Gooding & Company found a successful formula with last summer’s “Passion of a Lifetime” auction. A small, hyper-focused sale with a handful of top-shelf cars from a single collection, it resulted in several world records, including the highest average price of any collector car auction ever ($3.2M). Gooding made a similar play with February 2021’s “European Sporting & Historic Collection” auction. It was made of just nine cars, all from a curated high-end collection.
The major difference was the setting. Rather than the posh surroundings of Hampton Court Palace for the Passion of a Lifetime sale, this auction took place on the web through Gooding’s proprietary “Geared Online” platform, with bids running from January 28 to February 5. The caliber of car also wasn’t quite as high and the prices they brought weren’t extraordinary (few, even with commission, exceeded their estimate ranges), but all nine cars went to new homes and four of them brought seven-figure prices (in USD).
Our colleague in the UK Chris Sharpe made the trip to view the cars in person at a facility north of London. He evaluated the condition of all nine in person—a rarity these days when we’re viewing most cars via photos.