Dealer View

Charterhouse values visiting clients in person

Richard Bromell, Chaterhouse Auctions

How has the market been postgeneral election?

We have sold vehicles for six figures, but most of our cars are in the sub-£30,000 bracket. As such, they are often viewed as being the price of a new kitchen or holiday (depending on your budget – I know some enthusiasts will eat baked beans for a month to fulfil their dreams!), so if there is a slow down or readjustment in the market place, it is not such a bitter pill to swallow. We’re finding the market reasonably constant.

Who’s more confident about getting a good deal – buyers or sellers?

We have to be prepared to make adjustments to get a sale through. We have submitted many a provisional bid under the reserve and firmed up a deal – ten percent of nothing is still nothing and an unsold vehicle rarely comes back to the same auctioneer. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, but we are a business and need to generate income.

How do you decide how many cars you’ll put in a sale?

Usually it isn’t the number of cars which is important, but how many hours in the day there are. We still like to try to visit most of our clients and their treasured vehicles rather than dealing with lowresolution digital images and overenthusiastic appraisals of condition. We are a service industry and this is the service many clients want. Being completely honest, I would be happy selling just one lot in an auction – if it was a Ferrari 250 GTO.

What’s your take on adding lastminute entries?

Everyone has their reasons for selling. Some can be financially motivated, but some just fancy a change and don’t make contact before the catalogue goes to print. We are happy to have late entries – they are always featured on our specialist web sites and we produce an addenda, which goes into the catalogue, so they do get wide exposure.

‘We’re finding the market reasonably constant’

How many sales will you be holding next year?

We will be holding nine specialist stand-alone classic car and motorcycle auctions next year; along with other antique and collectors sales, it will total 20 auctions. We also have a couple of large private collections in the pipeline which might add a couple more. No rest for the wicked!

charterhouse-auction.com