Goodwood Revival and Historics at Ascot - plenty of Aston action
There is a kind of seasonal rhythm to the classic car market – we kick off the year with Springtime in Paris around Retromobile and then our April showers broken by the Goodwood Members auction. Goodwood then dominates the domestic scene with the Festival of Speed in the heat of summer, a brief distraction of Monterey before the Revival signals the cooler weather of autumn.
But these are only signposts in an ever-changing market with other auction houses like Historics fielding more Aston Martins in their Ascot sale, RM now in the driving seat at the London to Brighton as we approach Christmas and the last hurrahs of the auction houses.
The Goodwood Revival drew as large an audience as ever and, during a celebration of the great Jim Clark, some observers commented on the fact that although a winner at Indianapolis, Formula 1 World Championships and a catalogue of other race categories, lap times from both the professional racers this year at Goodwood, and even “Gentleman Racers”, were faster than Jim’s. Times and tyre technologies change and beat World Champions of yesteryear!
Funnily enough as the auction got into the swing of things, the Automobilia Section saw the first big “Aston” result when the registration number DB 1 saw the hammer come down at £380,000 (£473,000 with premium).
All eyes were on the DB4GT Zagato Sanction III, not least for a little difference between author Stephen Archer and RS Williams. That air of controversy did not stop the car recording the top price in the sale of £950,000 (£1,079,000 with premium).
Overall, the DB4GT was one of three Astons sold on the day – next best price came for a DB2/4 Drophead that sold for £180,000 on the hammer (£207,000 with premium) great value for the buyer when it was reported that £580,000 had been spent on the car’s restoration.
The last Aston on the sold list was a 1969 DBS Vantage – a sale at £96,000 (£110,000 with premium) barely reflecting the £240,000 of restoration bills that came with the car.
Disappointing bids vs estimates were reflected in the other three Astons presented getting sold – full comparative results are attached.
Just a week later and it was Historics “Pace of Autumn” sale at Ascot Racecourse. It is a stunning venue with a lot of display space and the Historics team take advantage of every square inch – not sure which comes first, the opportunity to fill the space or the gigantic inventory - 183 lots!
As usual with Historics it was an eclectic mix – motorbikes, campers, classic cars and of course, a sprinkling of Aston Martins. Ordinarily, a sale with 11 Astons would be remarkable – amongst such a huge inventory it did represent a sprinkling!
Even before the first couple of hours had passed, it was noticeable just how many cars were being noted as “provisional”. Interestingly, a few times a very late bid online was substituted “the hammer had not come down” was the reason given by the auctioneer – it never did on any of the provisional sales!
If you review the accompanying results sheet, you will see the number of those provisional sales that resulted in a completion but reflect how many were reported as “Undisclosed figure or fee”.
It prompted a reflection of the sales process – as brokers, Byron International always state that we work for one person, the Seller – we set a price and take a car to market to establish a negotiating position between Buyer and Seller seeking a win/win situation with every transaction. A collector I have never met, lent over and spoke to me during the sale, remarking on the consistent under bidding and reflecting that it was not the time to put his two classic Mercedes on sale.
But it was an often repeated comment from the rostrum that really brought it home that they would “try their best” for the bidder. You stop and think – what about the seller?
We are not decrying the effort and work rate of the Historics team – the scale of their workload is epic – it is really that sellers needs clarity on what placing their car to auction means in terms of return.
There were a number of different Aston Martin DB7’s on offer – saloons, Volantes and even a Dunhill limited edition. First up was a Vantage Coupe that at £16,000 (£19,000 with premium) got very close to its estimate – this was closely followed by a Vantage Volante that also made £16,000 on the hammer but was reported as £18,304 with premium!
A William Towns Lagonda also made the sold column with a bid of £28,500 bringing it up to £35,464 with premium, one of the many “provisionals” negotiated post sale! The same pricing conundrum came with the Virage Volante Wide Body where £52,000 on the hammer came up to £62,920 with premium – both cars well presented in the grandstand building.
Another good result for the next DB7 with a final offer of £12,500 beating bottom estimate (£14,300 with premium) and even better news for a lovely DB9 getting close to top estimate with a hammer of £43,500 (£49,764 with premium)
But disappointment for the Dunhill Special Edition DB7 optimistically estimated at £28,000/£36,000 – a hammer price of £22,000 failed to get the car a new owner, A good looking 2004 Vanquish 2 + 2 found a new home but the price reflected the current market doldrums with the hammer coming in at £33,000 (£37,752 with premium) – cracking value for the buyer.
Next Aston up on the block was a beautiful DB4 Series II – the hyperbole of the auctioneer telling the audience that he could see bidders queuing up online fell very flat as he opened at £270,000 appeared took take two bids finishing at £290,000. It is one of the frustrations of auctions when the rostrum tries to fool the audience – there was a clear bid “run” on one of the Range Rovers, it doesn’t encourage the reputation of the medium. Inevitably neither the DB4 or that Range Rover made it to a sold column!
Our Aston afternoon finished with a pair of DB7’s selling respectively for £8,000 and £10,000 on the hammer which translated to £9152 and £11,440 when the premium is added.
It was a very long day and hard to report on every lot and look after personal welfare but in overall terms it was a well-attended event – the seats emptied at around 1.00 as people looked for lunch but although thinner at the end than at the start, the crowd was pretty good all day but most of the business appeared to be done online or on the telephone.
Two sales in a week and the results were like the curates‘s egg – good in parts. Great that the Sanction III Zagato made what proved to be the best price of the day but it remains a very inexact science to estimate values – you will see for yourself that auctions should rename the quotes values as “Guesstimates” and, from a distance quoted prices on results pages with Buyers’ Premiums and taxes added just serve to confuse.
The attendance at Ascot proves there is plenty of interest in the market and a good number of buyers out there, there remains this disagreement in price between buyers and sellers but all the time the market is vibrant, hope springs eternal.
One last thought – there is an admirable work ethic at Historics led by their own Duracell bunny, Mark Perkins, the Managing Director and we’d love to know how they can construct an inventory with so many traditional classics and at the same time come up with something like the 1942 International Harvester Truck converted into a camper – it was bonkers!
For Ascot Results follow this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hjCHZmqXARw2-Vo0FGs_ARAtNEyDgMrA/view?usp=sharing
For Autumn Astons Summary Results follow this link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WP9mokG-2lJ-kiJIhv1RPxUR13bK74YT/view?usp=sharing
