SBX Cars Has a New CEO, and He Talks Collector-Car Trends With Us

What’s your next step if you already have more than 120 million followers on social media and automotive content that receives more than 2 billion views per month? Well, if your Alex Hirschi, better known to the world as Supercar Blondie and named one of Robb Report’s top innovators last year, you use such a global presence as a springboard for launching an online auction platform for the most rarefied automobiles. Alex and her husband, Nik, debuted SBX Cars this past April, and have now given Robb Report the exclusive in announcing its new CEO, industry veteran Rogelio Choy (pictured above).

“We needed someone with both the expertise and industry knowledge to complement our strengths,” says Nik Hirschi, cofounder and CEO of the Supercar Blondie Group. “While Alex and our team bring exceptional marketing and audience-building experience, scaling this business requires a leader who understands the complexities of automotive commerce.”

No stranger to the digital marketplace for automobiles, Choy was formerly the CEO for Cars & Bids, the brainchild of another car-culture personality and YouTube sensation, Doug DeMuro. Yet while Cars & Bids covers a swath of vehicles at an array of price points, and primarily serves as a gateway for aspirational enthusiasts located stateside, SBX Cars has its sights set on a narrower demographic but broader geographic reach.

“I have an enormous amount of respect for Doug and the Cars & Bids team, and, honestly, I was really honored to be a small part of their success,” Choy tells Robb Report. “That said, I think SBX has a really different focus and goal.” That mission statement is to be the broker for blue-chip collectibles, supercars, hypercars, and even concepts, while drawing from an international pool of buyers and sellers.

The move for Choy, who did his undergraduate studies at Duke before receiving his MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, fits right in his wheelhouse. “I realized I really loved start-ups, frankly, the start-ups in industries that were about to do something,” says Choy, who mentions that the key to success for any commerce start-up is price, liquidity, and trust. With a love of automobiles passed down from his father, Choy sees the collector-car segment in a challenging but healthy state of play at the moment.

“From my perspective, there’s clearly a pretty sizable shift happening in the market, with younger collectors in the space driving overall demand,” says Choy. “So you’re seeing really good support and pricing for later-model cars, but given that shift, you’re seeing a direct impact on older-generation cars. When you look at cars from the 1960s to ‘80s, especially vehicles of questionable history, we’re seeing a lot of drop in value.”

As an example, Choy cites the 1960s-era Lamborghini 400 GT, which he notes “has fallen nearly 20 percent in value over last year, and is now at its lowest point in three years.” But these classics are also victims of the moment. “High inflation, high interest rates . . . that’s really dampened the collector market in terms of demand for cars,” he explains. “I expect a big upswing in demand as the economy improves. I think the long-term interest in collector cars will continue to grow, there’s no doubt about that. All that being said, the paradigm shift we’ve seen in terms of the demographics of the collector is clearly here to stay.”  

As evidence of the popularity in later-model exotics, specifically available through SBX Cars, a 2024 AVG Batmobile sold for $270,000, a 2024 Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica fetched $320,000, and a 2015 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster sold privately through the site for $6 million. Others that have been acquired for an undisclosed sum include a 2020 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster, a 1998 Aston Martin V8 Sportsman Shooting Brake, and a 2023 Koenigsegg Jesko. Of course, older icons are also represented, such as the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” Coupe that SBX recently represented.

When asked if the online-auction house’s trajectory is what he expected, Hirschi responds, “We started with a huge splash—launching with over $100 million worth of cars on the platform . . . but we knew getting cars sold would be the real test. Along the way, we’ve refined our team . . . and that’s slowed us down a bit from our early projections, but it’s been worth it.” As for what excites him most moving forward, Hirschi mentions “partnering with iconic car events and creators worldwide . . . building a really strong SBX community.”

Not surprisingly, Choy is on the same page. “The one thing that makes us absolutely different than other sites is that ability to give our sellers access to the largest auto-enthusiast audience in the world,” he says. “That’s really where I want to continue to invest—the intersection of that audience with our platform.”