Auction update from Andy Conde - 1st March 2016
Picture the scene, a very cold, wet and miserable Manchester evening, 8pm on a Tuesday when most sensible people are sat in the warmth by the fire with a glass of red or a G&T.
In over 35 years of auctioneering, (I know I don’t look that old), I can never recall a hunger for used cars as we see today. Every auction I visit recently I am seeing new faces or faces that I haven’t seen for many years.
To give you an idea of what vehicles are making, a 7 year old MINI, albeit with only 15k miles on it and a John Cooper Works body kit sold for £2k over the expected price. A Dacia Duster Laureate on a 15 plate with only 8k miles on the clock sold for nearly £12k when it was expected to make closer to £10k.
It’s not only the nearly new product, up to 2 years old that is selling, but big demand for the 10 year old Focus, Astra or something similar with up to 70k miles which is making all the money.
This week, even the cheap and cheerful product, sub £500 has been selling.
Where will it end you ask? I honestly don’t know, you would think that with the 16 plate just around the corner and with entries expecting to rise, buyers would be easing their foot off the gas for a few weeks, but no, the feet are firmly down to the boards and the buying speed is at 100mph.
When the job is like it is, both auctioneers and vendors are able to take advantage but I keep stressing to my colleagues that things will eventually turn and when it does it will be the buyer having the upper hand. This will test our buyer services team but we are in this together and if we offer a quality service now, the buyers will continue to come to us.