🤔 Is the 4th of July Week Affecting Sales?

PLUS: Targa Lowballed: Why This $100k+ 993 Stalled at $80k

The Daily Vroom

Good morning Vroomers,

As the 4th of July approaches, the market is starting to show signs of slowing down. We're seeing fewer auctions, lower views, and a drop in bids across the board. With some significant auctions ending over the next few days, it will be interesting to see how things unfold.

See you tomorrow,

Sam

MARKET LEADERBOARD

💰 The figures shared below don’t count any other sales such as car seats, memorabilia etc… All online auction sites are analyzed to put this leaderboard together.

I only include websites that have sold 5+ cars in the chart below.

Monday's sales totaled just under $6 million, marking a relatively calm start to the week. Bring a Trailer, which recently saw daily sales exceeding 100 vehicles, experienced a noticeable dip in volume.

Yesterday's Sales Breakdown:

The $20k-$40k segment emerged as the market sweet spot. High-end sales ($100k+) were less prevalent than usual. The average sale price across all platforms settled at $43k.

This aligns with typical Monday performance, where we generally see averages between $40k-$45k.

YESTERDAY’S TOP 5 SALES

For each of our top 5 sales from yesterday, we've included data from the three most recent sales of the same model. This gives you a clear snapshot of current market trends.

To explore any listing in detail, simply click on the car's name.

This approach provides context for each sale and allows you to easily track market movements. Happy analyzing!

2021 McLaren 765LT $399,000

2002 Nissan Skyline (R34) GT-R M-Spec Nür $366,000

2023 Porsche 992 GT3 Touring 6-Speed Paint to Sample $271,000

2023 Audi R8 V10 GT Coupé RWD $221,700

There is not enough sales data on this model to provide the last 3 sales.

1987 Buick GNX $220,000

Targa Lowballed: Why This $100k+ 993 Stalled at $80k

This '96 Porsche 911 Targa stalling out at $80k is a head-scratcher when it should be sailing past $100k. What's going on here?

The seller's not blowing smoke - these manual 993 Targas are automotive gold. But even gold can lose its luster in the wrong light.

Here's the deal: We're looking at a perfect storm of nitpicky buyers and holiday distractions. Sure, it's got those coveted low miles and the sweet 6-speed, but in the world of high-end Porsches, perfection is the name of the game. Those minor flaws - chips, curb rash, seat wear - they're like finding a hair in your caviar for the $100k+ crowd.

And that Carfax gap from 2004 to 2018? For serious collectors, that's like a black hole in the car's life story. They want to know if it sneezed funny in 2009.

Let’s not forget it's 4th of July week. The auction market's as dead as last year's fireworks. This Targa picked the worst time to strut its stuff.

If I'm the seller, I'm not sweating it. Their "not here begging" attitude is spot-on. They know what they've got. The play here? Wait for the barbecue smoke to clear, maybe hook up with a big-name seller on another platform, and try again when people aren't nursing sunburns and hangovers.

Bottom line: This is a $100k+ car caught in an $80k moment. The 993 market isn't soft, it's just distracted. Give it time, find the right platform, and this Targa will hit its mark. In the auction game, timing is everything - and right now, the timing's about as good as trying to sell snow tires in July.

So what do you think? Was the seller right at not selling for $80k?

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Alumni Listings

Here are the top 5 sales from Bring a Trailer's Alumni listings yesterday. These results showcase some of the most interesting and valuable vehicles that found new homes through BaT's platform. Let's dive into the numbers and see what caught buyers' attention.

One of the standout stories from yesterday's Alumni sales has to be the 1968 Chevrolet C10 Stepside, which finally found a new home for $31,500. This truck’s saga is as colorful as its paint job, making its third appearance on the auction block this year alone.

Back in March, our adventurous seller picked up this classic for a cool $45,000. Fast forward six weeks, and he decides to list it at no reserve, thinking maybe he didn’t need a vintage truck after all. It fetched $36,340—already a surprising dip in value. But wait, the plot thickens! The buyer had to back out due to financial issues, leaving our seller back at square one.

Enter yesterday’s sale, where the Stepside went for $31,500. That’s a jaw-dropping depreciation for a truck that’s practically been around the block more times than it’s been driven. The timing probably didn’t help either; with many folks traveling this week, the auction saw nearly 50% fewer views. It’s no wonder the final bid was lower than expected.

Let’s cross our fingers that this buyer sticks around. Otherwise, we might just see this Stepside’s saga continue next month. Here’s hoping it’s finally found its forever home!

Your Feedback

Yesterday we asked you ‘Should online platforms add some type of gauge to show how close bids are to the reserve price?’ And boy did we get a lot of responses… 

The results were reasonably close, as you can see below.

But it’s the comments where many of you voiced your opinion. Below is a selection of those comments.

I'm a no on the idea of a reserve gauge because the last thing we need further gamification of this hobby. But why not do what the big auction houses do and actually put an estimate out there? Yes, they tend to be more marketing than real valuations, but based on my analysis the low end of the estimate is often the reserve (or close to it)

Why not? As a bidder, there’s nothing worse than bidding for over a week and then finding out that the reserve wasn’t met. Had I known on a few occasions I might have upped my bids.

Unfortunately, we tend to see that bidding dies down once sellers announce the reserve has been met on online auctions. I believe this tactic works fine at in-person auctions, but at online platforms the psychology of "reserve has been met" might trigger potential bidders to stop for whatever reason.

Some online auctions have done that, and quit (must have been because it didn't help)... based on my experience and observation I avoided using the auctions that had a "Reserve Meter". It is a poor gauge of what is going on with the reserve. I believe it is a bidder killer.... just my personal/professional opinion.

I agree that the current system keeps the interest going. Revealing reserve, in any way, definitely stops bidders' interest. Once a person has bid they are more likely to keep bidding beyond what they initially had in mind as their top price. If they perceive the reserve higher they may never make that first bid. However, BaT needs an option for sellers to remove their reserve in the auction's final minutes even if the reserve has already been met.

This tactic would impede the bidding process. As you know, this is a passion-driven sector, and people should set their own limit based upon their budget and inspection of the vehicle. Placing estimates is also a bad idea; we considered implementing this concept at Barrett-Jackson years ago before it was primarily a no-reserve auction house, however upon further consideration realized it would potentially curtail the bidding and cap the consignor’s return, and not present the true market.

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