ARE ONLINE AUCTIONS HERE TO STAY?
Internet exclusive sales grow in popularity as established players slowly join the fray
Online-only auctions appear to hold a great deal of promise for buyers and sellers of classics; access to precious metal has never been easier for those cash-rich, time-poor collectors. Early UK adopter The Market – founded in 2016 – sold 250 cars in the last 12 months, suggesting that there’s merit in the model. A 90 per cent sales rate, with cars making up to £150,000, shows a certain degree of buyer confidence; cars have been sold to buyers in Hong Kong, Mexico and Spain.
The Market’s Tristan Judge said: ‘If the online presentation is good enough some people – all ages in our experience – are feeling confident to buy online. However, it does rely on the quality of the searching, investigating and buying experience. Online classic car selling has had such a bad reputation that you have to do something significant to give buyers reassurance.
‘Online selling will always have a future when the auctioneer can pass on the savings that result from lower commissions.’
H&H was one of the first traditional sale rooms to offer an online-only auction – and its first internet sale on 5 February set a price record for a 140-mile 1978 Ford Fiesta 950. The car managed £6612 at Bonhams’ sale at Beaulieu International Autojumble on 1 September, but the £14,950 result at H&H smashed all predictions, despite the £6500-£8500 estimate.
Not everyone remains convinced, however. Brightwells’ auction manager, Toby Service, feels that online auctions will find their own niche – but not to the detriment of a ‘real’ sale. He said: ‘Brightwells has already run some online-only auctions but so far this has been for number plates, automobilia and collections of modern cars offered from a specific dealership. With a lot of classic cars, though, I strongly believe that people need to come and see them in the metal to help to make the decision easier on whether to bid on it and how much. Many online-only auctions do not have the facility for the items to be viewed beforehand.’
CCW’s auction guru, Richard Hudson-Evans, has similar reservations about online-only sales. He argues that traditional auctions stand above online sales not only by offering reassurance to potential bidders but also as a matter of
‘People are feeling confident to buy online’
record: ‘As a publically-witnessed event, the sellers can’t hide anything if the car is on the floor. The fact that people are prepared to travel down to bid or bid on the phone by proxy to bag a car over another buyer – and for those bids to produce publicly available results – helps us to determine the health of the market.’