Market Intelligence
Market: a reasoned analysis on Bloomberg’s consideration
The pandemic has boosted the private sales market for collectible cars, which is difficult to monitor but has led to record-breaking sales. Online auctions have also shown interesting data, with the RM Palm Beach auction selling 67% of cars on offer and 72% selling below their initial estimates. However, some are cautious about spending money during the current economic uncertainty, while others see collectible cars as a safe-haven asset and a way to celebrate newfound freedom post-lockdown.
According to Bloomberg, the global pandemic has favoured the private sales market. It is a very difficult market to monitor because it eludes all forms of control, which certainly makes sense these days, and can give rise to some incredible deals: the record-breaking sales reported to Bloomberg by Gooding are therefore credible and, to corroborate them, we conducted a similar analysis through several large international traders. It is immediately apparent that in these calm waters of a market without the big auctions and with previously unimaginable disturbances, the true experts move with ease and considerable discretion.
The Bugatti Atlantic is one of the icons of car collections: cars of this type are resilient to the effects of crises
Yet what has happened to the broader market of passion? From our analysis, the cross-segment market that reacted to the new situation by introducing online auctions provides some very interesting data: the on-line auction of Palm Beach organized by RM managed to sell 67% of the cars on offer, bringing in a total in excess of $13.6m and giving many buyers the opportunity to take home some very interesting deals within each price point and category: 72% of the cars sold went for less than their initial estimates and this means that today’s market is considerably more elastic than it was before. As if confirming that the top models continue to retain their attractive power, the fact that, on average, 75% of the top lots were sold is an irrefutable symbol of the state of the market, especially as we are talking about cars worth almost a million dollars sold online. What happens when we compare this to the situation last year when people were in the room? Without question, both the percentage of total sales (74%) and turnover ($23m) have fallen, yet the drop cannot be simply attributed to the online formula.
