Auction House Experience for Selling

[skeeterm5]

Hi all

I am considering selling one of my classics (Lotus Carlton) and have decided that an auction is the way to go for minimum grief for me. There seem to be 3 or 4 serious houses such as Brightwells, ACA, Silverstone, and SWVA.

Selling costs seem pretty similar, so I was wondering if anybody has any experience of selling through any of these or any other auctions?

S

[Plinth]

I have used Bonhams Aston Works Sale and Anglia Car Auctions classic event.
Both very professional, cars were sold with no reserves and I got excellent prices.
As you say, minimum grief!

[Pericoloso]

There's also Historics,I've been to a few of their auctions,seem well organised.

[e42]

Hi, I sold my e-type through silverstone November 2016, excellent pain free experience, would recommend. I picked their auction at the NEC, if the sale is part of a bigger event you have a higher footfall. Will Smith is the man I dealt with, top bloke. No connection other than satisfied customer, btw

Dom

[skeeterm5]

Thanks all

[lukeharding]

Historics are great with great staff and a variety of cars (and clientele). Silverstone also good but presentation of cars isn't quite so good catalogue wise. ACA are good people too and get some great prices for cars with lots of buyers across a range of prices. You've also got the newer style of places like themarket.co.uk who will charge you less and provides professionally written article and all online 5% commission only for sellers, encouraging buyers to spend more.

Any of them would love to have a Lotus Carlton coming through

[JaseB]

It could be worth a go with these guys, run by a friend of mine although I have no interests in it:

www.themarket.co.uk

Much lowered selling fees etc, worth a look either way in my opinion...

[lukeharding]

JaseB said:

It could be worth a go with these guys, run by a friend of mine although I have no interests in it:

www.themarket.co.uk

Much lowered selling fees etc, worth a look either way in my opinion...

I've used them to sell, and they've been nothing but brilliant in getting a car sold.

[kingswood]

curve ball, and depending on how much you need the money, what about selling it on one of the forums relating to the car at a reasonable price?

[sim16v]

If you do decide to sell through an auction, make sure you get what you've agreed in writing or by email.

A mate sold his W124 500E through one of the classic auctions and the sellers forgot to put a reserve on it.

It went for a bit less than he wanted.

They did waive the sellers fees, but still not what you'd want.

[LotusOmega375D]

A few years back, one of the Autobahnstormers Lotus Carlton owners put his car through Silverstone and wasn’t at all happy with their behaviour on the day. Things may have changed since then though, as they were still a fairly inexperienced company at the time.

[JaseB]

Also don't forget to ask how long it will take for the auction house to give you your money, I believe there is one very famous one that doesn't pay until their next auction has cleared...

[mph]

JaseB said:

Also don't forget to ask how long it will take for the auction house to give you your money, I believe there is one very famous one that doesn't pay until their next auction has cleared...

Wouldn't be Coys would it ?

[80quattro]

I sold my BMW M535i through ACA about 18 months ago. Robert George was my contact, who was great at keeping in touch and dealt with the entire process from start to finish. I would definitely use them again. I would definitely check how quickly they pay post auction, as I remember being slightly surprised.

[South tdf]

JaseB said:

Also don't forget to ask how long it will take for the auction house to give you your money, I believe there is one very famous one that doesn't pay until their next auction has cleared...

Could be the same one that only pays by cheque. Nervous times when someone points out a companies net worth.

[Flat-6]

+1 for SIlverstone, sold my Ferrari Mondial through them in 2014.

And even better, they came to me, so I ended up paying no commission :-)

[squirdan]

I sold a Range Rover Classic "In Vogue" at auction last year. First thing I'd say is most of these people know less about cars than the average PHer. Which sort of makes sense as they are generalists. In my case there was a 200% spread between what the different companies thought were sensible reserve prices. From memory £7k to £15k.

Now because their fee is a %, clearly the more expensive your car, the more effort they make. And you might want to consider the average value and type of other vehicles at the auction they suggest as you prob don't want to be an outlier.

I went with Silverstone in the end and they were fine, the car sold on the day but thats only because I was in the room and dropped the reserve at the last minute - there was 1 online bid. Poor footfall in the room, not much buzz and frankly I was q surprised. It was at the Silverstone Classic so not a tiny event.

My car was not featured at all in any of their tweets or viral / social marketing...fair enough it wasnt one of the highlights of the auction, but even so, a tad disappointing when you consider how easy it is in a digital world. And the fact theres a forum for everything these days. Bottom line not sure how good they are at actual "selling", as opposed to merely placing your car for sale.

Given the average sell rate, plus your upfront fees, form filling, transport there a few days before etc. I think its marginal as to whether an auction makes sense versus lets say the SoR type of arrangement offered by someone like Neil at Hairpin. By contrast he sold my 968 CS - he came down to London, collected it, had it sold within 2 weeks, and the only fee I paid was the commission aka a success based fee. Plus his website his better than the average auction company.

No affiliation, just my experience

[POORCARDEALER]

ACA are a good outfit and cars seem to make very strong money there

[skeeterm5]

Thanks all, in conversation with a couple of suggestions, so far, promising chats.