August 2026 was a big month: $1.01 billion in auction sales, up 51% compared to last August. That’s only the second billion-dollar month we’ve ever seen, and the first one just just happened this past January.
This fits the pattern we’ve seen all year: fewer cars are selling, but for a lot more money. Compared to last August, sold listings actually dipped 1.2%, and total listings fell 5.6%. Every bit of that growth came from higher prices, not more cars changing hands.
The numbers back it up. Average sale price hit $166K, up 53% year over year, and the highest August average we’ve ever recorded. Sell-through landed at 74.1%, the best August in five years (since the height of the pandemic).
Monterey re-asserted its dominance
Of course, we can not talk about August without talking about Monterey. The auctions that run during Monterey Car Week each August have long served as the industry’s bellwether, and this year is no different.
The five auctions that took place in Monterey pulled in $751.3 million, or 74.4% of every dollar spent at auction in August, from just 14% of the cars sold. Put another way: Monterey alone explains most of why August was a billion-dollar month.
What makes that interesting is the trend it broke. Monterey’s grip on August had been loosening for three years straight, from 72.5% of the month’s dollars in 2022 down to 62.7% in 2024 and 63.8% in 2025, as online platforms grew up around it. This year it snapped right back to 74.4%, the highest share we’ve ever recorded.
Live auctions overall brought in $755.0 million in August, up 65% compared to last August, even though the number of cars sold fell 25%. Live average price jumped from $351,864 to $772,021. That’s not a market selling more. It’s a market selling different things.
Online had its moment too
Monterey wasn’t the only thing happening in August, though. Online auctions quietly put up their best month ever: $255.2 million in sales, up 20%. 5,094 cars sold, a record. And a 74.3% sell-through rate, also a record.
Bring a Trailer did most of the heavy lifting. It accounted for $217.2 million of the online total, 85% of it, selling 3,906 cars at a 79.5% sell-through rate.
Top 10 Sales in August
Every single one of August’s top ten sales happened at Monterey, and six of the ten were Ferraris. Online auctions had a great month, but their top sale ranked only 76th on the overall chart, a reminder that live auctions are still the venue for the biggest sales, especially in August.
Cars worth $1 million or more accounted for almost six of every ten dollars spent at auction, up from under half last August, with roughly 50% more of these sales than a year ago. Cars under $50,000 kept losing ground too, falling to just 8.1% of dollars spent, down from 12.8% last year.
*Note: The Ferrari Luce sale was chassis #0 of Ferrari’s first EV, sold at a charity auction rather than a standard sale. It shouldn’t be viewed as official market data point, but at $40 million it’s a big piece of why August 2026’s numbers look as strong as they do.
#1 Online / #76 Overall
#2 Online / #95 Overall
#3 Online / #111 Overall
New Market Records set in August
This fan-favorite chart tracks sales that set a new high for a specific make and model, and in August the records came from every corner of the hobby, from hypercars in hot markets to enthusiast cars sold online.
The biggest jump belonged to a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe that sold for $9M in Monterey, up 577% compared to the previous record for the model.
But not every record needs seven figures to matter. A 1979 Mercedes-Benz 280TE sold for $252,000 at Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction, a genuine barn find in a condition we’re unlikely to ever see again.
Top 10 Flips & Flops in August
And we can’t forget about everyone’s favorite lists… .the flips and flops!
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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2026 in one sentence: the market isn’t getting busier. It’s getting more expensive.
Through eight months, 2026 has produced $4.40 billion in auction sales, up 36% compared to the same period last year. The average sale price is up 30% to $82,388. Sold listings are up just 4.7%, and total listings are actually down 1.2%.
Results are included from the following auctions in August 2026:
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.
Read more in our Glossary of Terms