US results bode well for coming UK sales
‘Pent up demand’ for in-person auction viewings and bidding
Record auction sales figures from the US in January bodes well for auction houses in the UK, said CCW’s auction guru, Richard Hudson-Evans, despite lockdown restrictions limiting bidding and viewing in person.
Lower prices and smaller numbers of lots drove strong sale rates of 89 and 94 per cent at RM Sotheby’s and Worldwide Auctions, respectively. Richard said: ‘ These were bijou sales by US standards. RM Sotheby’s (rmsothebys.com), which did 50 per cent of its sales online, had just 80 cars on offer – it’s normally 800-900 cars at Scottsdale. Of the 62 cars offered by Worldwide, 58 found new homes.’
The most significant result of the month, however, was achieved by Mecum (mecum.com), whose sales in Kissimmee and Punta Gorda brought in $141m over ten days, the largest its ever raised in 33 years.
Posting a 90 per cent sale rate, Mecum’s auctions – which shifted over 3000 classics in the Republican state of Florida, where viewing and bidding in person was allowed – demonstrated what Richard called a ‘pent-up demand for a return to normality.’ Sales in Kissimmee – which saw the contents of 21 private collections hammered away – and then in Punta Gorda – where Rick Treworgy’s Muscle Car City museum went around the block – were, in Richard’s words, ‘rammed with people.’
Even with UK auctions pegged back to walkaround videos and online bidding, UK houses managed impressive sales rates in December – Brightwells, CCA and Historics posted respective sales rates of 80 per cent, 89 per cent and 84 per cent.
Looking forward to the UK sales delayed until the end of February, CCW markets editor, Richard Barnett, said: ‘I’m feeling the market is in rude health here and that should be reflected in results. But let’s not forget that it’s the best cars that get the best prices, and anything else won’t perform as well as it did two or three years ago.’