As you are reading this, I am hopefully parking up in Droitwich Spa for the Chateau Impney Speed Celebration on Wednesday, a new event backed by C&SC (see the links at the bottom for more info).
For once, however, I will not be sidling into the classic car parking with all the other enthusiasts, my Elan +2 should be shepherded straight into the auction hall where tomorrow it will go under the H&H gavel (4 December).
Now here’s a confession, despite attending hundreds, probably thousands of classic car auctions over the years, and despite handing over my credit card to finance at least onbe other person’s purchase, nervously holding a paddle or on extremely rare occasions even bidding, I have never bought or sold a classic car (for myself) at auction.
I’m not sure why really.
I guess it is just the trepidation. While if you have a massively rare or valuable classic, selling at auction can hugely boost the price – as we witness over and again at the big annual events – if you are merely trying to move on a perfectly nice, but not exactly celebrity owned Lotus Elan +2, the assumption is, as it ever was, that it will accrue less at a public auction than it would via a private sale.
Yet, after months of going through the torture that is trying to sell a car privately, and still needing the cash to clear debts just as desperately as I did at the beginning of the summer, I have plumped for selling at auction.