Stondon sale results

Following its closure at Easter, yesterday (Wednesday 10th June) marked the final end for the Stondon Motor Museum as the car and commercial vehicle collection was auctioned by Brightwells at Leominster, the motorcycles having already been sold in April. No-reserve auctions are usually interesting and unpredictable, with the possibility of a bargain but also potential for much competition between determined bidders, and that was certainly the case here. I didn't actually attend the auction for three reasons: it was on a weekday so I was at work, Leominster is a long way from here, and perhaps more importantly I would have probably ended up buying some piece of junk I have neither use nor space for! With the results now published on the auction house's website, I have crunched the numbers and present my analysis here.

Although advertised as a disposal sale of the majority of the collection, almost seventy cars, including most of the more modern ones, were not included in the auction; these were presumably either sold privately beforehand or had been on loan to the museum and were returned to their owners. The vehicles were sold very much as seen, and the fact they were museum pieces that would undoubtedly need work to make roadworthy and couldn't be driven away was very clearly emphasised. In the end, the large commercial vehicles didn't make the journey to Leominster, reputedly because the building would have to be demolished to get them out! They remained at Stondon and were sold via a video link, as did the Citroen SM, which proved impossible to start so the suspension wouldn't rise, rendering it immobile. It still made £10,600 though, which seems a lot of money for a horribly complex non-running car that hasn't been on the road for over 30 years and would be a brave project.

Immobile and off the road since 1984 but a brave soul paid over £10k for it.

The infamous missile carrier was withdrawn from sale after falling foul of the Firearms Act, but the auctioneers hope to offer it again in the near future, along with a handful of other withdrawn lots. In all, 199 vehicles were sold across the two sales, raising a total sale price of just over £800,000. That works out to an average price per lot of around £4,000, which seems high considering the condition of many, and it must also be remembered that the figures quoted are the hammer prices, to which another 30% in auctioneers' fees and VAT must be added, so the buyers would actually end up paying significantly more.

There seem to have been few bargains among the post-war cars, although those more knowledgeable than me in the pre-war area have suggested some of the prices there were very reasonable. Most lots sold for four-figure sums, with only two just breaking the £20,000 barrier: John Saunders's beloved Rolls-Royce Camargue went for £20,500 and the Ford Pilot station wagon (one of only two built) for £21,000. The cheapest car was the Hillman Hunter, which looked good value at just £500, while £4,600 for a Skoda was a shock; admittedly it was one of the rare Rapid convertibles, but even so that is an awful lot of money, especially for one in uncertain condition with no MoT or tax. Another surprise was the Morris Marina selling for £2,400; it may have done a very low mileage but had spent a long time in the museum stored in less than ideal conditions, and made the Minor seem a bargain at a mere £1,100.

Detractors would call this a skip but someone thought it was worth nearly five grand.

The possible highlight of the collection, the Rover Scout, made a creditable £3,600, no doubt due to competition between Metro enthusiasts wanting to secure this unique vehicle. The RT bus was also notable at £8,500, considered opinion from bus restorers being that it is good for mechanical spares only as the body is seriously rotten to the point of near collapse. The other bus, a 1926 single-decker that is claimed to be the oldest non-London AEC in existence but is in equally poor condition, sold for £15,500, the same buyer also purchasing the horse-drawn showman's caravan for a massive £18,000. Also surprising was the £2,400 paid for the Volkswagen Derby, pricier than the Beetle and a figure that will hopefully save it from the threat of ruination with chopped springs and the 'rat look'.

Sold for £2,400, piano not included. The Hunter next door only made £500.

At first, the NSU Ro80 may have seemed a steal at £1,900 as good ones go for £6-10,000 and it did look nice in the photos and from a distance, but up close it was apparently a mess with poor paint and trim, bodged repairs and unknown mechanical condition, so maybe not as much of a bargain as it appeared. Bodgery and filler seem to have been a theme of many lots, possibly betraying the fact they had been bought for the museum to save them from scrap after MoT failure, so in many cases they wouldn't make good restoration projects and are perhaps more suited as mere spares donors, which makes the prices paid all the more surprising. Several lots also had missing or incomplete paperwork, had been off the road so long they are no longer recorded on the DVLA system, or were imported and never registered in the UK, so getting them road-legal may not be straightforward.

Nowhere near as nice as it looks. £1,900 well spent?

This was a classic example of the unpredictability of no-reserve auctions and I have to admit my expectations were proved completely wrong. Given the condition (and in some cases undesirability) of most lots, I anticipated the majority to go for a few hundred quid or around scrap value, but strong bidding pushed almost everything into four figures. It may still be interesting to watch eBay and the classic car sales sites for former exhibits turning up, but the chance of a quick profit seems remote given the prices paid, and it remains to be seen what will happen to them in the long term and how many will return to the road. It is very sad that the museum has closed and the collection that John Saunders spent much of his life creating has been split up, but the sale raised a substantial sum and hopefully guaranteed at least some of the vehicles a secure future. 

To see more details of individual lots, the auction catalogues including hammer prices can be found on Brightwells' website, the April motorcycle sale here and yesterday's car and commercial sale here.