Arizona Auction Results: Big Sales And A Return To Normal

February 1, 2024

The Arizona Auctions concluded Sunday after 2,724 cars were offered over seven days to the tune of $244.8M in sales. The overall dollar amount fell short of 2023’s figure but exceeded Hagerty’s forecast by 23 percent, thanks to bright spots at the upper end of the market and strength in staple collector cars. Overall, 2,375 lots traded for an average price of $103,083.

Lot 1406 1956 MERCEDES BENZ 300SL GULLWING COUPE scaled 1 — Eddy Eckart

The market has been gradually cooling for more than a year, and results from Florida and Arizona this month reinforce that buying behavior has worked its way back to normal. Shoppers are largely aware of this shift and have become more patient and selective.

Totals in Arizona were below recent highs but in step with long-term trends. Good cars did well, lesser cars did not. Long-term holds provided returns; quick flips were mixed. For vehicles sold this week in Arizona that had been auctioned within the last four years, the median return was zero percent, and these short-term owners had a 50/50 chance of earning their money back. Vehicles previously auctioned before 2020, on the other hand, had a median return of 26 percent.

Discerning buyers at the upper end of the market still see value in staple collector cars, and they did not shy away from the right ones, especially in the $500k+ range. The sell-through rate at this level was down significantly (44 percent compared to 2023’s 85 percent), but those cars that did sell often set records. Sixty-five percent of cars priced higher than $500,000 sold above their condition-appropriate Hagerty Price Guide values, which was a marked increase from last year’s 53 percent. As an example, Barrett-Jackson sold an immaculately restored 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing—a staple blue-chip collectible—for a record $3.14M.

Lot 792.1 1967 CHEVROLET CORVETTE 427 435 scaled 1 — 1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427 435 Barrett-Jackson Barrett-Jackson

Quality examples of mainstay cars also did well. Seventy-five percent of C2 Chevrolet Corvettes from 1963-1967, for example, sold above expected Hagerty Price Guide values, which was the highest amount since Hagerty began tracking sales in this way in 2018. Another cut of the data shows that unmodified C2s that had appeared at auction within the last three years received bids this month that were on average 22 percent higher than their prior result.

Cars priced below $100,000—a segment with endless supply and increasingly choosy buyers – saw a more modest 49 percent of vehicles sell above their expected Hagerty Price Guide value, a rate that was essentially unchanged from last year’s 50 percent. That figure was below 2022’s high of 61 percent but is consistent with the 8-year trend of 46 percent.

“The heat may have come off the market, but that’s not necessarily bad news. Enthusiasts who felt like they were being priced out of the market can now get their feet back in the water,” Dave Kinney, publisher of Hagerty Price Guide, observed. “End users appreciate that stability,” he added.

“We continue to see late-model supercars compete with bona fide classics for the top spots at marquee auctions,” said Adam Wilcox, Senior Information Analyst at Hagerty. “At Monterey in 2019 and 2021, two McLaren F1s from the 1990s were the biggest sales of their respective weekends. In 2020, the top sale at Scottsdale was a 1995 Ferrari F50. But this year stands out as a particularly modern Scottsdale. A two-year-old supercar took the top bid, with a more traditional classic in the number-two spot. The biggest sale of the week was the 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport at $5.175M. Next in line, at $3.41M, was the record-setting Gullwing sale mentioned earlier. The rest of the top 10 consisted of five supercars built after 2005. This is the highest ratio of cars from the 2000s in a marquee auction’s top ten ever. However, the other three top sales were pre-war classics that have been considered some of the most important cars since the beginning of the collector market nearly a century ago. This just shows that while the spotlight of the market will move with changing tastes, there is still great appreciation for traditional classics.”

Read more analysis of Arizona Auction Week on Hagerty Insider here, and in our blog from the event here.

Arizona Auction Results

Listed below are the results Hagerty observed during the live auctions as well as any post-sale deals that were reported by the auction companies to Hagerty. Numbers include the appropriate buyer’s premiums.

Overall through Sunday from all auction companiesCumulative Total: $244.8M
2,375/2,724 lots sold: 87% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $103,083

2023 Cumulative Results through Sunday*
Cumulative Total: $262.6M
2242/2428 lots sold: 92% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $117,148
*Worldwide did not hold a January 2023 Arizona auction

Overall Top 10 Sales from all auctions through Sunday: