My trip to Barons classic car auction

[janner]

I went to Barons auction at Sandown Park.

My observations.
The auctioneer was an idiot. He listed faults on cars that didn’t need mentioning, he refused to take a bid of £10,950 on the 220SEB because he “was going up in hundreds” (It sold for £10,900) and he sold the TVR to someone who didn’t even bid. Amateur!

Barons leave themselves wide open to being sued. Their terms and conditions state that all cars are sold as seen but that doesn’t mean they can describe them however they like. Descriptions like “very nice example with no issues” and “excellent mechanical condition” could give them a headache if someone rejected a car for being not as described. The trade descriptions act covers auctions as well.

Anyway, I went because I was considering the Mercedes 220SEB which had a guide price of £13-£15K which seemed reasonable for one that had “a fully refurbished interior and body and said to be a very solid example”. True enough, the interior was nice but the body was dented all over and looked more rotten than a W210 that had been used to launch boats. I didn’t even bid.

The Ferrari 308 was absolutely lovely and with a guide price of £13-£15K I was seriously considering it. The hammer price of £22K + premium didn’t look such good value, however.

There where a couple of other Mercs. A 300SL-24 that had nothing going for it made £3400+premium. Someone got robbed with that one.
A fairly average 92,000mile SLK32 AMG made £7200+premium. I figure you can buy one for that out of the Autotrader. At least you’d get a test drive.
A fairly decent looking E320 Cab made £5750+prem. Again, no bargain there. The S500 coupe was a joke. Not one single panel lined up and the interior looked like a minicab yet someone gave £1500 for the hassle of selling a few parts and weighing it in for scrap. The Indian E220 manual on the other hand looked like a great car for £2000.

The star of the auction for me was the 220S Cabriolet, it was absolutely stunning. The bidding got to the low 40s against a guide of £68+. Maybe the auction would sell more expensive cars if they capped their fees. Can they really justify a £4200 buyer’s fee and £2100 seller’s fee, both plus VAT?

 

[stevieb15]

We pop up to H&H in Buxton whenever they have a classic and historic auction.
Always great fun, although many of the entries are absolute crap that are only there because they haven't sold elsewhere.
Caveat emptor!!

 

[spanner]

Car auctioneers are just car dealers with a posh voice, a suit and even less responsibility for what they sell.
I've seen a car go for half a mil that had water in the fuel system.
You can get the occasional bargain but you must know what you're doing or you're taking a huge risk.

 

[developer]

Car auctioneers are just car dealers with a posh voice, a suit and even less responsibility for what they sell.
You can get the occasional bargain but you must know what you're doing or you're taking a huge risk.

Change car for house and it reads just the same.

 

[neilrr]

Still pretty much the same then! - http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/650331-post10.html

 

[Troon]

and looked more rotten than a W210 that had been used to launch boats.

Thanks for that.

 

[James Rothwell]

I've never seen anything go through Barons that I thought was really worth the money. Trade rarely buys there unless it's something that is known to them, I had a friend buy something utterly ridiculous low mileage Astra GTE once for an absolute fortune for some reason, took him literally years to sell it.

That wasn't properly described either, they said we could drive it away if we wanted but it wouldn't start because the petrol was ancient so they can't have even checked it and just guessed.

 

[janner]

The 220s has been entered in the next auction with a slightly lower reserve.
Barons Auctioneers

Gives me time to save up

 

[C43AMG]

I was there with a friend on Friday. I didn't stay for the auction and yes there where a lot of rusty not very impressive cars there. The only car there that i liked was a very original Mini with the Sliding windows and the starter button on the floor.

 

[janner]

Just spotted the 220SEB on E-bay
Sold at auction for £10,900... on ebay for £22,995
Classic 1964 Mercedes-Benz 220 SE Coupe, Burgundy | eBay

 

[markjay]

That's an interesting one...

Trade car auctions is where one would expect to be able to get a car for well under retail price. The cars are mostly supplied by larger dealers who can't sort them-out individually and resell them, or by car fleets that need to offload large amount of cars quickly.

However specialist car auctions (any specialist auctions, in fact) are there to maximise the car's selling price. I would have thought that anyone bringing in their specialist car to be sold in an auction, expect it to fetch more than it would through a private sale? For buyers, this is an opportunity to choose well as there will be great many cars on display at one location, which is far more civilised than travelling around the country viewing cars (most of which will proof a complete waste of time) and haggling with each owner individually.

 

[MOCAŠ]

With some W123/W124s going for £10,000 these days that's got to be worth the asking price. Goodness knows why it made so little at auction - must have been a slow day.

 

[janner]

With some W123/W124s going for £10,000 these days that's got to be worth the asking price. Goodness knows why it made so little at auction - must have been a slow day.

I went to the auction because I was going to buy it. It made so little because it's a complete shed.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I went to the auction because I was going to buy it. It made so little because it's a complete shed.

Fair enough (I didn't read back through the thread, but I seem to recall your mentioning that at the time now).

Look lovely in the photos, though.