The big story

Brightwells’ first online classic sale

Brightwells has responded to the UK’s coronavirus lockdown by holding its first timed sale for classics. The decision follows similar moves by Classic Car Auctions, Bonhams and H&H Classics, and means that it’ll be offering the chance to bid on cars on Thursday, 28 May.

Matthew Parkin, head of its Classic & Vintage department, said: ‘After H&H, MPH and CCA’s sales we needed to think creatively and could see that our Ministry of Defence and regular car auctions were performing well. We held back until we were ready to go.

‘We’ve been holding them for more than five years and our software team has developed a system so we don’t need to use other bidding platforms. We’ve held online automobilia sales, so it wasn’t hard to make the decision.’

Brightwells’ sale will see cars being delivered to Leominster ( by registered hauliers, not the vendor) so staff can fully appraise them. It will lean on technology already used for holding timed auctions, including for its sale of ex-Ministry of Defence and former police vehicles, to keep its foot in the classic market. It’s its first classic sale since 4 March, when its normal, prelockdown format saw 146 classics sell with a 74 per cent sale rate.

Matthew said that he is optimistic that there could be some restriction lifting in the next few weeks but the public cannot come to Brightwells’ premises until then. Timed sales will be the norm but that could mean a greater number of sales. He said: ‘The plan is to hold monthly timed sales and encourage more entries. We could eventually see ticketed viewing days and holding the sale solely online.

‘It’s early days but people are coming back; the number of vendor enquiries is about the same as before. We have 50 or so cars – a quarter of where we’d usually be – but our costs are reduced. Things will be different from now on.’