What 1990s Pebble Beach Auction Results Teach Us Today

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One of the fun and fascinating things about tracking car auctions is how prices change (and sometimes don’t change) over time. Occasionally we’ll come across multiple auction results for the same car, providing a clearer view of how much a particular model has moved. For example, a Ferrari Enzo that sold in Monterey nine years ago for nearly $3M showed up again in 2026, when it brought $12.1M. Go back far enough and you begin to get some real perspective on the market.

For instance, a Maserati Birdcage sold at the Monterey auctions this year for $4.24M. A look through Hagerty’s transaction database of auction results going back decades also revealed that the same car sold in Monterey nearly 30 years ago, and for a fraction of the price it brought in 2026. This sent me down a rabbit hole looking at results for several Pebble Beach auctions put on by Christie’s (now Gooding Christie’s) from the late ’90s.

There were good cars at these sales, really good cars. Blue-chip classics, historic Ferrari race cars, celebrity-owned sports cars, and many of them sold for prices that would seem ludicrously low today, even after adjusting for inflation. Lest we think that all car prices have gone crazy over the past two-plus decades, some stuff also sold for similar or lower inflation-adjusted money than they would now. Below are the ones that surprised me the most, including the ones that appreciated and the ones that didn’t.

1959 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage

Christie’s

Gooding Christie’s

Sold for $937,500 in 1998

Maserati barely built 20 examples of the Tipo 60/Tipo 61 “Birdcage,” so named because of its intricate and partially exposed spaceframe made of thin-diameter tubes. The first of the Tipo 61 Birdcages, chassis 2452, boasted lots of great period West Coast race history when sold at Pebble Beach in 1998 for $937,500 (about $1.9M adjusted for inflation). Twenty-eight years later, it had been returned to its original white-and-blue colors and sold in Pebble Beach again for $4.24M, a record for the model.

Frank Sinatra’s Ghibli

Christie’s

Brian Bossert/Barrett-Jackson

Sold for $43,700 in 1999

Frank Sinatra, along with pretty much everybody in the Rat Pack, drove cool cars, and the legendary crooner owned such rarities as a Dual-Ghia and a Lamborghini Miura. In the early ’70s, he picked up this Maserati, and according to a later auction listing, sold it a few years later to actor George Hamilton, who then sold it to Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. Old Blue Eyes’ Silver Ghibli sold at auction in 1999 for $43,700 ($87K adjusted for inflation), then failed to meet reserve at a $38K high bid in Scottsdale the following year.

For a standard, 4.7-liter Ghibli coupe like this the condition #2 value is currently $185,000, but celebrity cachet can count for a lot and when the Sinatra car showed up at Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas (the perfect city to sell it) in 2021, it sold for $330,000.

Christie’s

Sold for $32,200 in 1998

The 3500 GT was the first serious attempt at a series-produced model for Maserati, a company that had traditionally put racing at the top of its priorities. A little over 2200 coupes and convertibles were built from 1957 to 1964. When this one sold in 1998 for $32,200 ($65,800 adjusted for inflation), it was described as being a little rough around the edges but, as a Southern California car from new, would be prized for its originality today. It went back to Monterey in 2001 and sold for even less at $16,450. Today, the model carries a $155K condition #3 value and an $89,000 condition #4 value.

Jaguar D-Type and XKSS

Christie’s

Christie’s

Both sold for $1,014,500 (D-Type in 1997, XKSS in 1998)

Jaguar famously won Le Mans three times from 1955–57 with the swoopy, slippery D-Type. Almost as famously, Jaguar also turned the D-Type into a road car called the XKSS, slapping on a windshield and bumpers before calling it a day. Production totaled 71 D-Types and 16 XKSSs, so they’re rare and worth seven or eight figures depending on history.

One all-original and never-raced D-Type, XKD 537, sold in Pebble Beach in 1997 for $1,014,500. In 2026 dollars that would be about $2.1M. Again, values vary based on history, but $2.1M is still well below the model’s condition #4 (fair) value of $2.5M in our price guide.

An XKSS, meanwhile, sold at Pebble Beach the following year for the same $1,014,500 price, and was likewise an unrestored car and undriven since 1967. It would be a headline-making discovery today, and the model’s condition #4 value is currently $5.1M, while the condition #1 (concours) and #2 (excellent) values cross the eight-figure mark.

