He holds two fingers up to his own camera in the middle of a packed auction hall, a stage glowing red and blue behind him, as a “2” pops up on screen. Two seconds later the on screen words read “On a car.” and “$20 million.”

The 16 second reel was posted on September 12, 2026, by @dorinsima03, who films it from his seat with a banner across the top of every frame reading “Bro Just Opened the Bid at $20 Million!” and a caption that repeats the shock: “$20M OPENING BID ON A CAR?!”

In the opening seconds he talks straight into the lens, the words “we start?” and “20” popping up beside his face, then “like this?” as he turns away toward the rows in front. The camera swings across a crowd of hundreds seated facing the stage. The captions keep coming in short bursts: “everyone’s shocked,” “Sorry?,” “$20 million,” “Thank you.” The figure appears on screen again and again, as “20,” “20 million” and “$20 million,” and the last word before the edit cuts away is “opening.”

The final three seconds freeze into black and white on a man seated in the crowd, staring ahead with a straight face while a skull emoji floats beside him. That is where the reel ends. It never shows the car on the stage, never names the auction house or the lot, and never reaches the fall of the hammer.

Where a $20 Million Opening Fits in the Collector Market

An opening call at that level sits at the very top of the collector car market. RM Sotheby’s own summary of its Monterey Auction 2026 lists two cars that finished above $20 million: a 2026 Ferrari Luce ‘Tailor Made’ charity lot at $40,000,000 and a 1996 McLaren F1 GTR at $34,655,000. The next highest result on that list, a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, sold for $18,705,000. The reel itself does not show which sale it was filmed at, so these figures show the scale of the market rather than the outcome in this room.

Why the Bid You Hear Is Not the Price You Pay

The number shouted in the hall is the hammer price, and the winning bidder pays more than that. For its Monterey sale, held August 13 to 15, 2026, at the Portola Hotel and Monterey Conference Center, RM Sotheby’s published terms set a buyer’s premium on motor cars of 12 percent on the first $250,000 of the hammer price and 10 percent on everything above that.

As a worked example, a $31.5 million hammer price under those terms carries $30,000 on the first $250,000, plus $3,125,000 on the remaining $31.25 million, for a total of $34,655,000. That is the figure RM Sotheby’s lists for the McLaren F1 GTR. It shows how a hammer price turns into a headline price; the reel does not show which sale it was filmed at.

If You Plan to Bid at a Collector Car Auction

Most buyers will never see a $20 million opening, but the same rules apply at every level of a live sale. Using RM Sotheby’s Monterey terms as a worked example:

• Register before the sale. RM’s Monterey page lists a bidder registration fee of up to $400 for bidding on site, a minimum age of 18, a valid government photo ID and a copy of a credit card, and says the house may ask for a bank letter or other financial documents.
• Expect a hold on your card. The same page lists a $5,000 credit card hold, released if the buyer pays in full by 5 p.m. on the next business day after the auction.
• Set your ceiling as a total, not a hammer number. Work the buyer’s premium into your limit before you raise a hand, using the house’s own percentages for that sale and that category.
• Check the category. RM’s Monterey terms charge 20 percent on non motor car lots such as memorabilia, motorcycles and parts, so the premium on a bike or a sign is double the rate on a car.
• Keep the paperwork. Hold on to your registration confirmation and the sale terms for that auction, since premiums and payment deadlines differ from one sale to the next.