Monterey’s Super Bowl: Strength at the Top, Pragmatic Sellers Below

With Monterey Car Week in the rearview, the takeaways extend well beyond headline sales. The auction tents once again served as a barometer for the health of the high-end collector market, with results that will influence pricing, demand, and sentiment into the fall. From blue-chip exotics to prewar icons, what happened on the Peninsula will shape how buyers and consignors approach the next quarter.

Steven Posner, CEO of Putnam Leasing, has been navigating this landscape for more than four decades. His firm partners with all the major Monterey auction houses, helping qualified bidders structure acquisitions in real time—often with tax and cash-flow advantages that matter at the moment of decision. In his post-Monterey readout, Posner describes a resilient market and pragmatism from sellers that kept deals moving.

“I believe the market is still really strong,” Posner says. “Certain auction companies did better than others. Great cars still did all the money—but what surprised me was that there were a lot of good cars that fell below the estimate, and the consignors sold them anyway.” If estimates in some lanes ran ambitious, the willingness to meet the market became the week’s quiet theme. Trophy-grade examples—defined by provenance, condition, and correctness—continued to command peak results, while honest, usable cars often traded under estimate and still found new homes.

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