Black Book’s observations of the auction lanes from the opening week of December included an overall wholesale price drop of 0.63%, which was an increase from the previous week but “remained consistent with typical seasonal expectations.”

When looking closer at specific vehicle segments or aged units, analysts uncovered a quartet of other notable trends as last week’s auction conversion rate came in at 59%.

“We also noticed a drop in total auction inventory across the country last week,” Black Book said in its newest installment of Market Insights released on Tuesday.

“Older vehicles aged 8 to 16 years reported lower depreciation, dropping by 0.38%, compared to 2 to 8-year-old vehicles, which declined by 0.63%, and 0 to 2-year-old vehicles, which declined by 0.55%,” analysts added in the report.

Touching a couple of segments, Black Book pointed out prices for minivans declined most last week, dropping by 1.30%. That marked the most significant single week decrease for the people movers since November 2023.

Analysts also noted that “as incentives on new full-size trucks continue to rise, the used market is under pressure.” Black Book said the result last week was a 0.87% value decline for 0- to 2-year-old full-size trucks.

And other interesting nugget from Black Book when reviewing last week’s auction activity.

“In the OEM lanes, we continue to see a larger number of vehicles being brought in each week by some of the OEMs,” analysts said. “This trend has persisted for the past four months.”

What else might unfold in the wholesale market during the closing month of 2024?

“As always, our team of analysts are focused on the keeping their eyes on the market for developing trends and gathering insight,” Black Book said.