Classic car auction site Bring a Trailer sales hit record $1.4 billion

Bring a Trailer, a popular online auction site for collectible cars, set a sales record in 2023 despite a sharp decline in classic car prices.

Bring a Trailer CEO Randy Nonnenberg said the company’s sales grew about 2% last year, from $1.35 billion in 2022 to more than $1.4 billion. Bring a Trailer will sell more than 30,000 units in 2023, a 19% increase from 2022.

Rising vehicle sales helped offset falling prices. The average price of a car sold on the site dropped from $59,500 in 2022 to $54,000 in 2023.

The company’s growth marks a rare bright spot for the classic car market in 2023, as prices retreat from the frenetic highs of 2021 and 2022 and rising interest rates take a toll on collectors. Total classic car auction sales, including online and in-person auctions, fell 3% last year to $4.19 billion from $4.32 billion in 2022, according to Classic.com. According to classic car analysts, prices on many models have dropped by 10% or more.

Nonnenberg told CNBC that inflation, economic uncertainty, stock market volatility and overseas turmoil have cooled demand from potential bidders. But he said sellers are still offering trophy cars and buyers are bidding, even if their offers are lower.

“People are a little nervous about their portfolios, so that may slow down discretionary car purchases,” he said. “We think if people get nervous, they might stop selling or holding on to the car. Interestingly, we don’t see that. We still see people wanting to trade into something else. It just changes the pricing a little bit.”

Bring a Trailer’s low-cost, user-friendly platform also continues to attract car enthusiasts. According to Nonnenberg, its number of registered users will increase from 880,000 in 2022 to 1.2 million in 2023.

The number of active bidders surged to more than 520,000. Sellers on Bring a Trailer pay a flat fee of $99, while buyer fees are 5 percent of the car’s sale price, capped at $5,000 — a fraction of what traditional car auction companies charge. The site offers everything from $3,000 motorcycles to $200,000 Porsches and $1 million Ferraris.

The biggest draw of Bring a Trailer is the auction sneak peeks. Users instantly follow bids and sales, and view photos and reviews of rare cars. Nonnenberg said the site can auction up to 1,000 cars at a time, with each car auction typically lasting a week.

In 2024, the company will launch a new suite of services to speed up the checkout process and help buyers with paperwork, transfers and other requirements.

Nonnenberg said sales this year will be as good or better than 2023 as prices stabilize and bidders gain confidence from possible interest rate cuts later this year.

“The Spring Bring a Trailer event is very popular because people are coming out of the winter, opening their garages and starting to care about travel and cars,” he said. “We think we’re going to have a typical spring, which is exciting .”

Although Bring a Trailer failed to break the site’s previous record for the most expensive car sold (a $5.36 million La Ferrari sold in 2022), it managed to sell two cars last year for more than $2 million. The most expensive sale in 2023 was the 2014 Pagani Huayra, which sold for $2.9 million. It also sold a rare 1967 Porsche 910 race car for $2.5 million, a 2020 “liquid carbon” Ford GT for $1.8 million, and a mere 2005 Porsche Carrera GT with 601 miles.

Nonnenberg said more new cars from the 2000s and 2010s are coming to auction.

“Even cars from the 2000s are starting to become collectibles,” he said. “As everything becomes electric, those cars from 20 years ago become even more special. A lot of people think BAT is for cars from the 1960s. It’s actually more modern.”