Dear Classic Car Enthusiast,
Season’s greetings to you all! We wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.
Welcome to the last Classicmobilia E’News of 2017.
What a finish to the year! A number of very interesting auctions held in the last month means a lot to talk about; some very interesting motorcars were sold through dealers and yet, some even more interesting cars are seen to come to the market under the radar.
The auction scene has been intense, with a number of sales taking place in a short period of time. Yes, some good results have been achieved, but not everything that glitters is gold.
It is quite obvious that the auction world is struggling; as we have reported repeatedly throughout the year, it doesn’t go unnoticed when cars are offered with no reserve, with a number not selling at all and others selling for under the lower estimate figure. This, in the industry, speaks volumes.
On a brighter note, good cars going to auction are still doing well and selling for top dollar. A car of substance with a good history will still sell well, if appropriately marketed by knowledgeable experts, but cars with a questionable history struggle even more than before. A logical question to ask is always why so little history has been offered with these auction ‘rejects’. They don’t make it over the line, but to be blunt they shouldn’t even be let out of the starting blocks.
The classic car media are still reporting how the market is on the ‘downturn’, which leads us to believe that they must be looking at auction figures only.
We all know that the Ferrari, Porsche and Jaguar E-Type market went too far too fast and is now just starting to stabilise to where it should really be. But then, as one looks at Ford Escorts, Capris and Datsun 240Zs, it is fair to say that it appears the market has gone mad.
Is the market just being judged on its top-end results, or are we just looking at auction results? There is a large number of cars ‘off’the market at the present time: very good cars, belonging to wealthy collectors just trying to move their collections around or update them a little. This should not be seen as a market ‘crash’, but just as a healthy sign for our trade. The press ought to know better.
We are all looking forward to a very exciting New Year and I am sure it will be a ‘survival of the fittest’. The New Year will see a lot of changes in the market and we, at Classicmobilia, have a few as well.
Wishing you all the very best, and happy motoring.
Keith
