At The Auctions

[Costafortune]

A comprehensively knackered Clubman?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQ7A-ue6As

[Pete]

It looks a nice example. A day spent farting about will correct the minor details.

30k is probably all its money.

I’ll be gobsmacked if it goes to £30k. Maybe three or four years ago?

[Costafortune]

It looks a nice example. A day spent farting about will correct the minor details.

30k is probably all its money.

I’ll be gobsmacked if it goes to £30k. Maybe three or four years ago?

25k is realistic. It's a nice thing.

[Costafortune]

Mini 25 on a Brum registration number.

Rough but all there and fairly unmolested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEFTl9w5DoQ

[Exminiman]

It'll take more than a day or so to make a real concours car out of it. Yes - it looks very smart but Newton interior, wrong seats, wheels, steering wheel, bootlid, front panel, bumpers, both doors - and what about a completely wrong suspension system ? And that's just a couple of minutes looking.
I'm not an originality buff particularly but if you suggest that your car is a top concours example then......

Also appears to have a non-rotodip rear bulkhead in it. Surely that's wrong for a Mk1? Thought that didn't show up until the Mk3?

Yes it is wrong, but since at least the early 90s, maybe earlier, you couldn’t buy an assembled boot, wheel arch, bulkhead assy with a rotadip hole. You can of course, remove the bulkhead/rota dip panel and swap for a good second hand one. In this case they obviously didn’t bother. It does point to the whole boot/ wheel arch area being replaced as one, which, personally (its just a personal thing) I would see as a positive.

[Costafortune]

RIGHT THEN GUYS.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR8mo3mHhGw

[Exminiman]

RIGHT THEN GUYS.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR8mo3mHhGw

Chip off the old block, learnt his patter from the older bloke,…….it’s bloody painful to listen to……cant think why we might expect him to know something about what he’s selling…..

[Pete]

“Lovely gear knob”, you won’t learn very much from that video other than he doesn’t know anything at all about what he’s selling (bit like his grandad then! ) but to be fair he’s only a kid. Considering the money they’re shoveling away from these sales you’d think they’d just do some basic homework, afterall they do sell a lot of Minis.
Looks a tidy enough pre hydro car that in the best colour, chassis number’s an 850 I’m presuming?

[Pete]

Talk of the devil…

https://youtu.be/SxTFt92pI-c?si=v1HiPogdvNr3ky2N

This YouTuber reckons Mathewson’s cleared £350k from the last auction, and that’s with their pretty modest commission rates (comparatively). He’s not added on the big numbers they must make from the TV show etc.

[Exminiman]

Talk of the devil…

https://youtu.be/SxTFt92pI-c?si=v1HiPogdvNr3ky2N

This YouTuber reckons Mathewson’s cleared £350k from the last auction, and that’s with their pretty modest commission rates (comparatively). He’s not added on the big numbers they must make from the TV show etc.

....Amazing how far talking bollocks all day gets you.....

[nick@dunsdale]

Talk of the devil…

https://youtu.be/SxTFt92pI-c?si=v1HiPogdvNr3ky2N

This YouTuber reckons Mathewson’s cleared £350k from the last auction, and that’s with their pretty modest commission rates (comparatively). He’s not added on the big numbers they must make from the TV show etc.

8K alone made on the sale of one car "Lotus Carlton"
Pretty good going

[Old English White]

Talk of the devil…

https://youtu.be/SxTFt92pI-c?si=v1HiPogdvNr3ky2N

This YouTuber reckons Mathewson’s cleared £350k from the last auction, and that’s with their pretty modest commission rates (comparatively). He’s not added on the big numbers they must make from the TV show etc.

8K alone made on the sale of one car "Lotus Carlton"
Pretty good going

Particularly good when you didn't have to buy it in the first place!

[GraemeC]

RIGHT THEN GUYS.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR8mo3mHhGw

I'm confused as to what that is (or was). Obviously had wing repeaters filled in (very badly) but these could just be replacement wings.
Has later inner wings, but again these could've been replaced.
But who would put the late model washer bottle mounting on the rear arch in? (I presume they don't come pre-atttached to a replacement wheel tub).

