Marketplace

Russ rounds up of the latest buying trends including the ‘ones to watch’.

Bonhams’ recent sale at the Beaulieu Autojumble delivered three important reminders. Firstly, that the chance of bagging a real no-reserve bargain is one of the main things that makes auctions so exciting in the first place; also, that whatever anyone says, the days of such deals are still (or at least back) with us. And finally, that it’s always worth hanging around for the tail-end Charlies in the last half-hour of any sale. And yes, that’s exactly what I didn’t do; this column is being written from the land of missed opportunity.

The particular car causing me to rest forehead on solid oak desktop is the thoroughly named 1967 AMC Rambler American Rogue Hardtop Coupe that formed Lot 617 at the sale. But it was, to be fair, an easy car to pass by. The estimate looked a bit steep at £8000-£12,000, especially for a car whose V5C had been misplaced. Though that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker – there was plenty of other paperwork and the car had been with the Uk-based vendor for 44 years.

Yes, some of the panels were a bit wavy, a bit of trim was absent, and there was a split in the driver’s seat side bolster, but this was still a lovely old smoker with a 4.7-litre V8 that looked like it had rolled out of a Dirty Harry movie.

The owner had even resisted the temptation to fit alloys and left it on lovely low-rent hubcaps. Yet someone smarter and either braver or savvier than the rest of us took that Rambler home for the derisory sum of £2070. And no, there really isn’t a digit missing from that number. What it is, is next to nothing for a car like that. Oh, to have been there.

‘The Rambler was, to be fair, an easy car to pass by’