Monterey 2016 was a weekend of clarity and surprises. The market in general seemed to be 10-20% lower than the auction houses predicted overall and there were many surprises over the course of what seemed a marathon of classic car events and sales over the course of 5 days. The biggest surprise of the weekend (at least from our perspective) was the massive rake in taken on the 1962 Shelby 260 Cobra CSX 2000—the first Cobra created offered by RM Sotheby’s…sold for an astounding $13,750,000 RM Sotheby’s including fees. Ferrari seemed to be the most surprising marque to have cooled over the past year culminating in this years Monterey extravaganza as big money LWB and SWB cars were just hitting their bottom estimate. This wasn’t unexpected for industry insiders, but it is surprising on its own merits given we have been consistently seeing Ferrari records shattered for going on 5 years now, estimate be damned.
The take from weekend from Scott Grundfor Company is a rather simple one. The market has leveled and slightly dipped over the past year, and with an almost unprecedented class of cars on offer spanning the major auction houses at this years Monterey auctions, it’s on pretty solid ground now to consider things more settled than not as we conclude 2016. Volume will likely increase on the trading market for classic cars after a roughly 10 month lull in movement due to uncertainty, and prices will likely not be going up in the foreseeable future for most marques, which is not worst news in the world after such an “up in the air” majority of 2015 through to today.
Monterey Auction 2016 Full Results
Featured Lot Results
