How to bid in an overseas classic car auction from India, step by step

The short answer: you register with the auction house before the sale, hand over a passport and proof of funds, accept a hold on your credit card, bid in person or by phone or online, and then wire the full amount almost immediately. Nothing about the process blocks an Indian resident. The two things that catch people out are the speed of payment and the rules on sending money abroad.

Take RM Sotheby's London sale held on 31 October to 1 November 2026 as a worked example. The house charges a £150 registration fee for its London auctions and places a £5,000 credit card hold from registration until the auction closes. Buyer's premium is 15 per cent plus VAT on the premium up to a £200,000 hammer price, and 12.5 per cent plus VAT above that. Payment is due in full by 5pm US Eastern time on the next business day, by wire transfer unless something else is agreed in advance. Cars not removed by the stated deadline attract storage of up to £100 plus VAT per lot per day.

What registration asks of you

RM Sotheby's lets you register to bid in person, as an absentee bid, by telephone or over the internet. It asks for your date of birth and valid photo identification, a driving licence, passport or ID card, and proof of funds, which can be a bank letter of reference, a bank statement or proof of current account balances. Bidders must be over 18. For an Indian bidder that means getting a bank reference letter in English, in the bank's name, well before the sale, because proof of funds requests from a new overseas client are rarely approved in a day.

Read the fee page of the exact sale, not a general guide. Bonhams Cars charged 15 per cent on the first £500,000 of the hammer price and 12 per cent on the balance for motor cars at its Golden Age of Motoring Sale on 30 October 2026, and automobilia went up to 28 per cent on the first £40,000. Bonhams also adds a third party bidding platform fee of 4 per cent plus VAT if you bid through Invaluable, Live Auctioneers, The Saleroom or Lot-tissimo. Bidding on the house's own platform avoids that.

Getting the money out of India

A resident individual may remit up to USD 2,50,000 per financial year, April to March, under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme. PAN is mandatory for all LRS transactions through authorised persons, the bank is guided by the purpose you declare in Form A2, and for capital account transactions the applicant should have held the bank account with that bank for at least one year before the remittance.

Budget for tax collected at source as well. From 1 April 2025 the TCS threshold under section 206C(1G) rose to ₹10 lakh, and remittances for purposes other than education and medical treatment attract 20 per cent TCS above that threshold. On a ₹50 lakh car that is cash you have to fund up front, even though it is a tax credit and not a cost.

Four things to settle before you raise a hand

One, confirm with your bank in writing that it will process an LRS wire of that size within one working day, with the auction invoice as support. Two, set your ceiling as hammer plus premium plus VAT on premium plus freight, not hammer alone. Three, arrange storage or transport from the sale venue before you bid, because daily storage starts quickly. Four, settle the import question first. India's rules on bringing in an old car do not pause while your payment deadline runs, so if the car is meant to come home, confirm the route before you register, not after you win.

Sources

• RM Sotheby's, The London Auction 2026
• RM Sotheby's, Register to Bid
• Bonhams Cars, The Golden Age of Motoring Sale
• Reserve Bank of India, FAQs on the Liberalised Remittance Scheme
• TaxGuru, TCS on Foreign Remittance Under Liberalised Remittance Scheme