CNN Business | People are bidding online for million-dollar cars — without seeing them in person

(CNN) – Increasingly, wealthy bidders are going online to buy collector cars worth six-figures or more at auctions without seeing them in person first.

At one online auction last month, a 2003 Ferrari Enzo sold for $2.6 million. It was the highest price ever paid for a car in an Internet-only auction, according to RM Sotheby’s. At that same auction, another Ferrari, a 1985 288 GTO, sold for $2.3 million. And, at another another recent RM Sotheby’s online event, a limited edition track-only 2020 Porsche with Martini racing team stripes sold for $1.3 million.

“I have seen a marked growth in the number of people who will actually buy a car, will spend tens of thousands, or maybe even up to a hundred thousand dollars or more, in some cases, for a car they’ve not seen,” said Donald Osborne, a collector car appraiser and CEO of the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island.  —more—