Mark Bulmer, one of the Black Book Live team, reports on his impressions of the first sale of the new year.

"Yesterday was the first sale of January 2013 and was supported by a strong contingent of independent traders and a small selection of private buyers. All the stock being sold was from main dealer’s part exchange stock.

The buzz was a 7 (note: this is an internal CAP measure of auction buyer mood) and the overall atmosphere was good. The quality of the stock was poor however. I graded a good selection and was struck by the model mix, all the cars we have seen struggling for quite a while were in the line up, most vehicles being German or French.

I watched a slow sale, all cars offered were struggling to meet the expectations of the vendors and at least 50% of them went provisional. I was starting to think that we hadn’t dropped the book enough, then as soon as the fresh stock was offered at around 100 vehicles into the sale the auction then sprang to life, bidding was frantic and cars that I considered to be in average condition consistently sold for CAP clean.

Not all vehicles sold in this second section of the sale though. I noticed on several occasions the vehicles that achieved over CAP clean and the vendors still wouldn’t take the bid, instead they went provisional.

There was a much more broader stock line up in the second part of the sale, in the first part I noticed only a few smaller vehicles and SUV’s; in the second part small cars and SUV models were very highly sought after with one 05 plate KIA Picanto selling at £300 over CAP clean when the car was in average condition.

The sale only consisted of independent and private buyers, so the market may be different for the main dealers, but the independents all said that the weather in December had affected sales and so most buyers had enough stock to see them into the middle of January.

Car buyers were saying that they expect values to rise into next week, they also said they would have to pay more money for stock but would have more choice and so could pick and choose what suited them.

Mark Bulmer, CAP Black Book Live Editor

Note: This report forms part of CAP’s internal research conversation. It is reproduced here to offer insight into the daily work of CAP’s expert editors as they investigate current market dynamics.  This raw research therefore represents an individual expert’s personal impression of the market at one time and forms only a small part of a wider and more complex research process to determine the current trade value of used vehicles. These reports are subject to thorough internal evaluation and interpretation as part of our price setting process. Business decisions should therefore only be made on the basis of information published in CAP’s valuation products and not on the basis of market research impressions published on the CAP blog. For further information about CAP valuation products call us on 0113 223 2111.