Month In Auctions
by Richard Hudson-Evans
Although the £10.4m spent at the main December auctions in the UK was 22 per cent down on the £13.4m 2017 December sales total and the average amount spent also fell by 30 per cent to £45,614 per car, there were buyers for a greater percentage of cars auctioned at three of the sales.
Classic Car Auctions’ 80 per cent sale rate at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre was six per cent up, while Bonhams sold eight per cent more cars at Olympia and Barons six per cent more at Sandown Park than it did a year ago.
Although 21 per cent of all cars sold during December achieved more than their presale estimates and 56 per cent of premium-inclusive prices were within auctioneers’ guide price bands, 15-42 per cent of sales were below the lower estimates in the catalogues as more vendors have been prepared to drop their reserves to sell their cars.
The top-priced lot during the final sales of the old year was the 1958 BMW 507 3.2 Roadster S2 that had formerly belonged to the car’s designer, Albrecht von Goertz, which sold for £2,367,000. A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 with a 4.2-litre engine upgrade also made a more than recent market £743,000 in Bonhams’ New Bond Street salerooms, where an exMaharaja 1924 Vauxhall 30/98 OE Velox set a £437,000 world record valuation for both model and marque.
Simultaneously in Warwickshire, a rare (in RHD) 1969 Alfa Romeo 1750 Duetto with hardtop raised £47,300 – double the lower estimate – and £18,480, £6500 more than forecast, was available for a very French 1972 Citroën HY Van. Perhaps the £1760 invested in a once electrifying 1985 Sinclair C5 Velomobile that had never been pedalled anywhere may have been excessively festive…