Hard work pays off
ACA reveals the ‘secret’ of its continued success
How did 2017’s second sale compare with your first of the year, and if there was a difference, what led to it?
January and April were quite similar. We saw just under £2 million in sales apiece and around 200 cars sold in each – in the last sale that was a great result the weekend before Easter. There were more people in January, with more than 2000 visitors, but that is always our best-attended sale. It was a very warm day for our April sale so people were spread around the saleroom more, making it a lot easier to run the cars through.
Will you be sticking to the five-sale calendar?
Even if the market explodes we’ll still hold five sales a year. With that number people are always looking forward to the next one. As it is I’m doing 50,000-60,000 miles a year looking at cars. And we never cold-call.
What’s your opinion of the ‘modern classics’ phenomenon?
The interest in more modern classics is, in my humble opinion, going to keep growing. As long as manufacturers continue to produce interesting and desirable models, enthusiasts will want to buy them.
Is the modern sector here to stay?
Of course, but traditional classics will always play a part in our auctions and quite rightly so. In our world, things tend to go backwards so we often find that a client who buys an MX-5 or E30 BMW will eventually move on to an MGB or a 2002.
What’s your take on pre-war cars?
I love their simplicity – to me it’s all about the mechanicals rather than the bodywork. Everything will sell but it needs to be properly marketed.
Do you think other auctioneers starting up is good?
With more than 1000 vehicles sold over five days last year, we don’t really have time to worry what other auctioneers do. Established auction houses make what we do look easy but it takes hard work and considerable investment in order to be successful. I do think, however, that a code of conduct for the auction trade would be a good idea.
How do you see the rest of 2017 performing? Will it be better than the second half of 2016?
So far, so very good in 2017, with more than 400 cars successfully hammered away in the first two sales of the year. Let’s hope it continues that way.
‘It’s a case of so far, so very good in 2017’