Is this the biggest Classic Auction blunder ever?
Discussion
i agree, it was the 500k increments that made it 'obvious' he was talking in the teens but RM have got so many members of staff in that room, he is their colleague and they know how he pronounces words - how did it even get past the opening 13/30 mistake, or at the most the 13.5/30.5 mistake, before one of them flagged it and brought it to his attention? there are 3 massive screens in there! and it kept on and on like this, for minutes, all the way up to 70, which is what makes one wonder did they deliberately stay quiet in the hope that it would catch a genuine eg 35m or 40m bid in amongst that nonsense...
lets see if he is on duty at the next RM sale!
lets see if he is on duty at the next RM sale!
W11PEL said:
This is a disaster. The seller must be seething.
That aside I think he is insane posting a 20m reserve. I’d have run a mile with 17m. He’s had it 40 years. So we can assume paid a fraction of that amount.
As Ed Callow pointed out: That aside I think he is insane posting a 20m reserve. I’d have run a mile with 17m. He’s had it 40 years. So we can assume paid a fraction of that amount.
"The *only* reason that the Type 64 didn't sell is because the owner wants too much money."
RDMcG said:
That is confusing...the video shows the car as sold , but Bloomberg reports it was still listed as "for sale" after the auction..
Not sure if it sold or not.
It failed to make reserve, which was apparently $20m. Not sure if it sold or not.
The clue is the auctioneer’s use of the word “passed”, just after he (finally) drops the gavel - that’s action-speak for a failure to sell.
What an almighty f-up in communication between the auctioneer and the screen operator though.
i agree but although he said passed, in theory a post auction deal could have been struck with one of the interested highest bidders (if they were real) but i think RM would be crowing about the car having sold if that were the case. looks like the whole confidence in the process was sucked out of the room after that debacle hence it stalled upon the realisation of the 70m/17m mistake when they finally corrected it.
Here is an excellent analysis of what happened and the future of the car:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-22...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-22...
that is a great article there @RDMcG Hannah Elliot is a really good writer (and off topic but i think is the partner of Magnus Walker)
fascinating to hear this car had been hawked around for years, months and even days before the sale, nobody wanted to touch it, including Porsche themselves of course, then despite the media circus show they put the lot right at the end of a 2 day auction!
sounds like the auctioneer really did chandelier bid it all the way up, not one of the bids was actually real!
"At no other point during the two-day sale did Maarten ten Holder appear to have been misheard, however".....
'since it was known among insiders that there was no bid to be had, ten Holder either attempted a sort of tongue-in-cheek comic relief that went wrong or deliberately under-pronounced words in order to somehow jump-start live bidding'
fascinating to hear this car had been hawked around for years, months and even days before the sale, nobody wanted to touch it, including Porsche themselves of course, then despite the media circus show they put the lot right at the end of a 2 day auction!
sounds like the auctioneer really did chandelier bid it all the way up, not one of the bids was actually real!
"At no other point during the two-day sale did Maarten ten Holder appear to have been misheard, however".....
'since it was known among insiders that there was no bid to be had, ten Holder either attempted a sort of tongue-in-cheek comic relief that went wrong or deliberately under-pronounced words in order to somehow jump-start live bidding'
i didnt know that either - im quite shocked.
sellers being made aware of it by auction house: 'so you might ghost non existent bids up to help get some momentum and my car get a higher price?! thats allowed?! sure! go for it!'
buyers being made aware: 'so i might be bidding against entirely fictional buyers until your reserve is met? errrr yes that's fine by me....'
i must be naive too - did every buyer at an auction know this? or is it buried in the small print when you register as a buyer? its enough to put me off ever buying at auction!
sellers being made aware of it by auction house: 'so you might ghost non existent bids up to help get some momentum and my car get a higher price?! thats allowed?! sure! go for it!'
buyers being made aware: 'so i might be bidding against entirely fictional buyers until your reserve is met? errrr yes that's fine by me....'
i must be naive too - did every buyer at an auction know this? or is it buried in the small print when you register as a buyer? its enough to put me off ever buying at auction!
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