Miller & Miller offering new on-site auctions
When a collection is worth more than the sum of its parts
Miller & Miller’s June 14th auction of The Fairbairn Collection was held on-site at the Fairbairn’s ‘Car Barn’ in Chatham, Ontario.
When RM-Sotheby's founding partner Mike Fairbairn and his wife Wendy agreed to sell their extraordinary lifetime collection from their Chatham, Ontario ‘Car Barn’ and chose Miller & Miller Auctions to handle the sale, the results drove home some sharp realities and shattered some old misconceptions about how and where to sell a collection.
The Fairbairn’s Car Barn couldn’t help but impress auction bidders with its period-decorated streetscape that included a gas station, pharmacy, post office, barbershop, pub, and an indoor parking lot that housed some of the best and rarest collector cars and motorbikes all under one roof. At Miller & Miller’s recommendation, the Fairbairn’s personal 45-year collection was sold on site, in place at the Car Barn on June 14, 2025 at the Cars, Automobilia, Motorbikes & Advertising auction.
The total value sold (including buyer’s premium) was close to CA$1.4 million, which exceeded the pre-sale estimate by more than CA$475,000. And 97 per cent of the lots were sold.
A glimpse inside the Fairbairn’s ‘Car Barn’
Mike Fairbairn was a partner in RM Auctions for over four decades, which became the largest collector car auction house in the world, earning eight ‘Best in Show’ wins at the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance in California. Their North American division alone generated more than $100 million in annual sales. In 2015 RM sold a minority share to Sotheby’s and the new business became RM Sotheby’s with 80 offices in 40 countries.
Miller & Miller convinced the Fairbairns there were definite advantages in selling their large, prestigious collection in place (meaning at the ‘Car Barn’, as displayed). It would help to capitalize on the Fairbairn’s reputation and name recognition and instill confidence in potential buyers who would then tend to spend more. During the previews and on the day of the sale bidders were clearly thrilled to experience the collection as a whole, in its original setting, and come away ‘with a piece’ of the renowned Fairbairn collection.
Take a walk around the Fairbairn’s ‘Car Barn’ the day before the on-site auction.
“The old practice of speculating where buyers might be and moving segments of a collection to those locations is 1980s thinking,” says Ethan Miller, co-owner of Miller & Miller Auctions. “Moving a collection in part, or in whole, is also incredibly expensive. Selling a collection in place makes good economic sense for the consignor and it invites the same potential bidders who appreciate seeing it all in place. Only after the sale when winning bidders require shipping do transportation costs come into play. In some cases savings can easily amount to tens-of-thousands of dollars for the consignor.”
And yet, it’s still all too easy to underestimate the value of experiencing a high-quality collection that has been lovingly put together over so many years, all in one place and where items are often grouped to show how they’re related. Seeing those individual pieces out of context simply doesn’t have the same allure, or summon the same enthusiasm. Seeing a collection in place can be impressive and requires zero imagination.
Compare the two images above. The on-site photo (left) captures the sign's full impact and appeal, while the standalone image (right) offers little context for understanding its true grandeur.
For example, the Fairbairn’s post office, built into its own room, was estimated at CA$3,500 to $5,000, yet it sold for $15,000. “Seeing how things were displayed in that post office took you back to another place and time. If the same façade of pigeon holes was leaning against a wall somewhere else out of context, it might realize a fraction of what it sold for,” argues Ethan Miller. “Had the Fairbairn village been dismantled prior to the sale and each item sold in isolation, it would have been criminal because the whole of the Fairbairn collection was worth far more than the sum of its parts.”
The Fairbairn’s post office was estimated at CA$3,500 to $5,000, yet it sold for $15,000 at the on-site auction.
With the strong U.S. market and the high value of the American dollar, some people also wondered why the Fairbairns didn’t sell their collection in the U.S. But that way of thinking is clearly rooted in a different time and very different circumstances.
“It’s a myth that you miss out on the American market if you sell in Canada,” says Justin Miller, Miller & Miller’s other co-owner. “It’s no longer about who’s sitting on the auction floor on a particular day and where,” he adds. “The world is the auction floor now. True, the U.S. dollar is currently worth a lot more than the Canadian dollar, which gives American bidders added incentive and an extra kick of confidence, but at the end of the day high-value items go to the highest bidder, no matter where they are or what currency they’re using.”
Interestingly, of the seven cars sold at the Fairbairn auction, 100 per cent were sold to buyers in Canada, including a 1973 Pontiac Trans Am SD, which commanded CA$341,000 (including buyer’s premium) – coming close to a world record. Of the non-motorbike/non-car items, 74 per cent were also sold in Canada. Only 15 per cent of the total sale value went to U.S. buyers.
For collections like the Fairbairn’s, Miller & Miller Auctions is excited to now offer a new service for large, high-quality, qualifying collections worth in the $1-million-plus range. An on-site auction where the collection is sold in place is advantageous for a variety of eligible collections, including vehicles, automobilia, gas pumps, neon signs and larger fixtures.
“This kind of auction is not new to the auction industry, but it is definitely new to Miller & Miller,” says Ethan Miller. “We’ll of course still be offering our single-segment calendar sales, which have proven to be very successful. This new service is just another option and under the right circumstances will provide so many benefits to collectors like the Fairbairns when bringing large and important collections to market.”
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
Watch a recap of the Fairbairn sale:
Did you enjoy this story? Feel free to share it using the links below: