ACA and H&H: The Sweet Taste of a Deal

What could be better than those auctions we like so much? The ones where the little devil in us tends to get the upper hand? We are in England, needless to say, at ACA and H&H. In fact the £6,339 average price for one of the 258 cars sold by ACA (there were 301 bids, so 85.71% found a new home) is half that of a new small hatchback - and maybe not even half! To conclude ACA's other numbers: the estimated value was £1,665,250 and the adjudication was almost identical, £1,635,643, with almost a third of the cars offered without reserve, 98 or 32.56%.

Just three days later on 5-6 April, the 9th at Duxford was H&H which also had a more structured offer. The 140 cars on the day made a total of £3,881,000 (about £27,000 each) but when the dust settled and the thrill was over there were far fewer changes of hands: 76 (about 54.29%). The adjudication was also about half £1,569,892 and the average price thus settled at £20,656, but it must be known that there were very few cars without reserve, just 17. And this affects.

Clearly the top lot of the week could only come from H&H, because at the top it placed a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 190SL Roadster. Presented just the year before, this is one of the rare examples that can also be entered in the famous Mille Miglia and the excellent colour combination, silver with blue interior (but it was originally white with black interior), left-hand drive and good overall condition made it a very interesting lot. It sold for half the estimate of £70,000-90,000, with a final price of £81,000.