Auction House - Cars Of Japan

[GTR-N1]

Here in Australia, bidders at Shannon's and Pickles have by and large not appreciated Japanese cars. Would a company like Iron Chef or other budding concern make good money by auctioning Cars of Japan regardless of them being ADM or ADM? Thoughts?

[GH05T]

i have read this a few times and it do not quite make sence to me,

from what im reading *and its been a long day so far for me*
your asking if its a good idea for importers to auction off the "jap" cars themselves?

[GTR-N1]

Nup. It's possibly a niche market for a registered auctioneer to specialise in groups of Japanese cars. Even Shannon's could devote a whole afternoon to a 'herd' of Japanese cars.

These are cars (with verifiable logs and history) which may be...

* unmodified sports cars

* lightly modified (with bolt ons and no head taken off) sports cars

* strongly modified sports cars

* family luxury

* rarity group of 1000 or less

* yaddayadda eg Jap cars - not manufactured in Japan

We all agree that QC is paramount is Japanese cars - arguably second to none.

So advantages are...

* This niche area permits owners of the above to sell their cars to bidders who are after quality

* Bidders funnel into the Japanese paradigm

* Consignment car lot owners don't have to run the risk of being sued as they have in the past

[32GTRB]

I think the issue would be whether there is enough demand for these cars. Based on the criteria Terry I'd imagine that the cars going through said auction house would command a premium over the market due to the "guarantee's" of full service history etc. Most auction houses we have here sell cars at a discount to the market, and typically to wholesalers (although recent efforts from pickles shows that they are definitely focused on getting to the "end-user" market) who would want to pay a discount to the market to maintain some kind of margin.

There also seems to be a general stigma that the secondhand "JDM" performance car industry is not averse to falsifying mileage etc. when these things are imported, making it hard to assure buyers there is a difference. Then theres the existing car dealers/importers (like some that you have already mentioned) who specialise in these and have good rep, but probably lack the corporate power behind them to do so on a larger scale while still being profitable.