ALso looks like one of those drive-in, drive-out respreays you could get in the '60s!

[maxidave]

Let's keep up the great British tradition of knocking a successful business.Nobody is obliged to put their car in these auctions and nobody is obliged to bid for them.Anybody who buys a car unseen is clearly foolish.I would imagine a potential buyer would have done their homework.To expect the
staff to have in depth knowledge of everything they are selling is a bit optlmistic and the youngster was probably still learning to walk when the last
mini came off the line.Just an old car to him.
If they cleared three hundred and fifty thousand after their last auction good luck to them but i think this figure comes from someone who has
possibly never run a business and has never heard of overheads.The taxman,customs and excise,rates,insurance,utility bills,vehicles,wages and more.
I think it's time to give them a break.

[Pete]

Let's keep up the great British tradition of knocking a successful business.Nobody is obliged to put their car in these auctions and nobody is obliged to bid for them.Anybody who buys a car unseen is clearly foolish.I would imagine a potential buyer would have done their homework.To expect the
staff to have in depth knowledge of everything they are selling is a bit optlmistic and the youngster was probably still learning to walk when the last
mini came off the line.Just an old car to him.
If they cleared three hundred and fifty thousand after their last auction good luck to them but i think this figure comes from someone who has
possibly never run a business and has never heard of overheads.The taxman,customs and excise,rates,insurance,utility bills,vehicles,wages and more.
I think it's time to give them a break.

Don’t think the YouTuber was actually knocking them and my comments I thought were pretty fair really bearing in mind I once drove for two hours up there to look at a car by appointment that was supposed to be a Cooper S with an S engine in it (confirmed by email) only to find it was a rod change A+ and was inaccessible to view and neither was anybody prepared to assist in helping me do so (“we go by trust here”) I was told. Rude didn’t really cover it . So absolutely nothing to do with criticising a successful businesses, just observations. The lack of knowledge on probably the most popular classic car in the world that they sell about a dozen of every sale is quite surprising to some of us, I suppose it’s the reason some auction houses get people who do know their onions in to do the sales spiel, Jonny Smith, Harry Medcalf, Paul Cowland or whoever, Cowland is great for Manor Classics actually just for balance.

[maxidave]

I would be as angry as Pete if that had happened to me.I can only speak from a friend's experience last week when he mailed a list of memorabilia
to them,received an estimate for each item by return and said they could not have been more helpful.He has sold the very nice OHC Morris Minor
which would otherwise have gone to them.Just in case anyone thinks i've lost the plot it was built in 1930.

[Pete]

They were probably just having a bad day (not as bad as the one I had though! ). I had to use a broom handle to unlock the passenger door myself through the locked drivers door just to see inside it. I was advised that I shouldn’t need to see inside it anyway to which I replied how he bleedin would if he was spending £30k! . Let’s just say we didn’t hit it off . Yep I agree plenty have had good experiences with them and I also agree that nobody should buy a car unseen unless it’s a project maybe. I bought a Tweed Grey Mk1 S from the U.S unseen years ago and what a total mess that turned out to be, albeit an original car that’s now sorted and looking great.
The first S I bought unseen from the U.S though was a corker. It’s a gamble that doesn’t always pay off but sometimes does, still a gamble though either way as proved recently when I bought a road rally car from an auction unseen. Turned out when I collected it that it really needed paint (VERY flattering and selective photos and misleading description) which ok I wasn’t expecting but I’d pretty much budgeted for that considering the reasonable purchase price however the 1275 S engine in it was complete toast so due to the total misdescription of it I managed to get some money back which I think is pretty unheard of with an auction house but barely takes the sting out of a new engine rebuild.
Not sure they’d allow it but I’d suggest sticking a camera down the plug holes of any auction purchase if you can, though you can’t beat buying directly from an owner and thoroughly testing the car!