Dealer mark up

[yellow elan]

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

[neutral 3]

And to think that in 2014, I struggled to sell a really original, white manual 3500S for £1,500 quid.......

[FNG]

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

Do they have any other P6s on sale at the moment?

Fairly common practice to get a really nice one and advertise way above the going rate, to make it seem like they're all worth more than they are and/or that they are starting to go up in value. Then also have one or two that aren't quite as nice, but much more affordable. Making a similar margin, and in selling them the market starts to perceive that they're on the way up. Better get in quick and buy that pristine one before the snotters are that money, eh!

Alternatively, it only takes one person to see it, want the best one they can afford, make a "cheeky" offer and bag it for 16k. They're happy as they've got it for way lower than asking, and the dealer still makes a decent wedge.

[Turbobanana]

In fairness, for a dealer to introduce that sort of a mark up is not unexpected, although this one does seem a little greedy. They are making their living from the "buy low, sell high ethos" after all.

What annoys me is the jack-the-lad, got a few spare quid "private individuals" littering certain other auction sites that run a happy little sideline in trading, without any of the consumer "attachments" that real traders have to handle. You know, warranty, due dilligence, Trading Standards, income tax / VAT - that sort of thing. Naturally said auction site is only concerned with making money so doesn't care about all that.

I'm in the market to change my classic this year and have been watching auction results and the subsequent classifieds like a hawk. There's a lot of chancers out there at the moment, but I guess the thinking is that as long as they can afford to stock it, it'll sell when the market catches up.

[Escort3500]

DD Classics’ cars always seem very overpriced to me, like 4 Star Classics and St Andrew’s Autos, but good luck to them if they can sell at those prices

[Keep it stiff]

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

What they advertise it at and what they sell it at might be very different figures of course!

Vat to come out of their margin too.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

Might need some work to retail it. Might need to allow for a p/x, might need to discount to make the punter feel happy.

A lot of the industries I've worked in sold at double cost, not that unreasonable is it?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Greetings cards are produced for pennies and many sell for £4

You do have to sell a few to get to an old Rover though

[Wheel_Turned_Out]

It happens all the time. Last year I saw a dark blue 3500 tourer, one of the HR Owen conversions, on eBay in the mid-20's. Month or so later it appeared for sale via Graeme Hunt in the mid-30's.

Incidentally it was a bloody lovely looking thing, too.

[Wacky Racer]

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

There was probably the auctioneer's commission on top, plus they will have to guarantee it to a degree/ pay for showroom etc.

If it's too expensive, it won't sell, like anything else.

[CRA1G]

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

Well get out there and do it then...! You can then let us all know of your success and new wealth....

[Old Merc]

Just look at your average dealers stock list and add it all up. A huge amount of money just lying there.

I sold a classic, for a very satisfactory amount, to a very well known dealer.I was happy, actually made a profit.
He then advertised it for DOUBLE the amount he gave me. That car sat in his showroom for over a year.
It’s now gone, I bet it did not fetch the advertised amount, also I wonder if the dealer fixed all the faults the car had when I sold it to him.

[Lester H]

CRA1G said:

yellow elan said:

Two weeks ago on Car and Classics auction site OHH 602M sold for £11250 a very nice Rover P6 3500. Yesterday it appears on their classics selling site P6 at £19950 at DD classics of London . They even used the same advertising wording. A mark up of £8700 in two weeks !
I want to be a Classic Car Dealer

Well get out there and do it then...! You can then let us all know of your success and new wealth....

Yes. One is the sold price, the other is the asking price. Considerable overheads are needed to run a decent classics outfit, and if you look how long things hang around at the “better” ones you will see why they start on the high side. Now what really would be interesting would be the car equivalent of Righmove or Zoopla so that we could see the actual achieved prices.

[esso]

There is one particular dealer I regularly take a look at where his prices are top dollar, he had a Mk 1 Ford Zephyr Zodiac for sale for about 2 years at nearly 29k,it appears to have gone now but he has put another one up for sale at nearly 46k!....stupid money if you ask me for a 1950's four-door saloon.

[Escort3500]

esso said:

There is one particular dealer I regularly take a look at where his prices are top dollar, he had a Mk 1 Ford Zephyr Zodiac for sale for about 2 years at nearly 29k,it appears to have gone now but he has put another one up for sale at nearly 46k!....stupid money if you ask me for a 1950's four-door saloon.

If it’s the one I think it is, it’s ludicrously overpriced (by about £15-20k) and isn’t “the rarest Ford and best ever model made” that the ad claims.

[lowdrag]

I remember years ago when the newspapers started checking how many adverts a "private seller" placed every year and banning them. Nowadays it would be so much simpler with the internet. I write a monthly column on classic Jaguar auction prices and this caught my eye a few months back. In an auction I was following a lovely Hudson was hammered at £18,000. The original tall Hudson dealership neon sign sold for £23,000! An almost new Proteus C-type, sold for £120,000 way below new price. There is no reckoning with auctions where a sale will end up. I mean, a kiddies XK120 with 50cc engine for £26,000! Someone obviously really wanted that one.

[Turbobanana]

Wacky Racer said:

If it's too expensive, it won't sell, like anything else.

I actually disagree with that. I think it well sell, it's just a question of to whom and when. Well-funded dealers can and will stock it for as long as it takes to find the right buyer. Poorly-funded ones won't, and will discount to get rid.

Agree with the suggestion of a database of sold values though: Glenmarch do a good one for auction prices but once into the trade we lose track pretty quickly.

[V12 Migaloo]

The thing is, dealers, especially the bone fide respected ones (like DD), buy cars from auctions and will probably spend time and money making it 100%... detailing, replacing shocks, brakes, giving it a service, whilst not as much as the mark up but they have taken the risk and time to buy the car and then sink cash in to it, then they have to pay for all of their overheads 9rent, insurance, wages) and when calculated, their operating profit is a lot less then the mark up. I know a mate who had his old 912T detailed, wet sanded and polished back up with some well blended paint work, cost him nigh on £ 4k... took three days, no one works for a hundred quid a day any more...

[andrewcliffe]

I think Car and Classic's auctions have a commision of £ 500 or 5% whichever is greater which is deduced from the selling price. So in this case, no buyers premium and a 5% sellers premium.

Other auctions have difference systems, Collecting Cars has no sellers premium but a buyers premium and some have both.

[GoodOlBoy]

The dealer can hardly be responsible for the hammer price, and perhaps he was prepared to pay more if required.

He clearly sees the car has a higher value. which is why he bought it.

The idea that if you buy it cheap you should sell it cheap isn't really good business practice.

I do think he's a bit optimistic but then exceptional P5 Rovers have been fetching some very strong prices recently - maybe the P6 is set to follow.