For five seconds it was mine
02/09/2015
It is a characteristic of auctions that, as a bidder, you can always feel like the owner of a car for a short time. That's how I felt in Paris when I raised my hand at lot 411 of the Bonhams auction on February 5, 2015 , and raised the price for the Matra-Bonnet Djet 5S from 1965 by 1000 euros to 15,000. But just a few seconds later, I was outbid and the dream of a bargain vanished into thin air.
However, 20,000 euros was also a very attractive price for the yellow plastic mid-engined sports car, as that was the highest bid. But who knows? If I had continued bidding, the price might have risen to 40,000 or 50,000 euros, which would have made the Matra less affordable.
And finally, the bidder's premium of around 15%, the transportation costs to the buyer's domicile, customs duties, taxes and the costs for road registration in your own country are added to the hammer price. And so even a bargain can turn into a normally expensive car. So once again you prefer to think "if only I had bid further ...".
Incidentally, we have published the results of the Bonhams auction in full, as well as the results of the RM auction and the surprisingly high bids at Artcurial's barn-find auction. So if you're annoyed that you weren't there or missed out on bidding (you can do this by phone or internet these days), just take a look at the results ...
