Bonhams Scottsdale

For Bonhams, at the Kierland Westin resort in Scottsdale on January 27, it was like 2021 never even happened. Just as well: with only 32 cars turning up last year, no bidders or spectators allowed onsite (even media was time-restricted), and less than $6 million taken in for the event, the fear of COVID had gripped the collective selling pool and they kept their cars at home. Even the weather was miserable in ’21: weepy skies and a fog that wouldn’t lift.

A year later and things appeared to be back to normal on all counts at Bonhams: 89 cars on the docket, $11.4 million in sales, bright sunlight, and a 95 percent sell-through rate all indicated that the market was more than happy to right itself. Rather than a scattered smorgasbord of cars, Bonhams clustered examples from a single marque. Look, there’s a row of Ferraris. Look at all the Porsches, in a more-or-less chronological formation from a pre-A 356 to a 930. Rolls-Royces and Bentleys