Smoke in the Wires April 2016

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Despite few buyers seeking driving proof of a vehicle’s condition, many buyers took the time to inspect the paperwork and history of the cars. On the evening of the auction, I don my suit and take up station handling some of the phone bids. If I know a bidder is interested in a particular car, I call before the sale starts so he will recognize the phone number. I also discuss bidding strategies. Some phone bidders like to control the room and lead off strongly with initial bids while others prefer to wait and see where the bidding stalls. During the sale, I’ll call back shortly before the car crosses the block just to be sure we’re ready beforehand. The challenge is in slowing the action down for a phone bidder. While the staccato call of the auctioneer plays in one ear, I calmly tell the bidder what the current bid is and what bid the auctioneer is looking for. I ask the bidder if he wants to bid that number. In some ways phone bidding is a lot lower stress for the serious buyer than sitting in the room. One of my best phone bidders was actually local but at a party. It must have been a good party as he ended up as high bidder on two cars. If you are a consignor and really serious about selling your car, one of the biggest mistakes you can make if your car doesn’t sell on the block is to collect your car too early. Post sale transactions are an amazing effort that goes relatively unseen by most sellers. People come to the auction to buy cars and, as it turns out, we only get paid if we sell cars. After the car crosses the block, the reserve on a car is no longer a tight secret. The high bidder may have been willing Pretty! And loud! to make the reserve price but lacked a competitor to take the bidding that far. Or, as is often the case, the seller failed to honestly consider the value of his car. At the final hammer strike, the market has spoken. That is when we set to work negotiating between the consignor, high bidder or other interested parties. We typically complete some of the highest dollar transactions after the sale. Post sales can go on into the following week. It is in the interest of a consignor not to collect an unsold car until Tuesday or Wednesday after the sale, if possible. You may not have been happy with the results on the block but believe me, we are working very hard to sell your car! Smoke in the Wires April 2016 Page 12
Working hard to sell cars at the SVRA races after the auction. The MINI wasn't for sale, but it got a lot of enquiries anyway. The other mistake consignors make is to not send the history along with the car. If the receipt for a Ferrari belt service is not at the auction with the car, it didn’t happen. Buyers don’t like weird circumstances and they don’t like intangibles. If buyers can see records, restoration photos and build sheets, those items are real and the car is likewise considered ‘real.’ We had a genuine Shelby GT500 that we could not sell. It didn’t have its original engine in it. Buyers didn’t like that. We told our buyers that the car was to be accompanied by the original engine upon delivery. Buyers warmed up to that but wanted to know the condition of the engine. No one could tell us. Unsurprisingly, no sale! I found out a week after the sale that the original engine is fully rebuilt and ready to go. I could have sold that $110,000 car four times over if the seller had helped me out with a little information! All told, the Amelia Island sale was exciting and exhausting. In the end, I never made it to the actual concours event held there. We were so busy with post sales that none of us had the chance to go. A few of our club members took the opportunity to stop by the auction and preview our cars. I was happy to host Bill and Melissa Silhan at the actual sale. If you are interested in attending or participating in a future sale, please let me know. I hope you will find the experience a fascinating and rewarding one. Smoke in the Wires April 2016 Page 13
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Smoke in the Wires April 2016

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