1965 Shelby Cobra 427 and 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C

Christie’s

Christie’s

Sold for $222,500 (1997) and $420,500 (1999), respectively

Cobra values also vary widely, with equipment, originality, and history making big differences. The 427-powered cars are generally the most valuable, though there is some variation there as well. One 427-powered car (CSX 3119) sold in 1997 for $222,500 ($462K adjusted for inflation). Bought new by a pro golfer, it was restored in the ’80s and would have somewhere around a $1.4M (condition #3) or $2.1M (condition #2) value in our price guide.

Another big-block Cobra (CSX 3036), sold for $420,500 ($840K adjusted for inflation) at Pebble Beach in 1999, is one of the famous S/C (“Semi-Competition”) models, which were essentially detuned race cars sold for the street. Shelby American built just 29 of them, and CSX 3036 popped up again two years ago in Monterey, where it sold for $3.03M.

1967 Ford GT40 MK III

Christie’s

Sold for $310,500 in 1997

The GT40 was always meant to be a race car, but a few brave souls drove one on the street, and the Mk III version was explicitly a road model, with a few concessions like raised headlights and softer suspension. But a GT40 is still a GT40, and even though this one sold for $310,500 ($645K adjusted for inflation) in 1997, it would be worth millions today. The closest recent comparable sale is a 1966 Mk I road car, which sold for over $7M last year.

Two 1957 Ford Thunderbirds and a ’63

Christie’s

Christie’s

Christie’s

Sold for $35,650 (1998), $74,000 (1999), and $34,500 (1998), respectively

One market that hasn’t moved very much at all is the one for vintage T-Birds. In our price guide, the median #2 value for the original 1955–57 “Baby Birds” is barely different from where it was 20 years ago, and that’s in pure dollar terms, before adjusting for inflation. Turning back the clock even further doesn’t make things look much different, either. One ’57 Thunderbird, boasting two owners from new, sold at Pebble Beach in 1998 for $35,650 ($72,800 adjusted for inflation). Today, the car has a #3 value of $29,600 and a #2 value of $51,000 in our price guide.

Another ’57 T-Bird sold in 1999 for $74,000 ($147K adjusted for inflation). Fitted with the desirable supercharged 312-cid/300-hp “F-Code” engine, it would have a price guide value today in the mid-$100K range depending on condition.

One more T-Bird sold in 1998, this one a ’63 model in the desirable Sports Roadster body style, brought $34,500 ($70K adjusted for inflation). Today its #2 value would be $44,800, and its #3 value would be $65,800.

Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing and Roadster

Christie’s

Christie’s

Sold for $244,500 and $156,500, respectively, in 1997

Mercedes 300SLs are unusual classic cars in that production numbered in the thousands, but they’re so highly prized that price tags run past $1M. Not so in the ’90s. At Pebble Beach in ’97, a fully restored 1956 Gullwing brought $244,500 ($508K adjusted for inflation), and a 1960 Roadster brought $156,500 ($325K adjusted for inflation). Today, if both cars were in #2 condition, they’d be worth roughly $1.7M and $1.5M, respectively.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SL

Christie’s

Darin Schnabel/RM Sotheby’s

Sold for $83,900 in 1999

When it came to auction in 1999, this late Pagoda SL had 3900 miles on the odometer, which was impressive even then. It sold for $83,900 ($167K adjusted for inflation), against a $35,000–$55,000 presale estimate. Twenty-six years later, it came to Monterey again and sold for the very similar sum of $89,600, not far off the model’s condition #3 value of $82,000.

1953 Ferrari 212 Inter by Pinin Farina

Christie’s

Broad Arrow

Sold for $288,500 in 1998

Director Roberto Rossellini gave this Ferrari, which he reportedly referred to as a “growling baby,” to his wife Ingrid Bergman as a late wedding present. The marriage didn’t last, and the car wound up in California, eventually receiving a restoration and a color change from black with a gray roof to a more traditional bright red. It sold in Pebble Beach for $288,500 ($590K adjusted for inflation), but was restored again in the 2000s to its original colors, and Broad Arrow sold it in Switzerland last year for CHF 816,250 (a little over $1M).

1967 Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spyder

Christie’s

Sold for $2,092,500 in 1998

New York car dealer and North American Racing Team (NART) owner Luigi Chinetti pushed Ferrari to make an open version of the 275 GTB coupe, and he got his wish, but only 10 cars were completed in the end. Chinetti imported and sold them, each fitted with a NART badge on the tail.

Restored in the 1990s, this one sold for $2,092,500 back in 1998. Obviously, $2.1M is a ton of money today, and it was a ton of money 28 years ago (nearly $4.3M when adjusted for inflation), but real-deal NART Spyders are currently worth over $20M in our price guide, and the last confirmed public price paid for one was back in 2013, at $27.5M.