The Market

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Amelia Island 2022: RM’s $43.8m auction

Amelia Island 2022: RM’s $43.8m auction 5th March 2022

The RM machine ground out an old-school, 87-car catalogue earlier today. It might have lacked the entertainment value of arch-rival Gooding, or be stacked with modern-era Porsches, but the results speak for themselves: $43,777,641 gross; 85% sold by number on the day.

The Amelia Island Concours – now simply ‘The Amelia’ under Hagerty ownership – is a stronghold of big-ticket, pre-War Americana. RM had the best selection this year, and duly moved on every one of its Duesenberg, Packard, Cadillac and Auburn ‘Great Gatsby’ entries. Gooding failed to find buyers for its Packards the day before.

Top-selling entry at RM was the 1934 Packard Twelve (above), and that was in a catalogue that included more on-trend cars such as the Bugatti EB110 GT, LaFerrari and limited-edition 911s.

At a glance (on the day):
 
* Gross, motor cars: $43,777,641 (2021, $41,152,641)
* Percentage sold by number: 85% (2021, 95%)
* Top-selling car: 1934 Packard Twelve Individual Custom Convertible Victoria $4,130,000 gross, $3,750,000 net (est. $3.75m to $4.5m)        
* Well sold? Any of the multi-million-dollar, pre-War home-grown limousines – proof, if needed, that this sector still flourishes, and Amelia Island is its natural home
* Well bought? Pass

The ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton was packed to the end; bids came over the phones and from the room.


Significant results (gross):

* 1970 Aston Martin DB6 Mk 2 Vantage, est. $700k to $775k. Not sold, massive estimate for a ‘DB’ Aston – however good – suffering severe oversupply in the market.

* 1994 Bugatti EB110 GT Prototype (above), est. $2m to $2.5m. Not sold, not special enough at that price on the day.  Purchased post-sale for $2,100,000 gross/$1,904,545 net.

* 2019 Bugatti Chiron Sport, est. $3m to $3.3m. Low milage of 3,950, ‘Batman spec’ of all-black with red accents, $301k extras when new. Sold for $3,360,000.

* 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS (below), est. $1.6m to $2m. Not sold, no engine number catalogued, needed proper US or Italian restoration out of resale red, just too expensive.
 


* 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster, est. $1.4m to $1.7m. Non-original colour (was unwanted Fire Engine Red) but high proportion of original parts and restored in 2000s to ‘safe’ dark blue, with factory disc brakes and iron block. Sold for $1,545,000.

* 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari, est. $3.6m to $4m. All-black, fewer than 600 miles from new, $75k factory options when delivered. Sold for $3,662,500.

* 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, est. $1.5m to $1.65m. An older, ‘one-man’s-dream’ restoration to bright red with chrome wheels, but when that man with a vision is Hollywood collecting royalty Bruce Meyer, the bids kept coming. Sold for $2,040,000.

* 1991 Ferrari Testarossa, est. $140k to $180k. Triple-black and fewer than 670 miles. Sold for $321,250.

* 1993 Jaguar XJ220 (below), est. $500k to $600k. Very low mileage (ca. 703 miles) and concours quality in pleasing silver. Sold for $687,000.

* 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600, est. $350k to $400k. Great colour of Tobacco Brown over Cognac, a high-quality restoration, 3,355 miles from new. Sold for $445,000.


RM got the job done. Some of the estimates were over-confident, as proved by our summary below: only 14% beat upper guide price. The LaFerrari was announced ‘on sale’ far below its lower estimate and did not go much further, but still sold at sensible market money, not over. The EB110GT sold post-sale for $2.1m, almost exactly the same figure achieved by the two similar examples in Paris last month, but was not as good as either. Cars such as the Mercedes 600 and Testarossa prove, once again, that the market is looking for interesting specification and low mileage – these won’t be available ‘next week’. Bid or you will miss it.

The figures reinforced the solidity of today’s market rather than taking it up a level as we saw at Gooding yesterday.

†RM Sotheby’s at Amelia Island, 5 March 2022 – results (2021)

Gross: $46,252,641 ($41,152,641)
Number of cars not sold: 10 (5)
Number of cars withdrawn: 1 (1)
Total number of cars: 87 (99)
Number sold: 77 (94)
Percentage of cars sold by number: 89% (95%)
Percentage by value average low/high estimate: 82% (93%)
Percentage of cars met or sold below low estimate: 39% (48%)
Percentage of cars sold below avge of estimates: 66% (72%)
Percentage of cars sold met/exceeded top estimate: 14% (17%)
Average price of cars sold: $600,684 ($437,794)
Average year of cars offered: 1968 (1965)
Percentage of cars offered at No Reserve: 33% (40%)

†Includes post-sale cars

With thanks to Hammer Price

Photos by K500