A supercar broker for celebrities says: ‘I bought cars in saunas, pools and on planes’

• Tom Hartley buys and sells antique car at his private estate and showroom in the north of England.
• He started his business on the gray market and now finds cars through wealthy owners.
• His estate offers a resort-like experience, with its own spa and cinema for visitors.

In 1992, Tom Hartley was stuck in traffic on the edge of Hyde Park in London when a vintage Bentley caught his eye. He immediately rolled down the window and struck up a conversation with the man in the back seat, who was being driven by a private chauffeur.

“I bought him a car in a traffic jam. We pulled over, he got out, I billed and we picked up the car from his address that day,” he told Insider. “And, of course, we sold it a few days later.”

This is typical for Hartley, who spends his days brokering deals supercar and classic cars, with a focus on manufacturers like Ferrari and Lamborghini. “I’ve bought cars in saunas, in swimming pools, on planes – you can’t name where I haven’t bought a car,” he said.

Hartley, now 60, runs a gallery of the same name on a 48-acre family estate in Derbyshire. He says his team sells between 40 and 50 cars a month, and his previous clients include Elton John, Rod Stewart, Nicolas Cage and Rory McIlroy. The average selling price of his cars is £250,000, or about $286,000 – but a rare Ferrari can fetch $30 million.

He shared with Insider how he got into trading and what his job entails.

He learned the art of selling are from hang out in his father’s shop

Growing up, Hartley’s father owned a carpet business, and Hartley said he spent most of his time at the store watching deals go through. He’s passionate about following in his father’s sales footsteps, and as he watches his family change cars every few months, it seems like the perfect industry to get into.

His first deal was brokering the sale of a luxury Range Rover between two of his father’s acquaintances when he was a teenager. “I made myself 150 quids on that bike, which was a lot of money back then,” he said. “By the age of 12, I had the experience of an 18-year-old.”

After selling his Range Rover, he came across what is now called Gray market, where less-used luxury goods can be traded for a higher price on the secondary market. According to Hartley’s theory, if you can find a car on demand like the Range Rover, then selling it back to a buyer who can’t find it will be an easy profit.

He began buy car from manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, mainly based in Germany, directly and import them to the UK to resell to hungry buyers.

When car brands began to crack down illegally authorized dealerhe quickly managed to buy back the supply from the car owners.

Soon after, he saw a man arriving outside a luxury hotel in London, driving a brand new Jaguar Daimler XJ40, a specific model that had hit the market just a few days earlier, and offered to buy it. it for £3,000 off the asking price. Within days, he said, he sold it to a C-suite executive who was unable to buy one from the manufacturer for £42,000, making a profit of just over 16% in a matter of days. .

Customers can only come by appointment and enjoy the resort’s high-class facilities

Hartley started mainly in supercar market, but he added vintage cars to his list after Great Depressionwhen he saw wealthy clients turning to assets rather than holding their money in cash or stocks.

“It’s an addition to what we’re doing, but we haven’t changed our buying and selling methods,” he said. “We wanted cars with great history, low mileage and really rare.” He handles all of his sales from his family’s estate in the north of England, a property he bought in 1981 as both his home and gallery.

At any given time, he said, there are 75 cars worth more than $150 million. The main difference between his assortment and regular dealers, he added, is that he stocks different brands like Mercedes and Ferrari in one place – a move aimed at his ideal customer. “Back in the 1970s, a successful man would have a car, maybe two. Nowadays a lot of buyers mix and match and can have anything from six. up to 10,” he said.

Hartley says he gets about five clients a day and only picks up by appointment. Although the car world is largely male-dominated, Hartley says about 20% of his customers are women.

Those who drop by his showroom can expect more than just a selection of unique cars: Customers can enjoy the property’s own spa and cinema, as well as a restaurant. full. Sometimes, they’re even invited to spend the night in one of the property’s four bedrooms. “I wanted to create an experience around buying a used car,” he says. There is a helipad for those traveling by air, but Hartley can also send a private chauffeur to pick someone up from a nearby private runway.

Despite going around expensive cars 24/7, he has never owned one of his own. “It’s a personal statement that I can’t stick to them,” he said. “I always say when you walk the Hartley estate, everything has a price, except for my wife.”