Aston Martins presented for sale September 2023 at Gooding & Co and Bonhams
Two big sales a week apart in September, put the classic car market and especially Aston Martin under the spotlight.
And what a contrast an entertaining sprint from Goodings at Hampton Court Concours and a rather dire marathon with Bonhams in the heat at the Goodwood Revival. As is always the case, the publicity machines from both auction houses will shout out headlines – Goodings rated their sale of a Mercedes 300SL as a World Record and we have yet to see the PR from Bonhams. Bonhams edged the sales rate at 68% compared with Goodings 55% but Goodings had the edge on quality of inventory.
Of course, there were highlights at both sales, our favourite was another “Bond” car, a Toyota 2000GT that made £700,000 (£799,000 with premium) but the real interest here is Aston Martin so let’s look at the results.
Three no sales at Goodings was disappointing – perhaps the Grand Prix car would have sold at Goodwood and there was genuine surprise from the Heritage Team that someone did not snap up the DB2/4 Indiana Spider. But the DB5 Convertible reflected the gap between seller expectation and the market
The Revival Sale reflected some different realities of the current Aston Martin market – being a Bonhams sale, there were the normal “No Reserve” Middle East defleets that impact other similar models but they were joined in the sold column by some exceptional collectors’ cars – the three cars from a collection that included a Virage Mule and a couple of exceptional V8 Volantes and a V8 Vantage X Pack.
But a better than average DB5 Saloon, a 1967 DB6 saloon, an exceptionaDB2/4 and a Virage all stayed on inventory.
In summary, the market today is about two important and converging characteristics to make a sale – quality of the car and aligning seller expectation with buyer perception. The market has plenty of buyers get your message right.
For full results go to:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uAL4NseLteJ9mkwQfv80-gUYiigkRjUO/view?usp=sharing
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