Artcurial, Salon Retromobile, Paris, February 9-10, 2018
Artcurial’s Retromobile auction is “the Official Sale” of the Retromobile show in Paris at the Porte de Versailles Paris Expo center, a lavish, enthusiastic, celebration of all things old cars. Retromobile covers thousands of square meters of enclosed exhibition space with just about every kind of exhibitor from tightly focused one-marque clubs and tables covered […]
Bonhams Scottsdale, January 18, 2018
Set on the lush lawns of the Westin Kierland, where irrigation seems anathema to the restricted flow of Scottsdale showerheads, Bonhams Scottsdale Auction is an oasis of enthusiasm. From the full breakfast and hyper coffee on auction morning to the array of vehicles on the grass and in the gravel periphery, Bonhams sets a tone […]
The 2018 Scottsdale Auctions
The final results from the “Scottsdale” auctions have finally been published by the auction companies, added to the spreadsheet with the previous ten years’ results, chewed on a little and examined for potential messages in the tea leaves at the bottom of the Scottsdale cup. Looking back over the last decade of Scottsdale auctions 2018 […]
Car Collectors Should Thank Satoshi Nakamoto
“Satoshi Nakamoto” is the nom de argent of the purported developer of bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underpins it and other cryptocurrencies. Satoshi created something where nothing had existed before and, having no frame of reference, the marketplace was free to establish pretty much any value that it wanted. The blockchain software on which […]
The Second Annual Kirk F. White Motorcars Auction, April 29, 1972
The Second Annual Kirk F. White Motorcars Auction, held April 29, 1972 at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pennsylvania was much larger than the previous one … and even more confusing to figure out. The sale itself had twice the vehicles, the sell-through rate was a superior 65.6% and the total sale 71.6% greater. As with […]
Classic Car Auction Yearbook — 2016-2017
I look forward every year to the new edition of The Classic Car Auction Yearbook. Many resources take the easy way with a “Top Ten” transactions list and rehash of the auctions with the highest sales. It’s far more difficult, and insightful, to prowl through the numbers and find important trends. It’s even more challenging […]
The First Annual Kirk F. White Motorcars Auction, Radnor, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1971
This auction report might be considered a little late, being 46 years after the fact, but it does serve to highlight some of the changes in the past five decades. Kirk F. White is an entrepreneur of renown, something that showed early on with this ground-breaking sale of collector cars under a yellow-and-white striped 15,000 […]
RM Sotheby’s “ICONS”, New York, December 6, 2017
RM Sotheby’s returned to Sotheby’s mother ship on York Avenue in New York City for its second time on December 6, 2017. 2013’s RM auction at Sotheby’s headquarters had been very successful, and the sale here in November of Michael Schumacher’s Monaco and Hungary winning F2001 Formula One car for an attention-getting $7.5 million just […]
Mecum Auctions, Dallas, Texas, September 6-9, 2017
Three weeks after Monterey Mecum Auctions set up in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas with an 846 vehicle auction. Dave Newhardt shoots cars for Mecum, and he spends his entire life on the road, a situation which this schedule puts in focus, not to mention the bazillion vehicles that cross Mecum Auctions’ […]
Mecum Auctions, Las Vegas, November 16-18, 2017
Mecum Auctions knows how to identify opportunity. Mecum rolled into Las Vegas for the first time with a three-day sale November 16-18 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 887 vehicles were offered, 553 of them sold, a 62.3% sale rate, bringing a total of $22,204,275. That was an average transaction of $40,152 and a median […]