If you're a Porsche fan, I'd make sure you've got Saturday 8th August at 9am EST in the diary.

Car & Classic's Collector's Edition Auction: For The Love Of Porsche comes to an end then, and after spending far longer than I'd like to admit scrolling through the catalogue, I'd say they're making a serious play to become one of the homes for buying and selling Porsches in Europe and the UK.

What I particularly like is they didn't just upload the cars to the website and hope for the best. Instead, they took the entire collection to Megaphonics this past weekend, Europe's largest Porsche event, putting the cars in front of exactly the audience you'd want before the auctions entered their final week.

Unfortunately, it was a flight a little too far for me... Thankfully, Chris Harris made the trip. So rather than me pretending I was there, if you'd like a proper walkaround of the collection, there's probably nobody better to show you around than Chris.

Now the attention turns to the bidding.

There are 24 Porsches in the catalogue and there's something here for just about everyone. Early 356s, long-hood 911s, a 996 GT2, 930 Turbos, a brand-new 992.2 GT3, race cars, backdates, a Safari build, cabriolets, projects and, because every Porsche event seems to have one... even a Porsche tractor.

What I also like is that it isn't just made up of six-figure garage queens. There are cars across a huge range of budgets, which makes it a genuinely enjoyable catalogue to browse whether you're looking to spend £5,000 or £500,000.

I know quite a few of our readers aren't based in the UK, so if one of these Porsches starts calling your name, you'd better get our free Import Calculator out before bidding. It'll give you an estimated landed cost, including shipping, import duty and the other fees involved, so you know exactly what your favourite Porsche is likely to cost before you raise your paddle... or in this case, click the bid button.

A few weeks ago I wrote about three new auction platforms that were getting ready to launch. Well, one of them has now gone live and, if I'm honest, it's probably the one I'm most fascinated to watch over the coming weeks and months.

Not necessarily because of the cars, although the first three are certainly interesting, but because they're trying something completely different.

For years we've all become used to the same auction format. The price starts low, bidding gradually builds and, more often than not, everyone waits until the closing minutes before making their move.

Dutch Auto Auctions has turned that idea on its head. Instead of the price going up, it comes down.

The auction starts at a higher price and gradually drops until somebody decides, "That's the number I'm happy to pay," clicks buy and the auction is over.

I have absolutely no idea how buyers are going to behave, and that's exactly why I'm so interested. Do you jump in straight away because you know it's a fair price and don't want to lose the car? Or do you keep waiting, hoping the price drops a little further while knowing somebody else could come along and snatch it from you at any moment? It's a completely different way of thinking and, because none of us really knows how it'll play out yet, I actually think it adds another level of excitement.

They've clearly put a huge amount of work into getting the platform live, and I genuinely wish them all the best. Starting an auction platform today isn't easy. Buyers already have their favourite places to browse, sellers have plenty of choice and building trust takes time. Whether this format becomes a genuine alternative to the traditional online auction is something I'll be watching very closely.

The first three cars are going live today, assuming none of them have already been snapped up by the time you read this. There's a 2019 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S PDK with just 25,000 miles, a one-owner 1995 Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer showing 50,000 miles, and a 1974 BMW Bavaria with the desirable M30 engine and five-speed manual.

And that's just the start!!

Looking through what's already lined up for August, it's clear they aren't thinking one auction at a time. They've already got an impressive pipeline waiting in the wings, including a 23,000-mile original-paint 1973 Porsche 911T Targa, a 16,000-mile BMW Z4 M Coupe, a 20,000-mile Buick Grand National, an 8,000-mile DeLorean DMC-12, a Lancia Delta Integrale, a Camel Trophy-style Defender 110, a K-Code Mustang Fastback, a Facel Comète Monte Carlo, a Land Rover Defender 90 NAS, and plenty more. It's a surprisingly diverse catalogue for a brand-new platform.

One thing's for sure, they've already achieved something that isn't easy in this industry. They've got me checking back to see what's happened next, and that's exactly what any new auction platform wants. I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing whether buyers embrace this different way of buying cars, or whether we'll all discover that we're more conditioned to traditional auctions than we thought.