Broad Arrow in California and Bonhams in Miami: the Grand Prix is sometimes not enough.

Location, location, location. Any real estate agent will tell you that the first three factors in appraising a house are "location, location, location". The same house on a prestigious street is worth more than another in a working-class area. One can think about this when comparing the results of these two auctions. Broad Arrow held its auction on April 27 during Air|Water in California, a very cool Porsche Club America event. Bonhams ran its auction on the same weekend as the Miami GP on May 4. The two events brought different clients to the two auctions and the results are evident.

With its Porsche-only auction, Broad Arrow sold 38 out of 57 cars (two-thirds) for total proceeds of $15,348,640 against an estimate of $26,465,000 (around 60 percent). Bonhams brought together 22 cars worth $22,305,000 but at the end of the day the result was disappointing: Only 11 cars were sold (half) for $7,184,800 (less than one-third). What caused this? The reason lies in the different type of events: Air|Water is an event of Porsche enthusiasts and collectors, capable of buying appealing cars with the little horse on the hood.

The 200,000 enthusiasts who gathered at the Grand Prix in Miami, on the other hand, may not necessarily buy a car worth "six or seven zeros." Plus Bonhams brought more expensive cars than Broad Arrow ($653,164 average vs. $403,912) and this steered away some aficionados with less deep pockets. In addition, the Brits offered more modern cars (for Air|Water the average was 1988, for Bonhams 1998) but, while the reason for this was to try to bring cars nearer to the F1 enthusiast customer, it also made the enchantment seem like a modern dealer of exotic cars. It must be said, however, that Bonhams is concentrating all its forces on the Monte Carlo auction and therefore the less interesting cars came to Miami.