as more than one auction showed the Black Book vice president and managing editor multiple reports of a better sales percentage.

Reacting to this development in his weekly online video series, Beggs on the Used Car Market, the Black Book veteran acknowledged, “As we have been witnessing for almost two years now, a lower number of vehicles being offered for sale continues to change at the auctions.

“I had one remarketer who expressed some excitement about his better level of sales conversion while still maintaining good retention values early in the week, only to tell me a couple of days later the conversion rate fell back down slightly while the values fell a little more than earlier in the week,” he continued.

“All told after analyzing all of the data we captured this past week, the editors’ efforts resulted in the fewest number of adjustments over the past three weeks of activity,” Beggs added.

While Black Book has watched truck prices sink significantly during the past few weeks, the decline for cars actually was greater than trucks last week. Editors placed the average change for cars at a drop of $49, while they put the average truck decrease at $45.

Looking deeper at cars, Black Book found that many cars segments slipped in the range of $40, a trend that’s been growing for six out of the past eight weeks.

Meanwhile, the average truck drop was better than it had been in the previous three weeks, according to Black Book. Editors noticed midsize SUVs remained flat, while luxury SUVs (down $3), full-size crossovers and midsize pickups (down $6) posted minimal declines.

“The previous two weeks had multiple segments declining $100 or more in the truck segments, where only compact SUVs (down $141) were at that level this past week,” Beggs pointed out.

In other developments, Beggs highlighted that Black Book vice president and North American auction director Tim West was inducted into the NAAA Hall of Fame. As previously reported by Auto Remarketing, West was honored for his contributions to the NAAA and the auction industry

“This is a tremendous honor for Tim and Black Book,” Beggs declared. “Tim follows some very impressive professionals around the auction industry who have been inducted since the award was created in 1968, including three other Black Book associates who have been so honored, the late Dave Cape and former presidents of Black Book, Gene McDonald and Bob Burnett.

“Congratulations Tim for representing Black Book so well,” Beggs added.

Beggs also offered his congratulations to friend Dan Kennedy, director of remarketing for General Motors, who also was inducted into the NAAA Hall of Fame.

Along with Beggs and West, Black Book’s contingent at the NAAA’s annual gathering included Tom Cross and Eric Lawrence

“What a great week we had as we were able to say thank you to so many auction owners and managers  for allowing Black Book to be on the auction lanes every week. We cherish the friendships that have grown over the years,” Beggs stressed.

“I personally appreciated all the comments and discussions regarding the current market, the expectations for the next few months of 2011, and other insights that you feel will be a factor in the level of the values and auction activity,” he went on to say.

“The auctions continue to be where the wholesale market is established. We look forward to being on the auction lanes at over 60 auctions this week reporting the market from where it all begins,” Beggs concluded.

Beggs’ videos can be viewed here.