Bonhams|Cars, Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach Golf Club. February 29, 2024
I finally got and compiled the final results for Bonhams Amelia. They’re nothing to write home about with a sale total of $6.7 million and a 65.8% sale rate. The 27 lots that didn’t sell brought hammer bids of $8.1 million The top sale, however, was a marvelous reconstruction of the 15-litre 1904 Napier L48 […]
RM Sotheby’s, ModaMiami, March 1-2, 2024
Replaced by Hagerty’s Broad Arrow Auctions as the headline auction at the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island in 2023, RM Sotheby’s retrenched with an auction in the Amelia woods last year then announced they would move to South Florida this year with a standalone auction and concours under the name ModaMiami. The setting was the classic […]
Worldwide Auctioneers, Scottsdale, January 26, 2024
Worldwide returned to Singh Meadows in Scottsdale for a one-day sale this year after skipping 2023. In 2021 during CoViD they had a “Scottsdale” auction at their home base in Auburn, Indiana making the last auction here in Arizona in 2022. 2024 was an ordinary sale for them here with a sale total in line […]
RM Sotheby’s, Arizona Biltmore, January 25, 2024
Fortunately I have help from a few of my friends…. I wedged my head firmly between my gluteus maximus muscles in Scottsdale and thought RM’s auction was the 26th, not the 25th. Arriving Friday morning I was greeted by … nothing automotive. Andrew Newton and Greg Ingold saved the day, in fact saved the week, […]
Barrett-Jackson, WestWorld, Scottsdale, January 20-28, 2024
2024 was another record-setting year for Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, breaching $200 million in total sales for the first time. Contributing to the record total were several individual marque/model records. Customized vehicles were the most common genre with examples at hand at every turn. Most were beautifully conceived and executed and many were built specifically for […]
Bonhams, Scottsdale, January 25, 2024
While the Barrett-Jackson juggernaut was juggering away over at WestWorld Bonhams was the opener for the rest of the Scottsdale auctions with its mid-day sale at the Westin Kierland. It was a curious cross-section of collector cars. While four lots were bid to $1 million or more and two of them sold – including the […]
Mecum Auctions, Kissimmee, Florida, January 2-14, 2024
Mecum Auctions breached yet another milestone at Kissimmee this year amassing a total of some 4,043 vehicle lots and selling them in an unprecedented eleven day span from January 2 through January 14 (with a day off in the middle.) Kissimmee is a epic event with 890,000 square feet of temporary tenting to shelter most […]
RM Sotheby’s, Las Vegas F1, November 17, 2023
Formula One racing came to Las Vegas with a vengeance on the weekend of November 18. It was a given that it would be spectacular and – other than the seemingly inevitable win by Max Verstappen – it was. Like just about anything happening in Vegas, it was over-hyped, over-produced and the action was long […]
RM Sotheby’s, The White Collection, Houston, December 1-2, 2023
This may be one of the most idiosyncratic, expensive and irrelevant collections ever assembled. People collect all kinds of things, and sometimes specialize in surpassingly tiny variations of a single theme: David Andreani in Italy has over 10,000 Coca-Cola cans; Becky Martz has over 21,000 banana labels (“banana labels”?); David Morgan in England (who claims […]
RM Sotheby’s, New York, December 8, 2023
RM returned to Sotheby’s headquarters on York Avenue in New York City as one of the opening auctions in Sotheby’s “Luxury Week” auction schedule. It was a small sale of just 16 cars, one motorcycle and a single Andy Warhol print of a Mobil sign, but it was astutely aligned with the Big Apple market. […]