Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years, and is the founder and publisher of this magazine. Keith has also written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award. Learn more about Keith here.
Imagine you are fishing. You hook a nice-sized, juicy-looking trout. You are reeling it in, and just as you are about to net it someone else reaches in, grabs it and scampers away with it. That’s the way it’s been for me with three Austin-Healey 3000s in the past two weeks. With over 73,000 Big Healeys of all flavors built, there will always be a few for sale. At one point last week there were five being offered on Bring a Trailer. I found three I was interested in enough to consider bidding on: a 1965 BJ8 Mk III, a 1960 […]
Imagine you are fishing. You hook a nice-sized, juicy-looking trout. You are reeling it in, and just as you are about to net it someone else reaches in, grabs it and scampers away with it.
That’s the way it’s been for me with three Austin-Healey 3000s in the past two weeks.
With over 73,000 Big Healeys of all flavors built, there will always be a few for sale. At one point last week there were five being offered on Bring a Trailer.
I found three I was interested in enough to consider bidding on: a 1965 BJ8 Mk III, a 1960 BT7 Mk I, and a 1962 BT7 Mk II.
Yet with all three, in the last hour of the auction a new bidder appeared. His appropriately chosen handle is “carbuyer01”. This bidder has placed 1,194 bids and won 65 cars, primarily classic sports cars.
The seller of one car I was outbid on told me later that this is a European dealer based in France.
That makes a lot of sense. In a way, foreign buyers (and U.S. as well) can use BaT as both a magnet and a filter. If you are looking for a Big Healey you can sift through the listings and make decisions, without having to travel huge distances to personally examine the cars. The fact that we are all attracted to and bidding on the same cars lets me think my “BaT Radar” is working well, at least when set to what a French dealer could resell for a profit.
However, that also means that I will probably have to spend several thousand dollars more to outbid him when the right car comes along.
I’m not complaining about this, as in every auction there is always someone who can outbid you.
And in the end, this simply means more money for the sellers, and how can we be against that?
It’s just another unexpected facet of BaT as it globalizes the collector car market.
Would this kind of competition cause you to buy only locally listed cars, or are you comfortable competing with commercial buyers from all over the world?
Keith, your article hits the tip of the iceberg. As an avid collector, I was the successful bider for a car on Bring a Trailer. I always wonder if I’m bidding against a real bider or chandelier? It is a known practice that should be weeded out and removed. Where a bider is just bidding on the car to drive the price up for the sale. I seen this happen numerous times online and also live auctions. It could be somebody making bids for the seller or in some cases you’re bidding against the house. This should be stopped as it’s inflating car prices. How can we stop this practice in the industry?
I am just an old car guy, an old fashioned guy in a brave new world. Not going to be buying any more toy cars I am afraid, but if I were to try, I would stick to my old approach. If you can ferret out a good local car through friends, acquaintances local car clubs, shows and the like, then I think you will be fine in a purchase. If one can actually see and drive the car, so much the better; that is the way I have in the past bought cars and would like to buy a car today. Sort of an analog approach in this digital world. Nothing wrong with continuing to bid on things that look good on BAT but resign yourself to occasionally being disappointed. The Western Washington All British Field Meet is this week I think. Maybe you and Bradley should scout it. Good luck on your search! –Bob
There is a growing conversation about a coming collapse in world currencies. These happen periodically. The dominant comment is that “fiat currencies” will always eventually collapse. During these times, only physical assets will retain their value.
Land, housing, gold, silver, machinery, and maybe, cars. These all perform services, so have intrinsic value. Except gold, but who’s arguing over gold? Collector grade art is usually included in this list.
Are collector grade cars rightfully in that list?
If so, going $1,000 up on a best-of will likely appear to have been a steal during the end-of-days.
For 46 years, until this past October, I owned a small 2+2 single engine airplane with a 1,500 nm range at 150 knots, burning 8.5 gallons per hour. Now, I’ve just moved to a country with great year-long weather, easy farming, low cost of living. Who doesn’t piss off anyone.
My Alfa is sitting at the port, awaiting customs clearance. Not a collector model, but if you have one of only a few, surrounded by rich guys, well….. maybe.
Stop trying to buy at market price. Buy the best, and assume what’s left over will be misspent by your heirs in any case.
Nobody said so in as many words, but B-A-T seems to have become a wholesale market, or a hybrid wholesale-retail one. There are plenty of hybrid wholesale-retail markets in other fields. The one I am most familiar with is used furniture and antiques, sold at auction. Anybody can play, but the dealers are there to acquire inventory. I like to remember, if I bid one bid higher than the dealer is willing to pay, theoretically I am paying far less than retail (as defined by that dealer’s markup).
And I think it’s fair to say that anyone who is buying as many cars as your nemesis is a dealer. Or a collector with a large garage.
Nice read — clear and relatable. Do you ever try contacting frequent heavy bidders to learn their buying scope (dealer vs. private) before committing to a bid, or is that impractical on platforms like BaT? Curious if anyone’s had luck negotiating or timing listings to avoid those commercial buyers.
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