Market Intelligence
Attractive and Lively. And buyers come…
The Sàragga sale, hosted by RM Sotheby's in Portugal, featured a complete collection of classic cars sold without reserve. The auction exceeded pre-sale estimates, indicating a solid potential market for classic cars. The sale highlighted that condition and history are the key elements for a good sale, with pre-war cars still in demand. The most valuable car sold was a 1931 Bentley 8-Litre Tourer, which fetched EUR 680,000, slightly below its pre-sale estimate. The sale's top ten cars included a mix of historical periods, with the 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring becoming the second most expensive lot.
The Sàragga sale organized by RM Sotheby’s, a first for the Anglo-Canadian auction house in Portugal, was an exceptional and therefore much anticipated event that saw a single owner’s complete collection of classic cars all offered for sale without a reserve price. Rather like the similar Duemilaruote auction in Italy a couple of years ago, it attracted a host of potential customers not usually seen on the auction “circuit” — individuals with a keen eye for a potential opportunity, who were ready to take the risk of getting carried away by the excitement, and therefore of buying relatively “standard” cars for more than they might usually fetch.
RM Sotheby’s The Sàragga sale – review
The RM Sotheby’s team astutely leveraged the buyers’ expectations, assigning quite low estimates to the more average lots, while going a little higher with the potential top sellers, so as to give the idea that, at current prices, these cars would make excellent purchases. Unsurprisingly, then, many of the 127 lots offered (which included 126 cars) sold for more than their pre-sale estimate.
