Classic Car Auction Yearbook 2012-2013 – Book Review

Review by Rick Carey, Auction Editor
It isn’t until page 12 of the 2012-2013 Classic Car Auction Yearbook that authors Adolfo Orsi and Raffaele Gazzi slip in the paragraph that defines their conservative, reasoned take on the 2012-2013 auction results:
“The question is: Are we at the crest of a wave with some of these high prices? Those who have been so kind to read our comments over the years probably noted our tendency to restrain easy enthusiasm about the idea of an infinite growing trend. Perhaps this is because we observed the boom of the 1980s and the value expectations that appeared to be in perennial and constant upward movement only to ‘crash’ shortly afterwards. In so many words, we would not be surprised if market values began to slow down and believe that this change of pace could be healthy in the medium term.”
Orsi and Gazzi let numbers, and an unmatched set of graphs and tables, speak for themselves, the very best kind of reporting in an environment that tends to be over-hyped.
For this year’s edition Classic Car Auction Yearbook outdid itself to extend the edition’s coverage by a month to include the August auctions. Presented in a separate 13-month section, it more closely aligns the Yearbook’s presentation with the collector car auction calendar and includes:

• The Monterey week auctions of Bonhams, RM, Gooding, Mecum and Russo and Steele;
• Worldwide’s Auburn auction;
• Auctions America’s Burbank sale;
• Coys Nürburgring; and
• Historics at Brooklands.

The Classic Car Auction Yearbook also has augmented its individual car reports to include the prices realized in prior transactions, making this Marque- and date-sorted listing even more valuable.
If you have a long memory, the presentation recalls the style initiated by Parker Converse for LOTS in the early 1990’s, one of the earliest attempts at comprehensive, accurate, concise reporting of collector cars at auction.
Other informative features include: