Arizona auctions bring big rewards

Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man Buick smashes pre-sale estimate

The traditional season-opening sales bonanza held in January around Phoenix, Arizona was almost back to normal this year. This is a popular event with most of the big auction hitters in play, and it provides a useful pointer to the coming year’s market trends.

After last year’s Covid disruption, Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s were back in town with live auctions, only Gooding choosing to stick to a timed online sale, but with the lots on display in town for potential bidders to peruse. It did downplay things a little though, with only 57 cars on offer – well down on its usual chunky catalogue. Bonhams put up 89 cars and sold all but six of them for the best sales rate of the week – a very impressive 93.3%. Its star lot was one of the two 1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertibles used extensively in the 1988 film Rain Man. It was acquired after the shoot by Dustin Hoffman and kept by him ever since. Given its star status, Bonhams expected it to make $150-250k, despite looking rather tired. It sold for a whopping $335,000 (£250k). For comparison, a regular Roadmaster in this condition might be worth $45,000.

RM offered 84 cars and sold 74 (a rate of 88%). Notably, 36% beat their estimates, higher than the 28% at Bonhams. Top RM lot was an alloybodied Merc 300SL Gullwing that went for an about-right $6.825m (£5m). Two years ago it may have struggled to find a buyer.

Gooding’s smaller sale saw 86% of the lots find new homes, with a slightly lower but still strong number of 22% beating estimate. All in, the figures tell us that the market is definitely on the up again in most sectors, backed by the first UK sales figures for 2022. It’s set to be an interesting year.