Summary Monterey Auction Report 2013

Report by Rick Carey, Auction Editor

By now most people have heard about the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spider s/n 10709 sold at RM’s Monterey auction on Saturday August 17 for $27,500,000.
There was a real dichotomy of opinion before it reached the block. Some people – typically older, experienced, sober, realistic types – thought it would sell somewhere close to RM’s $15-17million estimate range.
Others gave hype, loose money in the collector car market, and the plain eye-appeal of the NART Spider more credit and called out up to $20 million, anticipating a bidding war between deep-pocketed trophy car collectors.
Little did we know.
A hint was the opening bid, a solid $10 million called in from the audience in the Portola’s ballroom without prompting from RM’s Max Girardo.
It was ambitious, but hopeless.
The next bid was $16 million, blowing the first bidder right into the potted plants. $17 million followed, but it was immediately countered by an unprompted $20 million bid.
That’s a $3 million bump, enough to buy any car in Monterey except the nineteen most expensive (of 64 cars sold for $1 million hammer bids or more this week, the most ever in Monterey by nearly half.)
Max Girardo wasn’t consulting chandeliers. This was real money coming from at least three places, an auctioneer’s dream.
The bidding continued in $1 million increments to its culmination at $25 million, $27,500,000 with commission. The crowd cheered and clapped – once the stunned amazement wore off.
Why? Well, 10709 is one of only ten Scaglietti-built NART Spiders. It’s a beautiful car. It is practical – that is, it can actually be driven and enjoyed on the road unlike Testa Rossas or the W196 Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow GP car sold by Bonhams at Goodwood last month for $29.6 million.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a longer look at the Monterey collector car auctions – based somewhat tentatively on information received on the sales through August 22.
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The summary is simple: $306 million changed hands for cars sold at Monterey in 2013, up 16% from 2012. Most remarkably, the 64 cars sold for $1 million hammer bids or more (there were 44 million dollar cars in 2012) accounted for $205.4 million, 67.2%, of the total for all 1,265 cars offered and 739 sold in Monterey, conclusive evidence of the segmentation of the collector car market into two segments. One, the top of the market for the most rare, sexy and desirable cars, is flush with loose cash. The other, the middle market, is dormant – with the exception of cars like 190SLs and 246 Dinos that have the cachet of attachment with Mercedes-Benz 300SLs and Ferrari F40s.
Some extraordinary results were realized, though, even in what might be considered middle-market cars.
There’ll be more soon on Sports Car Digest. It’s a staggering collection of cars and a lot to absorb.
[Source: Rick Carey; photo: Eugene Robertson, courtesy RM Auctions]