The top of the market delivered its usual fireworks, led by a $53M sale—the highest recorded in recent More money changed hands despite fewer cars selling, as a handful of blockbuster lots—including a record-breaking $53 million sale—pushed dollar volume up 6% even as the number of sold vehicles declined by double digits. However, overall efficiency slipped, with the sell-through rate falling from 81% to 73%, suggesting either rising reserves or more selective buyers. Meanwhile, digital platforms continued their upmarket climb, capturing $41 million in sales and doubling their unit count—clear proof that even seven-figure transactions no longer require a rostrum.
Key Stats – $1M+ Tier (H1 2025 vs H1 2024)
Live events outside of the headline Amelia & Miami, Scottsdale & Kissimmee were the most important component of 2025’s 1M tier activity. These “other live events” were responsible for 61% of the total dollar volume sold during 2025 in the +1M tier. As we’ve mentioned before, auction houses have been innovating and creating multiple events more evenly spread across the year, which proved pivotal in this year’s growth in activity. With the top three sales occurring outside of the headline events, these auctions saw an 18% gain in Dollar Volume and a 15% reduction in sold listings, mainly driven by smaller catalogs and one $20M+ sale that boosted averages.
Amelia & Miami saw a 14% increase in dollar volume despite fewer cars sold (44 to 39), thanks to several headline Ferraris and Porsches, while online auctions surged 31% in volume as seven-figure cars began selling sight-unseen, with BaT and Collecting Cars leading the charge. In contrast, Kissimmee dropped 57% due to the absence of a major headline consignment, while Scottsdale remained mostly flat, down just 3% year over year.
Like we saw in 2023, one giant hammer can still swing the million-dollar tier, but beneath the headline sale we’re seeing thinner catalogues and a tougher close-rate—classic signs of a selective, but still liquid, high end.
As we head into Monterey, this tier will be the one to watch. It has the power to shift the full-year trend with just a handful of stellar results.
Top Markets
Using our CLASSIC.COM Market Benchmark*, we’ve analyzed over 8,000 individual markets** to pinpoint the top Growing and Slowing Markets so far in 2025 in the across five distinct value tiers: Over 1M, Between $500K-1M, Between $100K-500K, and Between $50K-100K. To qualify for this list, a market must have more than one sold listing between January-June 2025.
Note: CMB is an indicator of how recent market activity has impacted typical market values. It does not guarantee individual vehicle appreciation.
Price action at the very top is a sniper’s game: less than half the markets are up, but when they move, they move hard—witness the D-Type and 250 LM. Meanwhile several once-untouchable blue-chips (’73 RS, 400 SA) slipped double-digits, reminding sellers that rarity alone won’t guarantee a record hammer in 2025. Whether it be motorsport pedigree or extreme rarity, with such thin trading, it takes just one strong result to lift the index—or one weak sale to pull it down.
We analyzed 50 individual markets that had a sale in the first six months, and nearly half of them did not exhibit any growth or decrease, meaning that what moves the needle is selective and market-based, not broad-based. A great indication of the latter is that despite the significant 41% reduction in sales across these markets, the average growth in value for them was 10% over 12 months and 9% over 6 months.
Top 10 Growing Markets
Top 10 Slowing Markets
*The CLASSIC.COM Market Benchmark (CMB) is a benchmark value for vehicles in a given Market based on data accumulated by CLASSIC.COM and calculated by a proprietary algorithm that takes into account volume and recency of each data point. CMB can be used to assess the performance of a market over a given time period. However, it does not represent the value of a specific vehicle.
** A Market on CLASSIC.COM is a grouping of comparable vehicles that have, at a minimum, the same Make, Model, and Model Generation. When relevant for purposes of valuation, a Market may be further segmented by Model Variant, Trim, Transmission Type, Body Style, and other factors.