This month – in case you missed it – the James Bond franchise celebrated its 50th anniversary and EON Productions, the production company behind Bond, auctioned off props, costumes and memorabilia from the film series for charity.
One item that attracted interest from the likes of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, was the Aston Martin DBS driven by Daniel Craig in a car chase scene in Quantum of Solace. The Aston Martin, estimated pre-auction at $160,000 – $240,000, finally sold for $390,101.
Other items of note were Daniel Craig’s bathing trunks from ‘that’ scene in Casino Royale (which fetched $72,000) and the tarot cards used by Jane Seymour in Live And Let Die.
The auction raised $2.6M for charities including UNICEF and, quite coincidentally, was held just ahead of release of the latest Bond instalment, Skyfall, due out here in Australia on November 22nd.
According to a recent article in the Australian Financial Review, many Australian owned classic cars are turning up at car auctions around the world, with at least eight cars with a connection to Australia for sale at auction house Bonhams in the UK. They include a 1927 Bugatti, a 1925 Bentley and a 1972 model Ferrari 365GTB/4.
The auction, held at Goodwood in Chichester last month grossed $21.2M, about 30% higher than expected. Classic car auctions here in Australia have not been as strong, with Sotheby’s and Bonhams not holding auctions at the moment.
However this hasn’t put off Australia’s richest man Clive Palmer from building a collection worth $2.5M for a vintage car museum he is planning on the Gold Coast. Most of the vehicles were acquired at a car auction held at the Aalholm car museum in Denmark last month.
Finally, if you’re looking for a car with an interesting history, don’t forget to check eBay. Recently a somewhat dilapidated 1967 Corvette went up on the online auction site and hit a bid of $250,000 before being removed without the reserve being met. The reason for the high price? The car used to belong, briefly, to the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
Armstrong owned the car for twelve months before selling to a NASA colleague and upgrading to a convertible Corvette. The current owner had decided not to restore the car, keen to keep it as ‘original’ as possible to preserve the link to its famous one time owner.
Aussie Car Loans can organise loans for car purchases of all types including collectors items and classic car loans and have access to a range of options for car auction loans. For some general advice on buying a car, visit our car buying tips page.
