A summary from the Pebble Beach week in Monterey
It is astonishing to realise that it is 3 years since we were at Pebble Beach watching our client’s DB3S win its class at that prestigious Concours event. But we weren’t just there for the beauty pageant, there are a lot of cars auctioned during Monterey week and we are grateful that modern technology allows us to keep up to date with that important market without the air fare!
Three key auction houses with Aston Martins, Broad Arrow, Goodings Christie’s and RM Sothebys – Bonhams ran as normal on 15th at Quail with an eclectic mix of European supercars and American muscle cars but no Astons! As an ex-Peugeot man, astonishment at the price they achieved on a 1984 Peugeot 205 GTi Turbo - $368,000 including premium!
For the Monterey auction houses, the sales rate was pretty good at 81% of Astons sold overall but they were made to work hard for the results – Broad Arrow, although first out of the blocks took until close of play in California (midnight BST) and some of the results showed the effort.
For example, an Aston Martin V8 Volante reached a bid of $260,000 on the rostrum but was actually declared at a sold value of $250,000 gross. And there were big gaps between estimates and results – the DBRS9 race car went to a new home at less than half the low estimate price even with the premium added.
All three houses work on the same rate of Buyer’s Premium – 12% up to $250,000 and 10% above that figure. It is always difficult for anyone in the market to properly assess values when one has to take premiums, commissions and local taxes into account. And, of course, there is the condition of the cars to dial into the differences in achieved prices – it is why we at Byron, keep careful tabs on Aston Martins wherever they are.
Consider the two DB5’s sold by RM Sotheby’s both appeared to fall short of their minimum estimates, albeit by very small amounts. But the sale prices varied by $300,000 (£224,700) – our database shows that DB5/2151/R sold in 2024 $373,007 when she was Dubonnet Red – after being given the “James Bond” treatment and presented in Silver at Monterey, the headline $500,000 looks like good business but the reality is the hammer $450,000 less Seller’s commission and then how much the restoration and what about its quality?
DB5/1466/L in contrast was an immaculately presented original left-hand drive with substantial provenance and a healthy recent $98,000 spend noted in the service record. Knowing the differences is why we built our database!
The DB4GT news was encouraging at Goodings when Charlie Ross brought the gavel down at $2,900,000 ($3,195,000 with premium) on DB4GT/0154/L.
Broad Arrow in contrast had a combined lot of a DBSGT Zagato and a DB4GT Zagato Continuation which was bid to $2,300,000 on the rostrum and offered post sale at $3,000,000 – it was marked as sold by close of business on Sunday but no price recorded.
It was a modest range of Astons on offer overall - of the 18 Astons on sale, half were without reserve and those with a reserve failed to make their low/bottom estimate. An old auction friend of ours used to say as he introduced a lot on the rostrum – “Ah, my two favourite words – Without Reserve!”
Look at the results from Monterey and consider the pressure on sellers post sale to accept lower bids, the market is as tough as ever but at least we are filling up the “Sold” column.
As always, we have a full record of the results, just follow the link.
