Live’s Not Dead Yet! Scottsdale Car Auctions Post Strong Results
Although last year online auctions far outperformed in-person ones, it turns out there are enough classic car enthusiasts to go around these days.
Sold alongside an NFT and finished in pearl white with red leather interior, this Cizeta-Moroder V16T prototype car debuted in Los Angeles in 1988 and is fully functional. It sold in Scottsdale, Ariz., for more than $1.3 million.
Photographer: Patrick Ernzen, courtesy of RM Sotheby's
A rising tide lifts all ships. That was the message to collectors after the annual classic car auctions Jan. 22-30 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where each year, Barrett-Jackson, Bonhams, Gooding & Co., RM Sotheby’s, and Worldwide Auctioneers auction off thousands of the world’s classic and collectable cars in white tents and hotel convention centers under the desert sun.
Total sales across the five auction houses hit $266.7 million, up 22% over 2020, despite a lower number of cars actually sold. That’s according to accounting by Hagerty Automotive Intelligence, a company that insures and values classic and collectable cars. The sum bested Hagerty’s forecast of $211 million and achieved the second-highest-ever gross for the auction week, after a $307.3 million peak in 2016. (Sales totals were compared to 2020, rather than 2021, because last January the novel coronavirus pandemic prevented a full auction schedule in Arizona.)