Auction Stats - percentages sold and sale totals

JUNE AUCTION STATS

Less cars were auctioned at the transparently conducted auctions and on the platforms where we can see what does not sell for what was bid during the June sales reviewed on this website. 580 fewer classics crossed physical and virtual auction blocks during the month, but more of them sold as the overall sale rate increased from 74 to 79%, whilst the average amount spent per classic bought was higher. For although buyers spent £22.2m less at auction during June, the premium-inclusive average per car bought amounted to £67,353 compared to £61,273 per car in May.

Sale rates ranged from 100% at the RM Sotheby's Rolls-Royce and Bentley Collection dispersal in Liechtenstein, via 95% after a largely 'No Reserve' Bonhams On-Line sale of EU resident cars in euros and 89% under the same auction house's gavel at Bonmont in Switzerland, to 87% on the internet-only The Market powered by Bonhams platform and 86% of cars in Hertfordshire being sold via the Gooding & Co computer in California.

The largest attendance of the month would appear to have been recorded on YouTube, where after one week’s retro-views had been added to those watching the Anglia Car Auctions Drive-Throughs ‘live, 37,706 surfers had clicked on to the Saturday webcast to see 87% of the 122 lower priced cars sell for £523,040, and there were 62,604 recorded viewers for the Sunday session, during which 88% of another 121 cars sold for just over £1,366,624.

In addition to the YouTube audience however, those who were bidding for the 243 cars - plus 180 lots of automobilia, cycles, classic bikes and registrations - did so via several tables of ACA-manned telephones or the market-leading Saleroom-com website. For although all the cars could be physically and popularly viewed on-site at King’s Lynn pre-sale, to be Covid-19 regs compliant, the Norfolk vehicle auctioneers sales themselves were still conducted behind closed doors, though in front of TV-standard cameras.

Earlier in the month, 1800+ in 837 Ferraris could attend National Ferrari Owners’ Day at Sywell Aerodrome, where one of the ‘live’ attractions was the Silverstone Auctions sale of all four Dinos sold, led by a right-hand drive 1974 246GTS with ‘Flares’ for 3388,125.

By the end of June, 14,000+ visitors were able to check out a relocated The London Classic Car Show in the Capability Brown landscaped grounds of Syon House, a surprisingly leafy sanctuary in speed-hump infected Brentford, Middlesex. This most welcome opportunity for classic petrolheads to emerge from lockdown was also the first auction for Silverstone subsidiary CCA to pitch their tent outside of the Midlands.

Apart from an ex-Britt Ekland 1965 Mercedes-Benz 230SL selling for £77,700, all four Audi Quattros on offer sold out with a right-hand drive 1992 20 RR, believed to be the penultimate Quattro in the UK, fetching £52,170. A No Reserve trio of restored Lancias proved popular, too, with £23,865 forthcoming for a 1984 Beta HPE Volumex and £21,090 buying a 1976 Gamma Berlina 2500 with only 79 delivery mileage. And when did you last see a Trevi? A Concours standard 1981 survivor was hammered away here by auctioneer Jonathan Humbert’s well-travelled gavel for £7,770.

Among the 13 unused Mk3 chassis was P/1085, the last GT40 to be numbered in production sequence by Ford Advanced Vehicles, the build-up of which was completed in March 2009. Subsequently tested at Donington and completing the 2009 Tour Auto, GT40 P/1085 was sold by Gooding on-line for £2,508,000, £300,000 more than the top estimate.

In the same internet session, the 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400S chassis number 3799 in Verde Miura, though with correct but non-original engine, changed hands for £737,000, less than the £800,000 lower estimate. Whilst the GT40 and Miura were the two highest priced collector vehicles sold at auction in the UK during June, the GT40 was also the top-priced car auctioned in post-Brexit Europe.

At the Serbelloni Palace in Milan, the ex-Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda 1966 Ferrari 275GTB was sold by RM Sotheby’s for £1,939,300, a 2000 550 GTI for £1,552,300 and a 1963 250GT/L Lusso for £1,371,725.

In Liechtenstein, the still largely original Phantom IV Limousine built by Rolls-Royce for Princess Margaret in 1954 made both a Royal and Phantom World Record £1,781,450. Four lots exceeded CHF 1m and 21 of the 26 cars exceeded their pre-sale high estimates.

During their 89% sold Bonmont sale above Geneva, Bonhams sold 2014 McLaren P1 Hybrid –era Supercar number 180 of 357 for £946,763, the lower estimate, and 2020 Ford GT number 127 for £757,410, close to top estimate. Two of the headliners in a £44.8m month on this website which has monitored 618 changes of ownership. RH-E