Pebble Beach: Secrets and Tricks of the World’s Most Famous Auctions

The great international auctions are a sure point of reference for the classic car market. Those held during Monterey Week in particular, even if, increasingly often, the main players bring important cars or entire collections to other events to cover the demands of the international market. For this reason, today, while waiting to have all the official results from Monterey Week, I want to start our analysis with a very precise goal: to show how each individual lot has a greater or lesser probability of success depending on the story it tells — understood, of course, as a certified history.

Roarington will present — through the analyses of the complete, published results — the five auctions of Bonhams, Broad Arrow, Gooding, Mecum, and RM Sotheby’s, mentioned not by chance in alphabetical order, while today we want to explain the mechanisms that lead to certain bids or certain withdrawals. Of course, without forgetting that the auction mechanism can provoke challenges down to the last dollar, when more than one bidder wants to have that car at all costs. But this is the beauty of the market.