Classic car broker, dealer or finder: who does what

Six parties share the classic car market. The dealer buys the car and sells it on. Consignment and the auction house sell it on behalf of its owner. The broker and the finder bring a buyer and a seller together. The independent inspector examines the car for whoever appoints them. Two questions separate these roles: who each one works for, and who the seller is under the contract. The second decides which protections you have.

Our classic car acquisitions work covers the search and the introduction: we look for the car that meets your brief, present it to you with its records, then introduce you to its owner. Negotiation and the sale are then conducted between you and the seller, with your own advisers.

The classic car dealer: buying, then selling on

A dealer works on their own account. They buy the car, hold it in stock, sometimes prepare it, then sell it at a price that includes their margin. That margin is not published.

What a dealer offers comes from being a business seller. In the United Kingdom, where goods are sold in the course of a business, the law requires them to be of satisfactory quality; a private seller carries no such obligation. In France, the legal guarantee of conformity applies between a business seller and a consumer, for used goods as for new: you have two years from delivery to rely on it, and for a used car a defect is presumed to have existed at the time of sale for twelve months, after which the burden of proof is yours. The guarantee against hidden defects applies in addition, as it does to any seller.

The French guarantee concerns the car’s conformity with the contract. How these rules apply to your purchase is a matter to check with your lawyer.

Consignment and auctions: selling on the owner’s behalf

Consignment places the car with a dealer who displays it and presents it to buyers, in return for a commission. The owner remains the owner until the sale, and the dealer works for them. One question is then yours to ask before any offer: who is the seller under the contract, the dealer or the owner? If it is a private individual, the French guarantee of conformity does not apply, and only the guarantee against hidden defects remains. The answer depends on how the contract is drawn up, and is checked with your lawyer.

The auction house also acts for the seller: the conditions of sale of one French house describe it as the owner’s agent. Two costs are added to the hammer price, the buyer’s premium and taxes. For a classic car sale in London in 2026, one auction house states a premium of 15 per cent up to £200,000 and 12.5 per cent above, plus VAT; at a 2019 sale, a French house charged 20 per cent including tax. The rate is set out in the conditions of each sale, and is read before you bid.

The protections are narrower. In France, the legal guarantee of conformity does not apply to second-hand goods sold at public auction and, where you can attend the sale in person, the auction house must tell you so before the sale. In the United Kingdom, a buyer of second-hand goods at a public auction that individuals can attend in person is not a consumer for the purposes of Chapter 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, so the rights it gives on goods do not apply. The viewing therefore carries its full weight: the car is almost always on view the day or two days before the sale, and you can examine it yourself, have a specialist examine it, or request a condition report.

Auctions are only one route among several. Hagerty estimated in 2015 that they represented about 3 per cent of collector car sales in the United States, by number rather than by value.

Classic car broker: one word, several roles

The word “broker” covers different practices, and practice distinguishes at least three, two of which have a legal definition in France.

• An agent (mandataire) acts in your name. Under the French Civil Code, a mandate is the act by which one person gives another the power to do something for them and in their name: an agent may therefore conclude the purchase on your behalf.
• A commission agent (commissionnaire) acts in their own name on behalf of someone else. The seller contracts with them, not with the person for whom they act.
• A broker in the strict sense brings a buyer and a seller together without representing either and without ever owning the car.

The distinction has practical consequences. It decides who signs, who answers for the car, and whose interest the intermediary defends when the price is discussed. An intermediary who advances one party’s interest while serving the other can find themselves on both sides of the same sale.

The contract settles the matter. It states whom the intermediary acts for and whether they sign anything in your name. It is the first document to read, before any car is presented.

Classic car finder and private search: the introduction

In practice, a finder or business introducer, known in French as an apporteur d’affaires, brings together two parties with an interest in reaching an agreement. As a rule, a finder represents neither, does not negotiate and signs nothing on their behalf. The work lies in the search and the presentation: finding the car that meets a precise brief, gathering what is needed to judge it, then introducing the parties to one another.

This is the role we take. We look for the car you have in mind, including among those that pass from one collector to another without a listing or an auction, and your name is given to no seller without your agreement. We present the car to you with its history and records, then introduce you to its owner. How a private search unfolds, from the brief to the presentation, is the subject of a separate article.

The sale is then concluded directly between you and the seller, and the protections are those that this seller owes. In France, they are those of a business if the seller is one, and the guarantee against hidden defects alone if the seller is a private individual. The sale contract, the inspection and the payment terms are prepared with your own advisers.

Independent inspection and the records: matching numbers, FIVA card, French collection registration

An independent inspector works for whoever appoints them. Appointed by you, they have no interest in the sale or in its price.

The records are gathered before the inspection, and each document establishes something specific.

• The manufacturer’s certificate, where one exists. One Italian manufacturer issues it for its road cars over twenty years old: it traces the car’s history and verifies the origin of its components.
• Matching numbers: the car’s original chassis, engine and gearbox numbers.
• French collection registration (carte grise de collection). It is reserved for vehicles thirty years old or more, no longer in production and with unaltered technical characteristics, on certification by the manufacturer or by the French historic vehicle federation (FFVE). The entry is neither automatic nor compulsory: its absence says nothing about the car.
• The FIVA Identity Card, issued under the rules of the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens. It identifies the car without certifying its authenticity, and ceases to be valid when the car is sold.
• Invoices and the ownership history, which link these documents together.

None of these documents replaces an examination of the car, and the examination does not replace the records.

Conclusion

Each route follows its own logic. The dealer sells their own car and answers for it as a business. Consignment and the auction house sell someone else’s car, on that person’s behalf. An intermediary, whatever the title, is judged by their contract: whom they act for, and what they sign. The inspector works for you when you are the one who appoints them.

Before any offer, two questions place each party: who the seller is under the contract, and whom the person in front of you is working for.

Once the sale is complete, transporting the car to you is part of our Transport & Mobility service.