For any car fanatics out there, the name Supercar Blondie will have been on your radar for some time. But for those unfamiliar with the name, Supercar Blondie, aka Alex Hirschi, is one of the world’s leading automotive entertainers, and has scaled the Supercar Blondie brand into a global media franchise. And on April 2, 2024, they are officially launching SBX Cars, a digital auction platform with several world first exclusives, including the world’s first Mercedes-AMG One and Hyperion XP-1 prototype at a public auction.
With over 100 million followers to date and growing, the varied channels of Supercar Blondie upload informative videos and articles on the rarest of automotive technology, luxury and speed.
No stranger to Esquire Middle East, Alex Hirschi gave us the exclusive scoop on SBX Cars, and her growing car/media empire.
Esquire: Tell us about SBX Cars.
Alex Hirschi: It’s a digital, global auction platform, strictly for high-end cars. During my travels over the last few years, I’ve developed a network of people from all around the world, and I realised there was no one place for all these people to get in touch to buy/sell collectible cars around the world. They would rely on private brokers to hopefully find buyers/sellers, and it was really difficult to find. So we’ve created a platform that connects buyers/sellers from all over the world, and this is the first time this is happening.
Esquire: There must be similar online auction platforms for cars. What separates you?
AH: These platforms only cater to one market: America, or Europe. There’s no cross border. So because of our audience and reach, it only made sense to make this a global platform. We have cars from Asia, Middle East, Europe and the Americas, and this is the first time that collectors from around the world can finally see what’s available for them to buy. The other major difference between us and other digital auction platforms is that we will only focus on the high-end. Others do indeed do incredibly well, but they do everything, and are focused on volume. We are only focusing on the premium with top of the line customer service, which means we will be rivaling the major auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
Esquire: How has the response been leading up to the launch?
AH: Surprisingly overwhelmingly good. Now we have over 110 million dollars (AED 400 million) worth of consigned cars pre-launch, and none of these people have even seen the platform yet. So we’re getting all of these cars simply based on our brand, what we’ve built, and that people trust our brand so much.
Esquire: And you’ve kept this a complete secret aside from a few outlets, correct?
AH: Nobody except a few sellers and the media knows about SBX, and we’re revealing everything on April 2, including launch of the site and posting it on our social platforms. As we hit over 2 billion views per month, we’re aiming to leverage our media platform to get eyeballs on these cars.
Esquire: Launching everything all at once must add quite a bit of pressure.
AH: Absolutely. As soon as we post, we’ll have millions of views within minutes so we really can’t afford for anything to go wrong, so everything needs to be perfect before launch. You can only launch once.
Esquire: As it is a digital auction house, is there any one warehouse, or is it all around the world?
AH: One of the perks of it being a digital auction is we have consignments from people in Europe, Middle East, Asia, the Americas, and they will keep their cars where they are. In house auctions forces the seller to send their car to wherever the auction is being held. Which means a lot of risk: insurance, placing it under someone else’s supervision, additional costs. But with us, the seller keeps the car with them. We cover the car extensively online, so the potential buyer knows exactly what they’re getting. But if they’d like to see the car in person that can obviously be arranged as well, where the seller can host at their residence, or remain anonymous where the car will thereby be brought to a separate location instead. And the main takeaway from this is that the seller takes zero risk with their car.
Esquire: You’re really deleting a massive problem luxury sellers have undoubtedly had for years.
AH: Another issue is that when you’re selling with a big name like Sotheby’s, you have to wait for their next big auction, which can take months, even if you’re ready to sell. But with us, you can immediately apply to get your car sold, and the listing can be live within weeks. So the speed and turnaround is a lot better.
Esquire: What are the costs?
AH: For the seller, it’s just a few hundred bucks that covers admin fees, photography costs, our team writing up the description. And for the buyer its 5% commission. Comparatively, that is very low, whereas other auction houses can have between 15 to 20% between the buyer and seller.
Esquire: Have you faced any pushback for it all being online?
AH: You would think that, but over the years it’s been proven that people do, in fact, buy luxury cars online without the need of seeing them in person.
Esquire: And how do you feel ahead of this monumental launch?
AH: If it’s as successful as we hope and think it will be, then it will change the way people buy and sell not just cars, but everything across the world. I started as a content creator with my husband running around the world reviewing cars, and now we’ve turned it into this multi-country media business. My goal is to create a sustainable business and brands that will be around long after I’m gone. I’m hoping SBX will be among the Sotheby’s and the Christie’s.
