Charity Cars
One of the trends in the collector car auction world that we’ve seen developing over the last several years is the increasing number of charity cars that are sold at major, high-end auctions. Usually the auction house waives all fees for the buyer and seller, allowing for the full proceeds to go to a worthwhile cause.
One side-effect of these charity sales is that because they don't represent a true market sale, they skew the sales data coming out of the sale in which they are sold. These sales are not a strict market transaction between a buyer and a seller for a specific good or service, as two other factors weight heavily in the sale: altruism and tax benefits.
Altruism is an important part of society, and it is nice to see at these high-dollar auctions, which can, let's face it, often devolve into a grand display of ego and pointless excess. Tax codes assists this behaviour (even with recent limits), as it makes the effective amount of the sale less for the buyer than the actual purchase price of the vehicle.
Most importantly--regardless of the motivation of the participants--good causes receive much needed funds. Still, we feel that the prices realized in these sales are not market reflective, and as such we will begin breaking them out of our auction sales analysis starting with 2011 sales reports. Comments and opinions on this are welcome.
Here We Go AgainOne of the trends in the collector car auction world that we’ve seen developing over the last several years is the increasing number of charity cars that are sold at major, high-end auctions. Usually the auction house waives all fees for the buyer and seller, allowing for the full proceeds to go to a worthwhile cause.
One side-effect of these charity sales is that because they don't represent a true market sale, they skew the sales data coming out of the sale in which they are sold. These sales are not a strict market transaction between a buyer and a seller for a specific good or service, as two other factors weight heavily in the sale: altruism and tax benefits.
Altruism is an important part of society, and it is nice to see at these high-dollar auctions, which can, let's face it, often devolve into a grand display of ego and pointless excess. Tax codes assists this behaviour (even with recent limits), as it makes the effective amount of the sale less for the buyer than the actual purchase price of the vehicle.
Most importantly--regardless of the motivation of the participants--good causes receive much needed funds. Still, we feel that the prices realized in these sales are not market reflective, and as such we will begin breaking them out of our auction sales analysis starting with 2011 sales reports. Comments and opinions on this are welcome.
Arizona in January is just around the corner. The hype is on, the glitz turned up and the game afoot. All eyes turn to the desert for a whole month of collector car mania.
Paradoxly, the month that had been considered a bellwether for the coming year has ceased to be so. According to our market analysis of sale data, results at the most publicized events have become less of a barometer for the coming year’s market for most models, with a correlation coefficient slipping below zero.
For people truly "in the hobby", the primary motive for going to Arizona these days is to sell cars, or to just enjoy the atmosphere. Undeniably though, the show is a blast.
Detroit was Right. Chrome Rules.
It seems that Detroit was right after all. Europe and Japan have fallen for chrome, and hard. Many of the current crop of imports have enough chrome and brightwork on them that they'd look right at home parked next to an Eldorado Biarritz in a GM Motorama. Take that, Road & Track!
