Anyone watching the PH auctions, thoughts?

[emperorburger]

A few days in and other than the Noble, which has been conveniently bid up to a headline grabbing £200k, everything else seems to be in the doldrums. Struggling to see how this will be an earner for CarGurus unless cars are getting constantly listed en masse with the necessary marketing.

So, doomed to failure?

[Lester H]

A shame to see PH pushing its own auctions, but, like commercial TV , it has to fund “free” journalism, even though most of that is provided by The Great British Public. If the auction promotion becomes too prominent, I will quit ( cries of “hurrah” from fellow members).

[skeeterm5]

I know these things time to bring to market but it has been launched at a difficult financial time. I have been watching a few random auctions recently and it seems that a lot of stuff is struggling to meet reserves or sell.

[anonymous-user]

Having watched a few Collecting Cars auctions, one thing that recurs is how much of a buyer’s market this sort of auction platform creates. You’d think it would be a seller’s market with buyers falling over each other to bid up the selling price, but in reality you get buyers who have a view as to how much the car is worth and not going higher than that.

[deckster]

BlackWidow13 said:

Having watched a few Collecting Cars auctions, one thing that recurs is how much of a buyer’s market this sort of auction platform creates. You’d think it would be a seller’s market with buyers falling over each other to bid up the selling price, but in reality you get buyers who have a view as to how much the car is worth and not going higher than that.

My observation is that sellers think they will get a great price because there are hundreds of buyers scrambling to bid the auction up in a frenzy, and buyers think they're going to get a fabulous car at a knock down price.

On the whole, they both go home disappointed.

[Scottie - NW]

Are bidders supposed to view these cars before bidding or is there buyer protection i.e. car has to be as advertised as with older performance cars you are surely going to find surprises on going to collect.

[kambites]

There's still four days left on the first lot of auctions. I suspect there will be a flurry of bids at the last minute.

[Gecko1978]

I liked the masarsti then had a look on the trader to get an idea of the price. Ultimately its not going to go for more than the others on line

[emperorburger]

Scottie - NW said:

Are bidders supposed to view these cars before bidding or is there buyer protection i.e. car has to be as advertised as with older performance cars you are surely going to find surprises on going to collect.

You are encouraged to view. Shame the TVR and Maserati weren't listed without a reserve as I think they would have generated a huge amount of interest.

[yellowbentines]

deckster said:

My observation is that sellers think they will get a great price because there are hundreds of buyers scrambling to bid the auction up in a frenzy, and buyers think they're going to get a fabulous car at a knock down price.

On the whole, they both go home disappointed.

That's what I'd have presumed.

For example how do sellers determine what their car is worth and what they'll set the reserve at - by comparing to similar cars being sold by classified ad? Surely potential buyers will be doing the same thing.

I imagine most sales will have a reserve?

[emperorburger]

yellowbentines said:

I imagine most sales will have a reserve?

Yes, and herein lies the problem. Most PHers wouldn't give you the snow of their roof.

[deckster]

emperorburger said:

yellowbentines said:

I imagine most sales will have a reserve?

Yes, and herein lies the problem. Most PHers wouldn't give you the snow of their roof.

Oi. That's my snow. I worked hard for that snow. Who do you think you are, coming in here, taking away snow from honest grafters just looking for a fair day's snow for a fair day's shirking. It's a bloody liberty I tell you.

[bencollins4]

kambites said:

There's still four days left on the first lot of auctions. I suspect there will be a flurry of bids at the last minute.

Exactly. Bit early to judge. Collecting Cars sometimes have auctions where a price looks crazy low with minutes to go, then the bidding gets going and it goes up massively.

[bennno]

Gecko1978 said:

I liked the masarsti then had a look on the trader to get an idea of the price. Ultimately its not going to go for more than the others on line

It should go for at least 6%+vat less than the comparable ones online.

These auctions in my eyes only work for the super valuable >200k, the very unusual, or the fairly unusual (in terms of mileage, colour, availability) but <50k cars.

[Belle427]

Had a look at the Tvr, pictures are nice but id agree the prices wont get above its market value as its the model no one really wants.

[Julian Thompson]

CC has become a tool for the trade. They buy what’s available when it’s available.

Retail is different because it can take a long time for the right buyer and the right car to come together. That’s why the established auctions do well - there are advertisements of the lots for a long time in advance so that interest and potential clients can build up.

Just launching any auction for something specialist and running it for short time will very rarely produce the real market value just because the market doesn’t actually get time to see it!

[charltjr]

That’s the point of an auction though. As a seller you set a minimum reserve, which unless you’re crazy is somewhat under the market price, and hope you have two or more people who want it enough to push the value higher.

Guaranteed sale (reserve permitting) but at price risk to the seller, that’s literally the whole point of an auction. Expecting over-market bids on a car as a matter of course would be crazy.

The real problems PH have here are that they are very, very late to a market which already looks saturated and the PH name isn’t exactly the greatest out there. Too much of the forum is a cesspit of mumsnet-for-cars idiocy, personal attacks and sad, angry people venting their bile on people who dare to ask a question.

[griffter]

I think the format (while not unique) of having a thread on each car, with interested parties, including the vendor, commenting, is a good one.
What might be unique (other than owners forums) would be for that format to appear in the classifieds.

[bennno]

200k for the Noble looks strong.

[C5_Steve]

griffter said:

I think the format (while not unique) of having a thread on each car, with interested parties, including the vendor, commenting, is a good one.
What might be unique (other than owners forums) would be for that format to appear in the classifieds.

BAT and Cars and Bids already have a comment section on each listing (which I think works better or at least looks better than the PH version).

I agree though I do like it either way.