Over the past two years the attendance at Classic Cars auction has fallen, even at prestigious events where you had to be there early to claim a seat.
More and more auctions you see the auctioneer addressing the on line camera and giving the on-line bidder far more time to make his mind up.
It seems the on-line bidder has the priority which I do not understand the rational behind that! If a bidder is prepared to put themselves out and travel to an event and wait for the lot to come up and go through the process then that should be the auctions focus.
Also, telephones bidders tend to play the drawn out game and make the audience wait.
Having missed a recent London auction owning to business in New York, I listened to the show on line watching the auction go through his party tricks, but the back ground noise was so load you could just hear the bidding.
At one stage the auctioneer asked for quiet, how embarrassing for the man conducting proceedings!
It turned out that the wine was on the house, one way to get the bidding going, good thinking, and works in some auctions, but not in this one.
It was explained to me that the event was more like a “London dealers drinks club”. So I missed the Christmas party!
Are on-line auctions the future? The demise of public classic car auctions? Is this the start of things to come?
Only time will tell........
