Weekly auction update from Andy Conde - 23rd September 2015
As we wait expectantly for the flood gates to open, the increase in units is certainly not having any adverse effect on demand or prices and the elite of vehicles are certainly making all the money.
I was visiting a buyer during the week and on a pitch of 50 vehicles there was nothing under £4K, he told me that they were desperate for the £1,800-£3k vehicles but either couldn’t locate them without spending excessive amounts on refurb or couldn’t compete with the prices they are making.
The late year, low mileage market is starting to toughen up and this is because of the reported record units of new products sold. After all, why would you buy a 12 month old vehicle when you can take advantage of the offers on new products and many rental companies are prepared to do bulk deals to the big suppliers.
We are half way through a month where we have started assessing all our auctioneers; this will be a biennial process. We know we have the best in the business but I feel it’s important we don’t allow the talent we have to rest on their laurels, we must be looking at how we improve and how we can get that very last bid and achieve that very last sale.
Like any top quality competitor, training and improvement never stops and we should be no different.
The auctioneer academy is well under way and the auctioneering future at Manheim is looking extremely strong.
We all know that ultimately we are judged on sales results, once those big numbers start hitting the auctions, our vendors are confident, and comfortable that Manheim is the only place to be.
Next week I will be visible on the rostrums up north in Glasgow and down south in Gloucester. The following week I will be in Colchester, it will be interesting to see as to whether we start to see a north-south divide as this can quite often be the start of the wind of change that will come once the entries increase.