The Giant and the Pygmy: RM and Hampson Amaze

This time, all the taboos were broken. It seemed that towards the end of April, opposites attracted—on one side the giant RM organizing an (online) auction with a “popular” flavor, and on the other the small English house Hampson aiming high and offering an almost “luxury” auction (by its standards). And in between, here we are to tell you about these strange seven days.

First step, RM, which between April 23 and 28 organized a virtual auction: 80 cars from all over the world, from the deserts of Dubai (where a few months ago they opened their local office — the first globally) to the Swiss Alps, passing through Europe and the United Kingdom. The only absentee was the United States, a nation for which they are reserving a specific sale at the end of May. There could have been some confusion for buyers who were required to bid in US dollars, pounds sterling, euros or Swiss francs depending on the lot. The sale was not a success: of the 80 cars offered, just over half (43) sold for a total value of €5,542,955, almost a third of the €14,846,330 pre-auction estimate. However, this made the whole event very “pop” because with an average price of €128,906, it was RM’s second most “affordable” auction in the last 10 years.