Bidding Before California Car Show Suggests Collectible Market Is Healthy
“Really, it was the best result possible,” said Cam Ingram, a collector
and restorer in Durham, N. C. “The Monterey auctions were a healthy barometer of a stable market, with educated buyers making the right buys for right reasons.”
If there was any doubt, it was erased in a suspenseful 27 minutes on Friday, during
the sale of a 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 racecar and a 1970 Porsche 917K racecar.
Brian Rabold, vice president for valuation services at Hagerty, an insurance and data-analytics firm in Traverse City, Mich.,
that focuses on classic cars, said that “2014 may have been the peak year in dollars at the Monterey auctions, but it probably simply reflected the fact that the smartest of the smart money timed their exits well.
“The expensive high-profile cars that had to sell, almost all sold, and less-expensive, well-presented cars
that carried a realistic reserve sold for market-correct numbers to enthusiast, end-user owners,” Mr. Ingram said.
Things were already starting to look up by 2011, with buyers at the top of the market
— those bidding for cars costing more than $1 million — spending conspicuously again.
The RM Sotheby’s auctioneer at the event hammered to signal
that the Aston Martin had been sold for $22.5 million, about 10 percent above the pre-sale estimate.
The high bid of $220,000 at Gooding & Company may have been market-correct for 2017,
but the seller opted to hold out for something closer to the pre-sale estimate of $250,000.