Mecum Auctions, Houston, April 13-15, 2023
Mecum’s press release states this year’s sale brought in a total of $37 million and a 77% sale rate. Unfortunately, Mecum has declined to provide a complete post-sale auction report so it’s not possible to separate the cars and trucks from the Road Art and miscellany. Still, $37 million is not to be sneezed at […]
Bonhams, Two Generations, Middletown, RI, April 29, 2023
This was a pop-up sale to dispose of much (but not all) of the collection of a father’s and son’s decades long fascination with antique and veteran cars. The “newest” car in the sale was a 1947 Ford Super Deluxe Sportsman Convertible, the only lot built after the Second World War. That tells a story […]
Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, Florida, March 2-3, 2023
Gooding & Company worked its way to the top of the Amelia Island auction heap in 2023 with a total sale of $72.8 million and a prodigious sell-through rate of 93.6%, a rate that is far better than Gooding did at Pebble Beach last August where they sold 85.6% of the 155 lots offered while […]
Bonhams, Fernandina Beach, Florida, March 2, 2023
You wouldn’t know it from the numbers below but Bonhams would have had an over $20 million sale if they’d sold just two more cars, but that is not infrequently the case A number of lots in Bonhams sale had one or more prior appearance at auction. Some of them were described in detail at […]
RM Sotheby’s, Amelia Island, Florida, March 4, 2023
After a quarter century as the official auction of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2023 RM Sotheby’s was displaced at the Ritz Carlton by the affiliate of the Hagerty Group, new owner of “The Amelia”, Broad Arrow Auctions. RM had built its Amelia Island sale from nearly nothing (66 lots, $6.4 million in 1999) […]
Broad Arrow, Ritz Carlton, Amelia Island, March 4, 2023
Broad Arrow, a subsidiary of the Hagerty Group which now owns “The Amelia”, is now the official “Amelia Auction” having supplanted RM Sotheby’s after its 24-year run with the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. It’s a bit confusing. Broad Arrow’s crew is composed almost entirely of ex-RM Auctions people, so on the ground the relationships are […]
“The Original” Barrett-Jackson, January 15-29, 2023
Very few auctions earn the distinction of being described only as “Barrett-Jackson” but that’s the sobriquet applied to B-J’s annual January auction at WestWorld in Scottsdale. It was the original and it remains – despite the spawn of imitators and competitors – one of a kind. Not that it has remained the same, however, evolving […]
RM Sotheby’s, Arizona Biltmore, January 26, 2023
While not as impressive as 2022’s one-day 69-lot performance, RM Sotheby’s auction at the Arizona Biltmore RM turned in a curve-setting total in 2023. $44.6 million in a single-day sale is exceptional. Its $558,079 average transaction is bettered only by 2022’s $665,394 million average transaction and 2015’s $578,232 million average. That kind of average is […]
Bonhams, Scottsdale, January 27, 2023
After three Covid-complicated years Bonhams returned to form on the Westin Kierland lawn in 2023 with a 125-lot sale on Friday the 27th. With an 84% sale rate and almost $30 million total changing hands there were some unusual cars like three different Ghia-bodied Fifties Chryslers, a rare OSCA, an even more rare 600 Intermeccanica […]
Mecum Auctions, Kissimmee, Florida, January 4-15, 2023
Mecum Kissimmee is a remarkable story. From its start in 2010 Kissimmee has always had a 1,000 plus car consignment. It passed 2,000 lots only two years later in 2012 and has never looked back. The car count exceeded 3,000 in 2019 and after retrenching during Covid popped back over 3,000 in 2022 before reaching […]