October is here, and with it comes gorgeous driving weather and the final batch of car events before the onset of colder temps and precipitation in our more northern territories. Two of the month’s earliest collector car auctions are behind us, and in today’s Market Monday we’ll be summarizing the results of those sales: Bonhams Audrain Concours and Zoute sales.

The Zoute Grand Prix is a high-end car festival that, like Monterey Car week, dominates the seaside municipality of Knokke-Heist in Belgium. In addition to a classics rally, the Zoute Grand Prix features a GT Tour tailored to grand touring cars from 2004 and later. Cars shows and art sales round out the week’s events and Bonhams has hosted a sale at Zoute for many years with this year’s sale occurring on Friday, October 4 2024.

Based on the data available as of today, Bonhams had approximately 133 car lots at their Zoute Sale, with only 22 of those lots having reserves. This undoubtedly aided the sell-through-rate of 97%. Cars on offer included pre-war early automobiles all the way to current supercars.

One of the areas I’m currently studying is the market for collector cars from the 90s and 2000s, or the New Classics. A couple of examples of these cars did quite well against their estimates and market values.

A 2007 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG Cabriolet, estimated at $165,000-275,000 sold for $516,141 or a good bit above the market average. The color combination on this car was quite stunning, and the car had a scant 152 miles on the odometer. It doesn’t quite reach the level of a car that sold at RM’s Monterey auction for $655,000, but it’s still a strong result.

Another car that performed well against its estimate and the market average was a 2005 Ferrari F430 F1 Coupe with just 1,228 on the clock. This car also had a color combination of black over red and featured the automated manual gearbox versus a gated manual. It sold for $131,781 against a market value around $115,000.

Worth mentioning is this interesting 1956 Porsche 550 RS Spyder that sold at the Zoute Sale for $2,776,207 against an estimate of $4M-4.7M. One of the final 90 examples of the 550 RS Spyders, its unusual bright yellow color is rooted in its Belgian racing history. I highly recommend reviewing the catalog on this car makes for some very interesting reading. Yes, it sold for far under its low estimate, but in this case the seller decided to complete the sale, which has not been the case for other 550 Spyders this year.

In October, the Audrain Automobile Museum sponsors a Concours d’Elegance on the grounds of the Breakers Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Bonhams hosted a live auction at the Concours featuring about 38 automobile lots covering pre-war vehicles, rare coachbuilt cars and modern classics. This year, based on my early data, the auction had a respectable 79% sell-through rate with 30 cars sold. Again, that 24 of the 38 lots were no reserve likely had a big impact here.

Last week I highlighted a few cars in this sale and an upcoming RM Sotheby’s auction that I felt could be good buys, as they were either no reserve or had conservative estimates. Let’s see how those turned out, relative to my predictions at the Bonhams Audrain sale.

What I said: “An 8,000 mile James Bond Edition Z3 sold for $22,007 on Bring a Trailer back in 2020. A trunk rack and mileage discrepancy might deter bidders, so if you want 007-branded floor mats, this could be your chance to get them cheap.”

With the market average for these cars hovering around $23,000 at the time of the auction, this car’s final hammer price including buyer’s premium of $22,400 seems about on target, therefore it’s not a great deal nor a chart-topping sale.

What I said: “Also sold at no reserve and guided at $15,000-$20,000, this could be a great chance to pick up a practical and innovative Italian beauty for a reasonable price.“

Selling at no reserve for just $8,960, someone got a screaming deal on this little Italian sedan! I wish I had been a bidder, as this is well under market even for the 4-door Berlina. VERY well bought.

What I said: “If sold near its low estimate of $90,000, this car could be a nice buy. Like my own car, it’s been given an SC powerplant with badging to denote the upgrade, but it wasn’t built as an SC Cabriolet from the factory. Originalists may therefore steer clear, paving the way for a buyer who would like a drop-top early Porsche for a decent price.“

The market average for a 1964 Porsche 356C Cabriolet is around $150,000, so this car’s hammer price of $87,360 is a low entry to the model. While not perfect, this is a nice little driver and with its 95 horsepower, a fun car to drive on a twisty leaf-littered back road. Very well bought!

In my opinion, there are no really clear takeaways from Bonhams Audrain and Zoute sales in regard to the state of the market. An auction where most of the lots are offered at no reserve will always have a high sell-through rate. Looking just at the roll-up of the sales results, we could be starting to see a bottom to the post-pandemic declines, but I’m not yet convinced that’s the case. When you dig into the per-vehicle sales results, cars like the Ferrari F430 are trending down but cars like the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTM AMG Cabriolet are on the upswing.

I haven’t had the opportunity to study each lot’s results to determine how the no reserve sales prices compared to their estimates or market values, but I may do so for input into a season recap toward the end of the year. We’ll also be capturing more data from upcoming auctions to provide a stronger assessment. Stay tuned!

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisals, and auction services for buyers and sellers of collector European cars. If you’re interested in acquiring an overseas car, give us a call or drop a line!