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Did the Seller Miss Their Best Shot on the Ferrari 330 GT?
Sam Gold
November 21, 2024
The Daily Vroom
Hey Vroomers!
A few days ago, we talked about the 1994 Land Rover Defender 90 NAS up for auction on Cars & Bids after it failed to sell on BaT back in March with a high bid of $63k. Doug DeMuro recently claimed that relisted cars often fetch higher prices on Cars & Bids compared to BaT, making this one to watch closely.
Well, the results are in, and… it didn’t sell, topping out at a $48k high bid. You’ve got to wonder if the seller is kicking themselves for not taking that $63k earlier.
As for the "higher prices" debate, this is just one example, but it raises a big question: where does the seller go from here?
(late edit: the listing is now showing as ‘sold after’. C&B don’t show the price for these, so did the seller have to take a massive hit compared to their previous listing?)
Today’s big auction to watch is the 2022 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4, which wraps up soon. Bidding has been parked at $2,222,222 for days. What’s it going to take to get this one sold? Last month, a similar model didn’t sell at $2.57M with lower mileage, while another in September did go for $2.5M, also with lower mileage. It feels like we’re in the ballpark here, but will it move? Let’s see how this one plays out.
Catch 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+ vehicles in the chart below.
Sales roared back yesterday, clocking in just an impressive $9 million, with the average sale price soaring from Monday’s $33k to $56k. Quite the rebound. But take a look at the leaderboard—no other platform managed to sell 5 cars or more. The way things are currently run, it’s hard to see any of the existing players consistently breaking into the market leaderboard anytime soon.
YESTERDAY’S TOP 5 SALES
Want to dive deeper into any of these listings? Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.
2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 $811,000
2018 Ford GT $629,800
2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic $617,000
832-Mile 2006 Ford GT $461,000
2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS Weissach $314,000
High Stakes, High Bid, No Sale: The $333k Ferrari Dilemma
This was a tough one. The high bid of $333,333 for the 1966 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Series II was one of the highest online bids we've ever seen for this model, trailing only a $355k sale and a $299k sale earlier this year. Even compared to live auctions, this bid holds its ground, as most sales for this model tend to be lower. Yet, it wasn’t enough to meet the reserve, and now the seller is left with a big question: what next?
Let’s break this down. The seller bought the car for $346k back in January at RM Sotheby’s (no doubt with a big commission), likely aiming to at least break even. That’s understandable—but also risky. The $333k bid was about as good as it gets for an online auction, and arguably the best chance to come close to that original purchase price. Was passing on it the right move? Only time will tell, but in this market, waiting could be costly.
Could the car go up in value in the future? Sure, that’s always a possibility, especially with Ferrari models that are in excellent condition and have great provenance like this one. But let’s not forget, if the seller wanted—or needed—to sell the car, it might now be much more difficult. After all, once an auction ends without a sale, the shine fades, buyers move on, and re-listing on another platform often doesn't attract the same level of interest or bids.
The seller’s next steps are uncertain. They’ve asked the highest bidder to come back with an offer "close" to the high bid, but there’s no guarantee they will. The fact is, if the seller genuinely needed to offload this car, their best shot may have already passed them by.
This situation highlights a common challenge with collector cars: pricing expectations versus market reality. The online auction space has shown it can achieve incredible results, but it’s not immune to the broader market dynamics. This Ferrari is a stunning, well-documented example, but if even $333k couldn’t seal the deal, what’s the strategy moving forward?
For now, the seller may be left wondering if holding out was the right call—or a missed opportunity. At least for now.
Should the seller have accepted the $333k offer? |
Your Feedback
Yesterday, I asked, ‘Where do you see the future of collector car auctions heading?’
The results are in, and it’s clear most of you believe both live and online auctions will coexist, but online will dominate the larger share. Here’s a selection of your thoughts below.
It'd be interesting to see a breakdown of vehicle values for online auctions vs. live. This is an observation and not empirical, but it seems that live auctions are the place where high-end and high-quality cars perform best, while online auctions have a bell curve focused on more affordable classics. Of course, this varies by auction house. It would seem to me that online auctions could really eat into the larger auctions like Mecum or Barrett-Jackson, where so many of the offerings over a two-week auction are at the lower end. For the ultra-rich, auctions seem to be as much a place to hob-knob with fellow elite as they are about buying collector cars. You can't replace that experience with an online auction.
It’s very clear to anyone that goes to Monterey or any of the other live auctions, it’s all about entertainment and putting on a show which they probably feel have to do to charge the ticket prices and then also the commission. If you’re like me I like going to some of the local meetups but I’d much rather buy a car in front of my computer screen where i can see every bit of the car and then pay a very reasonable commission fee, which is exactly what I do. These live auctions will mostly survive, but it’s enivatable that more and more of their business will be swallowed up by the online auction websites.
I think BJ will hang in there as it is not just an auction it's a party. Mecum is a car show. Just look at Monterey week, just about every auction company attends, has plenty of cars up, and they all seem to attract their own audiences. Some with the highest percentage commissions will likely be forced to lower their cut.
Simple really. More pictures and video, better information and cheaper commission. There is only one winner here.
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