What should auctioneers do to sell their cars?

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There’s no denying that sales of classic cars in auction are in decline. And fact is that estimates have been unrealistic with large numbers of cars unsold. ‘Scottsdale car auction posts first decline since 2010’ headed CNBC earlier this year, and we’ve seen a similar trend with European auction houses. Bonhams didn’t sell 24 of the 53 Aston Martins they brought over to Newport Pagnell last May, and among them were all the big guns with the million dollar estimates. At Le Mans Classic, last weekend, Artcurial sold 62% of the lots on offer and made just 50% of the sales estimates. Artcurial’s managing director Matthieu Lamoure partly blamed the currency exchange rates, so unfavourable for the British after the Brexit, as he said in an interview: “Despite the glorious sunshine, our great friends the British collectors were sadly missing. Although the sales results reflected the effect of Brexit somewhat, we were delighted by the public’s appetite for competition cars during the amazing display at Le Mans Classic”. But there has to be more than that as the decline had long started before the whole idea to move Great-Britain out of the European Union started. Experts regularly mention baby boomers as the culprits, inflating the market at first and abandoning it now that they’ve got their toys. But it’s also a fact that the number of dealers and auction houses has been growing vastly in the last couple of years, all of them fishing in the same pond. Also: buyers may have become more careful verifying the background and history of cars and won’t believe any charming old story. So who is to blame? What do you think?

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture courtesy Russo & Steele)

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