► RM Sotheby’s confirms new world record for a car sold online
► Ferrari Enzo sells for £2.13 million at Palm Beach in the USA
► View upcoming auction catalogues on Classic Cars for Sale
This Ferrari Enzo is now the most expensive car sold online, having made a colossal £2.13m.
The world record for a car bought online at a classic auction has been smashed – and experts reckon that it could have implications for how we buy and sell older vehicles in the UK.
RM Sotheby’s confirmed that the $2.64m (£2.13m) paid for a 2003 Ferrari Enzo at its latest Palm Beach sale in the US was the highest price paid for a car bought unseen by an online bidder, with another Ferrari – a 1985 288 GTO – making $2.31m (£1.86m) at the same sale. Global head of auctions, Gord Duff, said: ‘We saw continued momentum at our auction with considerable pre-sale interest from consignors and bidders, as well as activity throughout the auction with more than 550,000 total page views. We also saw an increased average of 19.6 bids per lot, up to a total of 56 bids on a single lot.
‘Stand-out prices demonstrated sustained demand from collectors for buying and selling quality cars online – including blue-chip collectibles. ‘The sale of the Enzo and Ferrari GTO mark a significant milestone for what the RM Sotheby’s online-only platform can achieve.’
Supply of top-end cars at auction is drying up
Auction analyst, Richard Hudson-Evans, said that while the Ferrari results should be viewed in the context of all the cars sold by RM Sotheby’s – fewer high-end cars are being auctioned than before the pandemic – the fact that cars were selling for stronger prices than expected was a reflection of buyer confidence in the information being given ahead of and during online-only sales.
‘It’s extraordinary to see buyers paying this sort of money for assets, sight unseen, but most sellers of the really valuable cars are waiting to see how these online sales develop,’ Hudson-Evans added. ‘Giving lots of detail on cars gives buyers confidence. If you look at The Market, which publishes reams of details and dozens of photos with each car, you can see that it currently has the UK’s highest sale rate.‘
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