Auction Stats 
We saw almost $400M in collector cars cross the block at the Monterey Auctions this year – resulting in the 2nd biggest year for the event in its history. 2023 results came short of beating last year’s impressive $470M total, showing that the market plateau that we’ve been seeing all year in the low-to-mid-range value tiers has finally caught up to the high end of the market.
Here are some key takeaways from Monterey, and 2023 so far:
- Throughout the entire year so far, we have been noticing a general slow-down of sales when compared to the bullish years of 2021 and 2022. As we've mentioned before, this is an overall resetting of the market to stability, after massive growth experienced during the Pandemic, largely driven by the popularity and growth of Online auctions.
- The results of Monterey 2023 confirm that even at the highest end of the market, stability is replacing the rapid growth we'd been experiencing the past couple of years. In fact, the results from Monterey could be the first indications of the market actually shrinking.
- This year in Monterey, more cars sold for substantially less money than in 2022. In fact, many failed to meet the estimates advertised for them. This is a trend we also saw at other major auction events in Scottsdale and Amelia: buyers are not meeting sellers expectations for sale prices.
- As always, there were some stellar sales – showing that special cars will always garner top prices in any market, and Monterey remains one of the best places to show and sell them.
- Overall, in terms of market activity, Monterey sales moved the needle upwards rather than down.
- 162 sales resulted in a CMB* increase of more than 5%
- 64 sales resulted in a CMB* decrease of more than 5%
Monterey is still the spot to sell special cars
100 sales in Monterey were the Top Sale recorded in their Market, based on the data we've been tracking since 2019. Below are the Top 10 of those Market Busters – ranked by increase over the the previous high.
Top 10 Sales
And of course, we can't end a Monterey Recap without the list of Top 10 Sales by Dollar Volume:
*The CLASSIC.COM Market Benchmark (CMB) is a benchmark value for vehicles in a given Market based on data accumulated by CLASSIC.COM and calculated by a proprietary algorithm that takes into account volume and recency of each data point. CMB can be used to assess the performance of a market over a given time period. However, it does not represent the value of a specific vehicle. Read more in our Glossary of Terms
Header Image Credit: Car & Driver Monterey Live Blog
