Total madness, help needed!!!
Discussion
This Monday I took myself a day off, armed myself with a bundle of loot and headed off to Bonhams Christmas auction at Olympia. Nothing surprising in that you might say.
Object of my desires was an Alpina B9 which had spent all of its life in the Patrick collection having covered about 10k in its 20 years. These were based on the 635 and had an estimate at 8 to 10 grand, a nice addition I thought. As a default purchase there was a 928S from the same collection giving covered about 7k with a guide of 7 to 10 grand. Nice but not as nice as the Alpina
The main point with these is despite the attractive mileage both had only ever been properly serviced once in their life’s and would almost certainly need good chunks of loot to see them professionally recommisoned although both did come with an MOT. I had allowed 4 to 5 grand on either of them to get hem mechanically up to scratch although both bodily were damn good.
My real point of writing this is the total amazement of what the cars made on the day. Do bear in mind that Bonhams charge 15% buyers plus VAT as well. The Alpina went for an intergalactic £17grand whilst the 928 went for an eye watering £14 grand. When all done the full cost of the Alpina could be well over £20 grand and the 928 certainly round the £20 grand mark.
What strikes me about this whether this is the first sign of the classic market starting to return to the dizzying heights of the late eighties or did these buyers have no real idea of what they were going to cost to make good? Either way the thoughts of the learned PH collective are most welcome as I am a tad worried albeit with a few quid still in the till.
Just to underling this, a low mileage XJS convertible did £18k a bloody Interceptor FF did over £20k and a BMW Z1 around the £20k mark and the swine was in lemon yellow with matching interior. Utter and total madness!!!
Object of my desires was an Alpina B9 which had spent all of its life in the Patrick collection having covered about 10k in its 20 years. These were based on the 635 and had an estimate at 8 to 10 grand, a nice addition I thought. As a default purchase there was a 928S from the same collection giving covered about 7k with a guide of 7 to 10 grand. Nice but not as nice as the Alpina
The main point with these is despite the attractive mileage both had only ever been properly serviced once in their life’s and would almost certainly need good chunks of loot to see them professionally recommisoned although both did come with an MOT. I had allowed 4 to 5 grand on either of them to get hem mechanically up to scratch although both bodily were damn good.
My real point of writing this is the total amazement of what the cars made on the day. Do bear in mind that Bonhams charge 15% buyers plus VAT as well. The Alpina went for an intergalactic £17grand whilst the 928 went for an eye watering £14 grand. When all done the full cost of the Alpina could be well over £20 grand and the 928 certainly round the £20 grand mark.
What strikes me about this whether this is the first sign of the classic market starting to return to the dizzying heights of the late eighties or did these buyers have no real idea of what they were going to cost to make good? Either way the thoughts of the learned PH collective are most welcome as I am a tad worried albeit with a few quid still in the till.
Just to underling this, a low mileage XJS convertible did £18k a bloody Interceptor FF did over £20k and a BMW Z1 around the £20k mark and the swine was in lemon yellow with matching interior. Utter and total madness!!!
In some ways the market picking up would be nice, in others a real pain. My cars would be worth some cash at last, but like houses I would have to pay more for my next car therefore I make no real money. You will always find low milage cars fetching big money, when a higher milage car that has been used will almost certainly be a better bet.
i personally hope the market doesn't go mad like it did in the 80's. Someone spent 15k putting our morris minor back together in 1990, drove 3000 miles before I bought it for 3k in 1998, thats just mad. don't let that happen again.
i personally hope the market doesn't go mad like it did in the 80's. Someone spent 15k putting our morris minor back together in 1990, drove 3000 miles before I bought it for 3k in 1998, thats just mad. don't let that happen again.
I`m not sure that the market is changing particularly. Quite often you get silly prices and an illogical bidding frenzy when well publicised "collections" come up for auction. Does anyone remember the daft prices at the Elton John auction a few years back? Another example would be the George Milligan collection at Goodwood this year. It seems as though some form of collective madness descends as people pay ridiculous sums far in advance of the established market rate. I suspect there are a fair few regrets the next day...
The other factor is probably evolutionary as the classic 25-year rule comes into play. The Patrick cars are on the cusp of becoming classics and perhaps some people are happy to pay the money to bag decent examples before the market truly recognises them?
The other factor is probably evolutionary as the classic 25-year rule comes into play. The Patrick cars are on the cusp of becoming classics and perhaps some people are happy to pay the money to bag decent examples before the market truly recognises them?
I saw some of the prices at that auction and wondered the same thing. Went home and read my most Classic and Spropertcas mag and looked in the auction section, which seemed to show that other than some very high end exotica oing up, which is proably accounted for by pure rarity and inflation, things have been pretty flat in the maket for the past year, so I wouldn't panic just yet - that 959 was very toppy if you ask me....
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