Auction Stats - percentages sold and sale totals

FEBRUARY AUCTION STATS

100% sale rates were achieved twice in virtually locked down February. For all 9 Gooding & Co consigned high value cars viewed at Potters Bar ‘Timed Out’ at their California offices for nearly £8.5m. While there were buyers for all 6 cars in the Bonhams catalogue, 5 of them hammered away in a ‘Live’ sale at New Bond Street led by a £4m Bugatti Type 57S requiring completion and a Ferrari 275GTS snapped up before the £7m sale.

In Paris meanwhile, in another ‘live’ auction with real applauding punters in seats in front of the rostrum, Artcurial sold the 1971 Le Mans winning Matra MS 670 driven by Henri Pescarlolo and Graham Hill for a buyer’s premium and French TVA inclusive 6,907,000 euros (£6,078,736), an auction world record for a Matra.

A clutch of Group B cars in this Retromobile replacement sale all sold out, too, including the 1988 Race of Champions Audi Sport Quattro S1 (pictured above), which set a new Quattro and rally car world auction record 1,968,000 euros (£1,731,840) during the 17.6m euros (£15.5m) sale of just 26 voitures. Formidable!

RM Sotheby’s certainly had a very busy month on the worldwide web, first selling 26 cars for 8.56m euros (£7.53m) during their livestreamed Paris sale, headed by a 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV (pictured below) for 2,423,750 euros (£2,132,900) and a 1993 Isdera Commendatore 112i for 1,113,125 euros (£979,550).

A 1963 Aston Martin DB5 sold for 627,000 euros (£551,760) headed their 43 UK and EU consigned cars, 34 of them selling for 3.3m euros (£2.9m) during the first of three ‘Open Roads’ sales.

In the second session, 38 of the 56 US consigned cars fetched another £2.32m, headed by a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 ‘Hot Rod’ sold for $620,000 (£446,400). While a 2015 918 Spyder sold for just over 1m Swiss Francs (£780,000) in the final session, during which 6 out of 7 Porsches sold for 3.62m Swiss Francs (£2.82m).

Over the three days of internet auctioning, more than 2000 bids from 41 countries were placed in EU euros, US dollars and Swiss Francs on the RM Sotheby’s global platform.

In their 6th Timed Auction Brightwells sold 83% of 74 cars, all of which were most reassuringly physically present at their own Leominster premises, before being ‘Timed Out’ on-line after 5 days. 59 bids were recorded during the Herefordshire sale of a ‘Barn Found’ 1938 Rolls-Royce 25/30 with Windovers Limousine coachwork, last driven 50 years ago, but which was taken on by an absentee bidder for £13,511

All the cars auctioned were also on-site and could be seen on camera at the two day Anglia Car Auctions ‘Drive Through’ in King’s Lynn, where £56,700 was paid to take on a 1962 E Type S1 Roadster project for completion. The 1973 Bond Bug 700 ES minter sold for £29,160 was an auction milestone result.

While a brace of Lancias, a 1972 200 Sedan and a 1981 Monte Carlo S2 Spider both inspired strong bidding in Norfolk until their new owners had paid £21,840 and £20,790 respectively. By early Sunday afternoon, 93% of the 171 classics and 100% of the automobilia auctioned by ACA in their 2021 season-opener - all of which had been pro-webcast on YouTube to a global audience - had sold for more than £1.7m.

And finally, The Market platform had a 94% sold month in South Oxfordshire, selling all but 4 cars for over £1.3m, their third highest monthly sales figure. Among 65 changes of ownership, a restored 1952 Jaguar XK120 transacted for £73,500, a restored 1964 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk3 for £63,500, the 2004 Maserati Quatroporte previously owned by Sir Elton John for £36,000 and an unmolested 1996 VW Corrado VR6 Storm setwhat is claimed to another record auction price by selling for £22,750.

In what has all the potential of being a second year of pandemonium, when so many sectors of the economy are being strangled into extinction by masked politicians who are driven by sage data, such sale rates and valuations are extraordinarily encouraging for bulls who have to stay at home and can only look over a fence as others play the markets. RH-E