Worldwide Auctioneers, Enthusiast Auction, Auburn, April 25-26, 2025
Worldwide’s Enthusiast Auction (aka “Auburn Spring”) presented an unusual and highly varied consignment largely derived from major collections including the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum, the Great Outdoors Collection and, most notably, the Passport Collection. 168 of the 249 lots offered, 67.5%, were No Reserve. Of the 81 lots with reserves, 58 found new owners on […]
RM Sotheby’s “The Junkyard”: The Rudi Klein Collection, Los Angeles, October 26-28, 2024
There are places we know, or hear mentioned, but rarely if ever see. Places like Caruso’s on Long Island, the legendary A.K. Miller in Vermont, even Austie Clark’s museum (as much storage yard as museum.) Every once in a while, usually part of an end-of-life event, they surface and are dispersed in a flash of […]
RM Sotheby’s, Hershey, October 9-10, 2024
RM’s post-sale press release quoted RM’s President Gord Duff, “It’s always an experience coming back to Hershey. There’s something about the atmosphere—whether it’s the history, the people, the swap meet, or the cars—that makes it feel like a homecoming.” And that is exactly how it feels. It’s early Fall, a delightful season in Pennsylvania (when […]
Bonhams, Audrain Motor Week, Newport, RI, October 4, 2024
This was Bonhams fourth year at the Audrain Motor Week. The sale total was barely over half of what they had realized here in prior years. There were only 37 lots crossing the block (figuratively speaking as the cars were on static display in the Tennis Hall of Fame indoor court). Fortunately 24 of the […]
Mecum Auctions, Monterey, August 15-17, 2024
Mecum Auctions has firmly cemented its presence among the Monterey Week auction titans. It’s a different auction from RM and Gooding although with some notable exceptions Mecum has left Bonhams well-established Quail Lodge sale in its dust, particularly in 2024. Mecum Monterey has expanded its docket into seven figures with 24 lots bid into the […]
Bonhams Quail, August 16, 2024
Some history: In 2018 Bonhams, then led by Robert Brooks who had combined Brooks Auctioneers with Bonhams in 1999, was acquired by Epiris, a British private equity firm. Barely three years later, in August 2021, Robert Brooks died after “a long illness” suggesting the sale was an expedient resolution of an uncertain future. Originally motor […]
Broad Arrow Auctions, Monterey, August 14-15, 2024
Broad Arrow, backed by Hagerty, has now become an entrenched feature at Monterey. In their three-year history they have put up consistent and impressive numbers. Their sell-through rate this year was second only to RM Sotheby’s and the total dollars changing hands were third behind RM and Gooding, a credible performance after a hard-earned scramble […]
RM Sotheby’s, Monterey, August 15-17, 2024
Nowhere is it more clear (at least on the numbers as contrasted with walking through the preview) that the relative importance of RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction is determined by 7- and 8-figure cars. 46 lots were bid to $1 million or more; 36 of them sold bringing a total of $116,510,500, 69% of RM’s three-day […]
The Monterey Auctions 2024
Revised September 11, 2024. First, the summaries. These are the five auctions during Monterey Car Week, each showing results over the last three years. At the bottom are the numbers for all these auctions since 2022. It’s not necessary to go to the bottom of the table to see that results were off, particularly Bonhams […]
Gooding & Co., Pebble Beach, August 16-17, 2024
While Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction isn’t the hero sale of Monterey this year it is the one auction that sends me its printed catalogs in advance. Collecting the other catalogs is a chore and brought with it a trip to the UPS Store in “New Monterey” (near Cannery Row) and a $51 credit card ding […]