September’s results show a market that isn’t just steady, it’s adapting. Dollar volume climbed 18% year over year, thanks to the continued surge of online auctions. Live sales, meanwhile, were quieter – partly because Mecum’s $43M Dallas event shifted to October. That timing change also explains a 5% dip in total sold listings, even as online platforms set a new record with 4,665 transactions. Most striking? The average sale price jumped 25% to $50K, putting us right back near the peak levels we last saw during the pandemic boom in 2021.
What we’re really seeing is a tale of two markets: live auction houses concentrating their firepower on rare, headline-worthy consignments, while online platforms keep the broader market moving with unmatched volume and velocity.
Top 10 Sales in September 2025
Across the month, there were 16 sales over $1M – three of those came from online auctions, and all three were on Bring a Trailer, underscoring its continued growth in the seven-figure arena with cars like the $3.18M Bugatti Chiron Sport and $2.37M Porsche 904.
But the majority of September’s top sales were from Gooding Christie’s Stan Lucas Collection that dominated the prewar segment, accounting for six of the month’s top 10 results – including the top sale of a rare 1911 Oldsmobile Limited for $5M.
Top 10 Flips & Flops in September 2025
Each month, we track “Flips” and “Flops,” which we define as cars with documented previous sale records. This enables us to calculate the net gain or loss and the time elapsed since the last sale. While some purists argue that a genuine Flip/Flop occurs only within a 12-month timeframe from the previous sale, we believe this list offers entertainment and valuable insights that a narrower window would overlook. Admittedly, it’s plausible that cars have changed hands in private transactions between these public listings; nonetheless, this data provides valuable insights into which cars have realized significant gains or losses compared to their previous sales. Enjoy this data at your own discretion.
Flips
Flops
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Market Busters in September 2025
While most statistics and reviews tend to concentrate on the upper echelon of the market, noteworthy examples are consistently emerging across all segments of the industry. Our “Market Busters” chart showcases listings that broke records within their respective market segments and across all value tiers.
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Year-to-Date
Online auctions continue to set the pace, driving record transaction volume and pushing the average sale price back toward pandemic-era highs. Buyers and sellers alike are proving that confidence in the digital lane is stronger than ever.
Live auctions, on the other hand, are learning to adapt by concentrating their efforts on rare, headline-worthy consignments, even as a reshuffled calendar makes year-over-year comparisons tricky.
The result is a market that feels less like a seasonal sprint and more like a steady evolution, with online platforms keeping the wheels turning at full speed.
Results are included from the following auctions in September 2025:
Online Auctions:
* 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.
**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.
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