I'm an appraiser who has been asked to evaluate a 1955 XK 140MC drophead coupe. I am doing some preliminary research on the car while trying to determine the top value for this particular model and year. Various price guides peg the top value in the vicinity of $65,000 to $80,000. The owner tells me that a concours edition of the car was recently auctioned off for a price in excess of $100,000. My question is, what accounts for this discrepancy? I admit that Jaguars are not my specialty, and I was wondering if there are certain things that I should be looking for that would set my client's car apart from your normal number 1 car. Thank you for your help.
Submitted by marks@jcca.us on Tue, 04/01/2003 - 23:47
Two stupid bidders and a Speed Channel camera stuck in one's face can account for the discrepancy. Have the owner give you the whole story -- date place and time, then check auction site. Nowadays, most auctions, in an attempt to inflate their selling prices, include the buyers premiums with the car price. Barrett-Jackson has an 8% buyers premium. The seller pays a premium as well. I believe B-J is 7% if no-reserve and 10% if there is a reserve.
Take those two numbers into account and your $100K car suddenly only nets the seller $82-85K.
Also check to make sure the car sold. A high reserve on a car, accompanied by shill bidders who know the reserve, can drive the price of a car up to just below the reserve, at which point the seller, knowing it's one of his shill, refuses to sell. Then the seller proclaims a value based on his shill bidders when hawking the car to some unwitting dupe.
Check the auction sites for other sales figures, but keep the above in mind.
One price at one auction can very easily be an anomaly. I think your figures are closer to reality.
Mark Stephenson
Jaguar Club of Central Arizona