Having dabbled in paintings, timepieces and even celebrity memorabilia such as actor Prem Chopra's pipe, Mumbai-based auctioneer AstaGuru went online in a bid with a lot of vintage cars in a two-day auction featuring Rolls-Royces, Beetles, and more. Vickram Sethi, chairman of AstaGuru and an art dealer, says, "It's a new field for us and so we are a little nervous about how everything is going to play out but we know there are plenty passionate collectors out there, so we see potential."
Sethi is right. Worldwide, auction categories are broken up between art, jewellery, memorabilia and cars. Specialists define vintage cars as those made before 1940 and classics as those made after 1940 and before 1970. AstaGuru, which has about 45 employees, generated a turnover of around Rs 1.10 billion last year, says director Tushar Sethi adding that while the exhibited lot this time around is small with just 10 cars, getting more to sign up has been a challenge. For one, many serious car-buyers aren't that keen to buy virtually.
Car collector and Raymond boss Gautam Singhania says, "I honestly prefer to sit across a table and do business face-to-face when it comes to buying vintage cars, instead of through an online auction." Mohit Kapoor, director at Imperial Auctions, a Pune-based numismatics auctioneer, says a customer basically can't test a car which translates to a longer buying process. "With a coin, there are no parts or mechanics that need to be checked out. It is either is -- or it isn't. There's no grey area."
Originally, the auction was to have 30 cars but there were last-minute withdrawals by owners because of reasons that ranged from documents not being up to date and to a wait and watch approach, says one collector who declined to be named. Harit Trivedi, a collector says petrol-heads felt AstaGuru's prices were high, especially with a 15 percent premium on top of the final price but even so, good deals may abound."A 1947 Rolls being sold for under a crore is a no-brainer when new ones cost four or five crores. Similarly, the VW Beetle is an iconic car," Trivedi said.
However, on the last auction day, as of 7:30 pm few if any bids had reached the upper end of the bid set by the auction house. The Rolls had gotten a bid of around Rs 8 million which was starting reserve. The 1951 Mercedes-Benz whose lower end reserve price was at Rs 2 million got a bid of around Rs 2.4 million, and the 1969 Beetle which started at Rs 1.8 million and was expected to generate a lot of interest had gotten no bids, according to Siddhant Shetty, vice president strategy at AstaGuru. He adds that a Studebaker also got no bids.
Big bang or not, the auction does encourage the vintage and classic car scene "One way or the other, Online auctions do end up helping spread the word to a larger number of buyers across the country," Singhani adds. The other good news is there is a robust pipeline for the future. "You can easily pick up between 100 and 150 vintage and classic cars in a few weeks with most in Pune, New Delhi, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, but condition will vary," Trivedi says.
Pratik Desai, Automobile Specialist with AstaGuru who is also an exotic car dealer says there are ten cars that are part of the auction and that many have changes that are likely part of restoration that may have have transpired over the years. Desai indicates that prospective buyers will be told that vehicles are being sold in an "as is" condition, meaning they may or not be in full or partly running condition. "There is no hide-and-seek. We will give buyers a condition report. They are free to bring in their mechanics and check the cars out," Desai explains.
Still, prospective customers will want more details. AstaGuru's sales guide has photos of the cars featured but have no background to their owners or to their individual, specific history and are instead accompanied by generic details, the kind one can find on the Internet. In short, a browsing buyer is left wanting more. Diljeet Titus, a Delhi-based lawyer and a collector says its encouraging that AstaGuru has taken the lead in launching classic car auctions in India, but more ground must be covered."It becomes difficult to make informed bids as almost nothing has been written about mechanical and cosmetic condition or the ownership history/ provenance/title of these cars, leaving lots of questions,"Titus said. "AstaGuru needs to better research offerings considering the high prices, at which they are to be sold so the process is more transparent."