About Kelly Blue Book
About Kelly Blue
Book
Ever wondered where the phrase "blue-book
value" comes from? The answer is Kelly Blue Book,
the nation's best-known used-car pricing guide. For
more than 70 years dealers, finance institutions, insurance
companies and consumers have used the Blue Book to help
them establish used-car market values.
The first Kelly Blue Book was published in
1926. In those days, the price of a new Packard sedan
limousine was around $3,825 and that of a used 1921
Nash touring car, even with a clock, was about $50.
Les Kelly, California-transplanted son of an Arkansas
preacher, authored the original Kelly Blue Book.
A dozen years earlier, in 1914, Les had arrived in Los
Angeles at the age of 17¡ªbroke, unemployed, but with
a fine old car he maintained on his own.
At the urging of friends, Les sold his
car. With the proceeds he bought another which he rebuilt
and sold, then another, and another. In 1918 Les started
his own business, the Kelly Kar Company, with three
rebuilt Model T Fords, $450 in cash, and his 13-year-old
brother, Buster, as lot boy.
The Birth of the Blue Book
By the early 1920's the Kelly Kar Company was thriving.
To acquire inventory, Les handed out to banks and other
car dealers lists of vehicles he wanted to obtain, along
with prices he was willing to pay for them. The business
community trusted Les Kelly's price evaluations. It
even began relying on them. Some members started asking
for copies of Kelly's lists for their own use as guides
to current automobile market values. Soon Les Kelly
realized he had a unique, marketable commodity. Thus
was born the Blue Book of Motor Car Values, which in
time became simply Kelly Blue
Book.
The Kelly Success Story
The automobile and publishing business rewarded Les
and Buster Kelly. The Kelly Kar Company expanded during
the 1920s to occupy an entire city block at the corner
of Figueroa Street and Pico in Los Angeles. The repair/body
shop that was part of the company sat on a different
site and employed over a hundred people. In those days
new-car dealerships didn't sell used cars, so the Kellys
bought vehicles the dealers were taking as customer
trade-ins, while also buying directly from the public.
During the Depression, Kelly Kar Company sometimes bought
the entire inventories of dealers going out of business.
In the 1940's, World War II brought on
a shortage of used cars, and prices for them skyrocketed.
The Kelly Blue Book became the standard for the government's
price ceilings on used cars, and the book became a must
for every dealer in the country.
Les Kelly bought a small Ford franchise
before the war ended, and after that the company sold
both new and used cars. Buster's son, Bob, joined his
father and uncle in the business; and Buster became
perhaps the nation's first car dealer to advertise on
the new medium: television.
Some of Buster Kelly's TV commercials
ran as long as 15 minutes, with Buster walking around
the showroom pointing out specials and offering a guarantee:
return the car within 30 days and you could trade it
for any other car at the same or higher price. Plenty
of Hollywood's show business people bought cars from
Kelly. By the 1950s the company had become the largest
Ford dealer and the largest used-car dealer in the world!
The Blue Book's Evolution
Throughout the next three decades, the Kelly Blue Book
thrived as a trade publication, sold only to business
subscribers within the automotive industry. New-car
prices were added in 1966 as a separate publication,
followed soon after by publications compiling prices
for recreational vehicles, motorcycles, and even mobile
homes. Kelly became the automotive industry's leading
provider of pricing information.
In 1993, Kelly made its first venture
into the consumer marketplace, by publishing a consumer
edition of the Kelly Blue Book. That volume, updated
regularly, is available at bookstores, auto supply stores,
newsstands and other locations today.
In 1978 Bob Kelly's son, Mike, joined
the company, bringing with him a background in computer
technology. Named General Manager in 1981, Mike Kelly
developed systems for dealers to get trade-in values
and new car prices online¡ªthe first step in bringing
Kelly Blue Book pricing information to yet another new
medium, the Internet.
