Mecum Auctions, Eddie Vannoy Collection, Jefferson, NC, June 29, 2020
Mecum Auctions has been stalled since its Glendale, Arizona auction in March. Their business model is spectator- and bidder-dependent, a vast show with vendors and exhibitors. That doesn’t translate to online-only. For the Eddie Vannoy auction Mecum created a hybrid: bidders and guests only at the venue in western North Carolina; an open online bidding […]
RM Sotheby’s Online Only: The European Sale
June 3-11, 2020 Featuring the Petitjean Collection This was RM Sotheby’s third online only auction, succeeding its canceled second annual auction at Techno Classica Essen in Germany. The feature was the 96 cars from La Collection Petitjean, all offered at no reserve after decades of static storage and, as it turned out, indifferent cosmetic attention […]
RM Sotheby’s, Online Only: Driving Into Summer March 21-29, 2020
Two months ago RM, in just two weeks after the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown, converted its scheduled Palm Beach auction into an Online Only format. Since then RM’s Essen, Germany auction was postponed (it has been reinstated this week as Online Only: The European Sale featuring the Petitjean Collection closing on June 10-11.) With […]
Barrett-Jackson Online Only, May 12-16, 2020
Along with some of Barrett-Jackson’s counterparts the novel coronavirus-forced social distancing and lockdowns brought B-J to an online auction. There were 86 cars on the docket; two were withdrawn before the end of the auction. The auction went live on May 12. Bidding concluded starting on the 15th at 20 minute intervals. There was the […]
The 2020 Pebble Beach™ Concours d’Elegance
In an email press release at 9:56 PM EDT tonight the Pebble Beach™ Concours d’Elegance announced that the 2020 event has been cancelled and postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19 concerns. Their early announcement is welcome recognition that we’re not going to get out of coronavirus/Covid-9 concerns any time soon and acknowledges the concerns of […]
RM Sotheby’s Online Only: Palm Beach, March 20-28, 2020
On Friday preceding the Amelia concours, RM Sotheby’s hosted a small gathering of its executives with a few longtime journalists and auction-watchers. It was March 6—an eternity ago in terms of the novel coronavirus threat. By the time most of us returned home from Amelia, it was clear it would be some time before we […]
RM Sotheby’s, Amelia Island, March 6-7, 2020
The End of the Beginning We didn’t know it at the time, but RM’s last session of its two-day Amelia Island auction at the Ritz Carlton marked the beginning of the end of live collector car auctions in 2020, at least until the so-called novel coronavirus (designated “2019-nCoV” by the WHO, distinct from the acute […]
Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, March 6, 2020
It seems weird, but posting this auction report a month after it happened is only part of the disruption in our lives over the past 30 days. So much has changed and Amelia, with its lighthearted, confident attitude, is so different from where we are in early April. It’s hard to concentrate even though Work […]
Bonhams, Amelia Island, March 5, 2020
This is the first report from the three auctions at Amelia, the last events before coronavirus and COVID-19 upended everything. The reports from RM Sotheby’s and Gooding & Company will follow shortly, along with an extended analysis of RM’s Palm Beach auction March 25-28, which quickly moved to an Online Only format with closing times […]
Artcurial Retromobile, Paris, February 7, 2020
Artcurial at Retromobile in 2020 had an abundance of wonderful cars. It was, however, the middle and bottom of the market that found buyers. The big money cars struggled, leaving the auction with its weakest performance in years. One of the feature elements, the sale of four gorgeous yachts at no reserve (gorgeous to contemplate, […]