What Happens At An Antique Car Auction?

Antique car auctions can be a great place to pick up a real bargain. They attract classic car enthusiasts from far and wide. The most popular car auction is the US is the Barrett-Jackson annual car auction which is held in Palm Beach, Florida. The last auction attracted over 65,000 people and even if you don’t intend bidding it’s still worth the trip to soak up the atmosphere and camaraderie between the antique car enthusiasts.

Antique Car Auctions Events

Most antique car auctions work the same way as any other kind of auction. The auction house produces a list of the cars that are to be auctioned and the dates it will take place. The cars are sometimes grouped into categories but this really depends on the specific auction house. The list of cars contains the information about the antique cars available. Namely the make, model and sometimes the owner’s details. The information is usually limited and the condition of cars is not usually stated to avoid any legal comebacks.

You will usually find that the majority of people at an auction are there just to look and not to sell or purchase a vehicle. Auctions attract lots of enthusiastic collectors that just love to be around their favorite hobby. Very often traders and collectors will attend to get an idea of the value of specific cars. Auctions are great places for gauging a price that your own vehicle maybe worth. It’s kind of like getting yourself a free appraisal.

Selling an antique car in an auction can be a bit of a hit or miss experience. If you are lucky and have the right vehicle and several interested people the price can go quite high, sometimes better than selling privately. However you take your chance that it may sell close to your reserve price or if really unlucky it may not sell at all.

Buying can be tricky and we would always suggest you attend several auctions before bidding so that you get an idea of how it works. The last thing you want to do is to cough and find you just bought yourself a vintage vehicle for several thousand Dollars. All bids at the fall of the hammer are legally binding and must be honored.

You should always be aware that once you have bought the car it is ‘sold as seen’. This means that should there be something wrong with it there is no comeback and it is assumed you checked the car thoroughly beforehand and was aware of any possible defects. Having said that you can sometimes bag yourself a real bargain if you play safe and don’t jump at the first car you see.