AUCTION TRENDS CATCH THE EYE

On page 88 of this issue, we hear the inside story of the 1998 launch events for the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph and the Bentley Arnage from Peter Lavers, the man tasked with organising those events. Peter remains a keen enthusiast for both marques and from the next issue of RR&BD, he will be contributing market analysis based on recent auction sale prices for various models.

One of the first trends Peter identified were gaps in the relative values of Bentley and Rolls-Royce versions of SY and SZ-series, as he explains.

‘A Bentley T-Series was sold by

Historics in February for £18,480, and The Market sold one in January for £26,200. This seems to confirm that there's a premium for the much rarer Bentley SY, with an average sale price from the last 12 months of £13,277 versus the Silver Shadow average of £8,933. This excludes the ex-Freddie Mercury Silver Shadow, which sold at £286,250 and totally skews the figures! This phenomenon is not continued into the SZ generation, where Bentleys outnumber Rolls-Royces 2:1 on sale. In fact, SZ Rolls-Royces are currently selling at a premium above Bentleys £10,246 playing £9,668, on average.’

These are figures achieved at auction and hence could be regarded as wholesale prices, but the trends are likely to be reflected in the much higher prices asked for the best examples in the retail market by specialist dealers. Peter will be looking at various prices and patterns in the coming months, as well as spotting a few bargains.

‘Brightwells sold a 1980

Corniche Convertible in February for £32,480, which looks very tempting, while amongst the online sellers, CarandClassic sold a rather interesting 1994 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur Limousine in February for £13,750. Keep your eyes peeled and there are still bargains to be found.’

Silver Spur limousine - seating for eight at only £13,750

Delightful early T-series saloon fetched £26,200; Corniche made only £6000 more