Merged: SOTHEBY’S AT FERRARI: OBSERVATIONS FROM ONE WHO WAS THERE

Thanks for relaying your personal experience. Sounds like an absolute disaster. I would have thought that it would be good for buyers (low prices) but it sounds like even the buyers were confused! My belief is that more and more big sales are going to be behind closed doors and not on the auction block.

 

That's terrible. One thing you can say about Barrett-Jackson is they know how to get buyers riled up and excited about bidding on cars.

 

While much of what you report is true several who posted in the European Section were there as well and IMO their observations were spot on esp. those of Retired and Marcel Massini.

 

I was in Tuscanny with some other euro Fchatters during the auction and considered taking a day off my relaxing to drive up to Maranello for the auction. Glad I stayed by the pool now. Thanks for posting your opinions.

Seems like THE european ferrari auction to visit remains Bonhams in Gstaad.

 

Such a shame. Like he said, Sothebys had such an opportunity to prove themselves and fudged it up in the biggest way.

 

http://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk/happenings/2005/june/auction_report/report.asp

 

While I cannot comment on the lack of expertise or organization, I can say that the rest of your complaints are common practice for high end auction houses like Sotheby's and Christies. They do the same thing at thier evening sales for Impressionist and Modern Art. Sculptures like Brancusi's "Bird in Space" (sold for $20+Million recently, a record for sculpture) are too large to bring up on the stage, and if you don't know the provenance by the time you are bidding, no amount of discription is going to help.

The "hammer" is always thrown, whether the lot sells or not. One can tell if the lot was sold if the auctioneer says "sold" (typically). It is possible that this auctioneer was new (don't know who they used, so I can't comment), and did not follow typical procedure.

I am not saying that your experience or your observations are not valid, in fact some of the things you saw are flat out inexusable. I am saying, however, that many of your complaints seem to be based on inexpeirience with high-end (fine art) auctions. Nothing wrong with that, it can be confusing, but it is how it is done.

 

I can't even imagine... Wait, yes I can:

[Pre-Auction]: "There's no way I'm gonna win this car - somebody will beat me."

[Auction]: "Hey! I'm winning, I'm actually winning!"

[Auction End]: "I WON!!!!!!!!"

[Post-Auction]: <Sotheby's Representative> "Sir, you didn't win - the reserve wasn't met."

"WHAT?!"

 

That is the way it goes at every auction. If you win the auction, the auctioneer will say "sold to paddle numer 123 (or whatever). it happens every day all over the world. Just a matter of knowing how it works.

 

I have never been to a high roller auction, but to many art and memorabilia auctions for middle class people like me and I have never seen such chaos as described in here. If anything I would have expected more professionalism, not less. Hard to imagine this is considered "professional".

I got a good laugh about the A/C part. Typical Europe I'd say.

 

Bottom line is were there any good deals there? I'm sure there were for the experienced bidders who did their homework.

If this auction did not bring results Sotheby's probably won't be back again. Not unless they are greasing someones palms

 

so is it safe to say that the auction was enough of a bungle that no meaningful commentary on the state of the market can be derived from it?

 

What a shame....

I think the inclusion of non-Ferrari owned lots was a surprise and disappointments to me. Maybe next time Ferrari will retain the services of a house skilled in the art of the auto auction.

By no means meant for comparison, here is my favorite article on Barrett-Jackson.

http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=101977

 

Can't comment on Sotheby's car auctions, as I haven't attended. But I have attended numerous rare coin auctions where five- and six-figure U.S. rarities have been sold without even a photo. If you love coins (or cars), you feel slighted - your "cattle" comment is right on.

As car enthusiasts, we would love to touch, hear and see the cars. In the auction biz, you're measured on how fast you sell lots. Reserves can be artificial and optimistic; hammer price is real (if it's an honest auction).

And -- savvy collectors always seem to know what's for sale and when, and know its condition and provenance. It's almost unheard of (especially in the Internet age) for a great piece to cross the block without due attention. You can also spend an awful lot of money advertising and putting on an elaborate auction, and basically the same people will be bidding anyway.

Devil's advocate ... you may be right, but auctions are generally dull events put on by people who aren't necessarily enthralled by the merchandise.

 

I think that part of the problem is alot of people show up at auctions the day of the auction. The time to see, touch and, in the case of cars, hear the merchandise is before the auction ever starts, during the preview period. In the case of Fine Art, this period lasts about a week. You can look at the art extensivly, talk to the experts, even take it off the wall to inspect it. I don't know if this auction had a preview, but I imagine it did.

That is the time to do your sightseeing and research, not during the auction itself.

 

As I see it, their is plenty of demand for certain type vintage Ferraris at realistic prices or more specifically values that relate to a fuzzy set of complex features such as looks, history, trending value, and use factors for events,etc. Auction conditions, location or auctioneer skills are factors, but most likely the prices got alittle ahead of the perceived value. Specially, considering the additional premium on top of the estimates. They would have sold at the right prices and both auctioneer and seller must have had expectations that were more closely associated with the location. I suspect some must had thought that the location would intoxicate the buyers.

 

I thought something must have been wrong as soon as I saw the results posted. This kind of auction, with the quality lots that were presented, especially in that venue, should have had a much higher turnover. Perhaps Sotheby's was trying to be too blase', too "seen it all" for their own good. I can't help thinking Bonham's or Christies would have done a better job.

Jack

 

Yep, this is especially true for complicated, expensive items like cars. A lot of the wealthy collectors (in rare coins, not cars) I know don't bother to attend the actual sale - they have an agent sit in for them.

You could be right. But the most important thing is the mailing list and buyers' agents who are in contact with the auction house. The value of an auction house is really its mailing list, access to experts and reputation.

It's possible (and I don't know this) that Sotheby's doesn't have quite the auto enthusiast following that Bonham's does. However, making a big show out of each lot crossing the auction block isn't going to compensate for that.

 

I wonder if any of these unsold cars are getting crated up and shipped to Monterey? There are already a large number of Ferraris being auctioned in Monterey this year, making me wonder if we might have a little "Ferrari Auction Overload" on our hands.

 

As started at the start of this thread, it was not the best run event. I was fortunate enough to be there and went to viewing the day prior and on the morning of the auction. On the Monday you had total access to the cars and could sit in and look under the bonnet whatever. There were enough Ferrari and Sothebys personel around to assist so for me this part was fantastic. The night of the auction was a very poorly run event.

There was no fanfare or notification that it was starting, or any mention of the fact that it was the 1st auction of this type at Ferrari, it kind of just crept into motion. There were 2 auctioneers, the 1st did the bit & Bobs (engines, bodywork etc.) the 2nd chap did the cars. Seems no one did a sound check, we were half way down the room and couldn't hear a thing, he was also very inconsistent, the ahmmer dropped on some items within 3-4 bid, but the 250swb got dragged out endlessly - most strange.

As an experience it was great but as my friend who regulalry attends the Gstadt and other such auctions was not impressed in the least.