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 at Quail Lodge. Sell through rates were weak. Many lots sold under their low estimates; only 61 lots (8.9%) sold on hammer bids at a premium to their pre-sale high estimates.
This isn’t the beginning of the end for the collector car market, but it is a reset of standards for judging values. Many lots (as will be seen in the individual auction reports that will follow) sold here at all-in results that were less than they sold for within recent memory.
It has taken a while to pull together the results, check the amounts with various resources (like HammerPrice, which I cannot recommend highly enough) and then do all the math and spreadsheet manipulation to keep things (relatively) consistent. The process was plagued by my data entry error that upended the RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction results.
This table has been corrected for the RM Sotheby’s data entry error and updated with post-block results through September 11 from the auctions’ websites. The overall results from Monterey look a lot better with post-block transactions, even those with undisclosed final results where the amounts here are the No-Sale block hammer bids with commission added.
Individual auction results will follow with 255 lots reported in detail from the five auctions. That’s roughly 50 lots per auction with ten auction sessions taking place across five venues in a span of just three days. 255 lots is 22.3% of all the cars that crossed the auction blocks. I had help from my colleagues Andrew Newton and Greg Ingold of Hagerty and couldn’t have come close to this many cars without them.
Besides, I rely on Andrew to keep track of the Porsches – which were 135 of the Monterey auction cars (11.8%), not including RUFs.
And finally, I can’t possibly be more complimentary of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance judges for choosing the preservation class 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports of Fritz Burkard as Best of Show. It is a watershed moment for collecting.
Here are a whole bunch of numbers. Auction transaction details will follow:
| Year | Cars Sold/ Offered | Sale % | Sold < Low Est | Sold > High Est | Average Sale | Median Sale | Total $ |
| Bonhams, Quail Lodge | |||||||
| 2024 | 82/109 | 77.1% | 56.7% | 6% | $139,373 | $78,400
56.3% |
$11,707,292 |
| 2023 | 80/109 | 73.4% | 72.2% | 5.1% | $690,287 | $134,400
[19.5%] |
$55,222,940 |
| 2022 | 120/137 | 87.6% | 44.5% | 11.7% | $231,565 | $106,400
[46%] |
$27,787,790 |
| Broad Arrow, Jet Center | |||||||
| 2024 | 132/156 | 84.6% | 72.9% | 8.5% | $565,784 | $190,400
[33.7%] |
$74,683,511 |
| 2023 | 135/169 | 79.9% | 58% | 7.7% | $568,185 | $196,000
[34.5%] |
$76,704,940 |
| 2022 | 80/90 | 88.9% | 42.5% | 23.8% | $729,374 | $390,000
[53.5%] |
$58,349,900 |
| Mecum Auctions, Monterey | |||||||
| 2024 | 279/495 | 56.4% | — | — | $180,975 | $52,500
[29%] |
$50,491,925 |
| 2023 | 322/582 | 55.3% | — | — | $134,848 | $66,000
[48.9%] |
$43,420,960 |
| 2022 | 293/454 | 64.5% | — | — | $179,448 | $58,300
[32.5%] |
$52,578,321 |
| Gooding & Co, Pebble Beach | |||||||
| 2024 | 149/184 | 81% | 65.1% | 12.8% | $727,244 | $313,000
[43%] |
$108,359,300 |
| 2023 | 133/168 | 79.2% | 56.6% | 7.1% | $714,708 | $240,800
[33.7%] |
$95,056,145 |
| 2022 | 132/155 | 85.2% | 53% | 18.2% | $831,780 | $461,500
[55.5%] |
$109,795,000 |
| RM Sotheby’s, Convention Center | |||||||
| 2024 | 169/200 | 89% | 60.8% | 8.5% | $948,156 | $357,000
[37.7% |
$168,771,760 |
| 2023 | 176/207 | 85% | 43.5% | 13.5% | $880,844 | $401,000
[45.5%] |
$155,028,540 |
| 2022 | 181/190 | 95.3% | 49.5% | 20% | $1,343,709 | $566,000
[42.1%] |
$243,211,340 |
| Monterey | |||||||
| 2024 | 797/1145 | 71.9% | — | — | $502,962 | $164,400
[32.3%] |
$413,937,936 |
| 2023 | 846/1235 | 68.5% | — | — | $502,877 | $159,500
[31.7%] |
$425,433,525 |
| 2022 | 806/1026 | 78.6% | — | — | $610,077 | $159,500
[26.%]1 |
$491,722,351 |