Gooding to move online-only for its 2021 Arizona sale

West Coast saleroom Gooding & Co is the first of the Big Three to break cover on its intentions for Scottsdale Week next year. Instead of presenting some 130 cars over two days in a big white tent in Fashion Square, in 2021 its offering will be a digital one, with all cars available for inspection at the company’s Southern California facility.

The event will be conducted under Gooding’s Geared Online banner and an early entry is a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Long Nose (est. $2m to $2.4m, pictured, top) boasting five decades in single ownership.

So far, there’s no news from the other international houses. Arch-rival RM simply lists a one-day sale for 22 January with no location mentioned. Its recent results have been mixed. The mainly No Reserve Elkhart sale was conducted ‘live’ with limited on-site access and was a storming success; after the big figures posted at ‘virtual Essen’, the Canadians’ other, more recent internet-only sales held over a week, less so.

Lacking an online platform, Bonhams has relied on an auctioneer playing to telephones and computer screens – without a catalogue packed with No Reserve cars, this has been a tough ask. Its 21 January sale is still listed online as happening at the usual Westin Kierland Resort venue.

Home outfit Barret-Jackson, THE name in Scottsdale, rather than threatening to run the pesky virus out of town at the end of a shotgun, has announced a raft of Covid-compliant measures that include: access to the auction arena limited to bidders, consignors and guests; a limited number of tickets to the event that can only be bought online; masks to be worn throughout, “As much as we love to see your smiling faces”; thermometer screening; physical distancing, “Keep one Bugatti apart”; and “advanced filtration and air treatment technologies at WestWorld [that] include bipolar ionization”.

Russo and Steele – The Epicenter of The Collector Car Universe! – has yet to reveal its plans. To this corner of the galaxy, at least.

Whichever way the dice fall, this year’s gross of £74m, though considerably down from times past, will not be repeated in 2021. In 2015 the Big Three totalled $143m, and in truth Scottsdale Week has slipped out of favour for really big cars likely to find buyers at international level.

STOP PRESS: Just after this article was published Bonhams announced it would definitely hold a physical sale at the Westin Kierland Resort on 21 January. K500 understands this was due to an ongoing contract with the venue. The majority of the cars will be viewable on site 19-20 January.

Photo copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Co