THE MARKET

What’s sold, and how to buy a Messerschmitt

WHILE NONE OF us was paying attention, April 2017 produced over $75m-worth of land-based auction sales in the US alone. It was done the hard way, lots of small totals split between bunches of auction companies, which is why there’s no ‘Results from (insert geographic location here)’ headline above. Are we, some people are wondering, seeing the end of land-based auction companies with a physical presence of sales lots?

It’s the rise of the internet auction that is sowing these seeds of doubt. Websites such as eBay (obviously), and Bring-a-Trailer, LegendaryFinds and Barnfinds in the US, have eaten into the private treaty, dealer or landbased auction triumvirate that, as recently as 15 years ago, represented our only routes to selling a car.

Of course, there are pitfalls to every way of marketing your car for sale. Dealerships can go into receivership, a bad crowd at an auction can seriously undervalue your goods, and a classified ad can be an impediment to a sale, especially if poorly written with few photographs. The internet, however, functions as a central clearing house for any way you want to sell a car.

Keeping your car at home and having it represented electronically is usually less expensive than the traditional route, and it has brought very satisfactory results for thousands of buyers and sellers. The online auction clearing houses, of which Bring-a-Trailer is the most popular in North America, have shown significant growth in the past two years. BaT, for example, even encourages punters to pipe in with their online opinions, reminiscences and suggestions, to build a sense of community around the sale of a particular car.

All that said, this new fourth channel of sales will not replace land-based sales as some are speculating. In the past 20 years all the large auction companies have held some of their most successful sales around other car events, a concours, a club meet or similar. The auctions have become destinations in themselves, a place to meet and greet, to catch up on what’s hot and what’s not. They are a bazaar of people and offerings in the collector-car world. Humans are social animals and bidding on a car in front of a computer screen has the effect of depersonalising what for some is a very personal process. Dealers might regard classics as commodities, but for many of us they are an extension of our being.

So, back to April’s numbers in North America. Mecum’s Houston auction took the top spot, with 804 lots on offer, of which 552 sold. The average sale price was under $40,000, making a laborious route to the $21m total. Barrett-Jackson returned for the 15th time to Palm Beach, Florida, and brought home $20.5m from

‘CLOSE EXAMINATION GAVE FEW SIGNS OF MR TRUMP’S PRIOR OWNERSHIP, WITH NARY A SLIVER OF GOLD-PLATED TRIM TO BE FOUND’

its no-reserve auction. Well, almost no-reserve: actually 99.4% of the 502 lots sold, at an average of just over $41,000 each. The top seller was a 2006 Ford GTX1 convertible, but much of the attention was directed towards a 1961 Volkswagen 23-window Microbus. It sold for… are you sitting down? Yes, $291,500.

Next up, Auctions America’s sale at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, also in Florida for the 15th time. Of the 408 cars offered, 280 sold to net $17,268,000. A 2007 Ferrari F430 Berlinetta formerly owned by US President Donald J Trump grabbed the biggest headlines, selling for around twice its original retail price at $270,000. The Ferrari actually left the block unsold, but it was announced as sold shortly afterwards. Details about the eventual purchaser remain sketchy, but a shipping sticker on the car after the sale detailed delivery to a small town in Ohio. A close examination of the car gave few signs of Mr Trump’s prior ownership, with nary a sliver of gold-plated trim to be found.

Over to Dallas, now, for the Leake Auction Company ’s spring sale. It turned in a respectable $10.3m, and final numbers show a 66% sell-through rate for 493 cars on offer. The headline car was again a Ferrari, in this case a LaFerrari that sold for a vigorous $3,700,000. Four of the top 10 sellers were Mercedes-Benzes, two of them rather contemporary AMG models and two from the classic category, represented by a 1969 280 SL which brought $83,600 and a 1956 190 SL which changed hands at $82,500.

Also in Texas, Worldwide reported sales of $6.5m at its Texas Classic auction held in Arlington. The top seller here was a 1957 Mercedes Benz 300 SL, scoring a binary-looking $1,111,000. This handsome roadster in silver with an oxblood red interior made good money for an early drop-top 300 SL.

Carlisle Auctions, held at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania, recently expanded its spring event from two days to three. This no doubt helped to achieve the $4.7m total sales haul, including memorabilia. Parent company Carlisle Events, which owns the Fairgrounds, holds two massive autojumbles, one in the spring, the other in the autumn, plus separate marque events throughout three seasons as well as this auction. A breakdown between memorabilia and vehicles shows that the latter still topped $4m, surely a cause to celebrate in this relatively small town. The biggest dollar-earner was a 1992 Ferrari 512 TR at $161,035, while a Fast & Furious ‘screen used’ 1968 Dodge Charger occupied the number-two spot at $96,300.

Branson Auctions in Branson, Missouri, reports a revenue of over $2.2m at its spring event, with around two-thirds of the 180 cars sold. Branson is right in the middle of so-called flyover country, and the Branson Convention Centre is a great auction venue for this fun event. Auction owners Jim and Kathy Cox make sure that everyone leaves as a friend, not a stranger.

So that’s how a good chunk of that $75m from April’s US auction sales was generated, even with no truly big auctions. Meanwhile, over in the UK the two highestprofile auctions were those of Anglia Car Auctions and Barons, both featuring many ‘popular’ classics.

The first, held in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, reported 294 cars on offer of which 220 were sold, a very strong 75% sales rate. However, just one of the three Ferraris on offer followed a new owner home, a 1998 456 M GTA which brought £37,800. The top seller here was a 1958 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL (pictured on the previous page), well maintained but with room for cosmetic improvement, which exceeded its high estimate of £70,000 to reach £92,400. Sales totalled over £1.9m.

Barons’ sale in Surrey was a smaller event with 96 cars on offer and just 44 sold, netting just under £495,000 in all. That’s disappointing compared with Anglia’s success. However, if you were looking for an ex-Rhodesian Fire Service Morris Mini Moke from 1965 you were in luck, as a particularly nice example sold for £16,500.