Data taken as at point of sale and doesn't include any sales agreed post-auction.
What's going on here?
Here are your 5 headlines from Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival sale
Tell me more
1 - 89 vehicles were offered, 57 of those were from the 50s, 60s and 70s. It was a tough day with the sell-through rate standing at 51% at the time of writing, that's down on 66% in 2023 and 71% in 2022.
2 - Whilst the sell-through rate was poor there are two mitigating factors. Firstly, only 9% of vehicles offered were no reserve (less than the 11% and 14% in previous years) and also far lower than Bonhams' Festival of Speed sale this year which saw 40% of cars at no reserve. Secondarily, a huge number of cars were right on the precipice of selling, we'll come back to that shortly.
3 - What sold well: Weirdly enough, non-standard cars. The two vehicles to exceed their estimate by the largest margin were the 1965 Catman XJ13 re-creation (estimate: £120,000 - £200,000) sold for £253,000 and the 1979 Gary Belcher Model T V12 Hot-Rod (estimate: £25,000 - £35,000) sold for £43,700.
4 - What didn’t sell well: The 1952 Frazer Nash Mille Miglia Roadster. This is a car that has been kicking around the market for over 6 months now, originally with an online auction platform, then in the Bonhams Festival of Speed sale (estimate: £400,000 - £450,000) where it reached a high bid of £340,000. It came back again today and went unsold with an estimate of £225,000 - £275,000, reaching a high bid of £160,000. P.S If you're sitting there wondering why the vendor didn't take the £340,000 and now it's at less than half the price, you can be almost certain that the £340,000 wasn't a real bid and rather the auction house bidding the car up to reserve, something they are legally allowed to do. Expect to see this back on the market shortly.
5 - Close but no cigar. The main headline from this sale is the sell-through rate being a meagre 51%. The average sell-through rate so far this year is just north of 65%. Of the 44 cars that didn't sell 72% of those were within 10% of the low estimate, many only a single bid away from selling.
Why should I care
On the back of the Gooding auction last week, now this result, it's easy to become hyperbole about a downward spiral in the UK market.
Despite the sell-through rate, the average delta between the estimate midpoint and the sale price (including premium where not sold) was 14%.
For context, that's bang average normal, no huge downward spiral, but the Bonhams folks will have a busy few days trying to get deals together on the plethora of unsold cars.
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