10 Most Expensive Cars Ever Sold At Auction

Most car lovers go to car auctions looking for a diamond in the rough. But then there are the collectors who can afford to drop seven or eight figures on a priceless auto. These 10 cars are the most expensive ever sold at auction. By Phil Berg

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Seven-figure deals are common at the top auto collector auctions these days, and the trend is there's no limit in sight. It started in 1987, when a Bugatti Royale sold at a Christie's auction in London for $7 million, and in 1988 a barn-find Ferrari sold for $2.8 million in Monterey, kicking off two decades of multi-million-dollar prices for special cars at auction. In 2005, the total take at the four car collector auctions during the week-long Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson extravaganza was $79 million.

To understand this trend, first you need to understand a bit about car auctions: They're way different than a transaction between two people. The auction company charges a fee, called a buyer's premium, from 5% to 17.5% in addition to the selling price of the car, and the buyer has to pay it. Then, the seller may add a seller's premium. That's part of the reason most car collectors tell us an auction is the most expensive way to buy a car. Another reason is that bidding tends to raise competition beyond any other type of negotiation.

Often buyers play with the auction process, looking for cars that do not meet a minimum purchase price, known as a seller's reserve, and then the buyers contact the sellers privately after the auction to purchase the car without public scrutiny. (IRS agents patrol high-dollar auto auctions.) However, an auction is a way to make a transaction happen that otherwise might take too long, or might not attract a buyer at all. It is likely private transactions have resulted in higher prices than the following auction results, but we'll never know.

NOTE: The dollars figures given are what the cars sold for at the time of auction. If the sale prices listed here were corrected for the change in the dollar over time, this list would change. For example, in June 1986, a 1931 Bugatti Royale known as the Berline de Voyager auctioned for $6.5 million. Many auction followers believe that if adjusted to today's dollars, the car actually sold for the equivalent of between $11 and $20 million.

That said, here are the top auction prices to date.

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