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Korean Auction Houses in 2026: What's Actually Trading, and at What Price

LMN Team·
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What Sells, and What Actually Clears

Three months ago we ranked the most popular auction cars by sales volume. This time we are asking a sharper question: not just what sells, but what is genuinely liquid — cars that both list often and sell fast. Those are the units you can source repeatably and turn without holding cost.

Two things are new. K Car Auction is included, so all five major houses are in one view. And we track three numbers instead of one.

How to read "trading activity"

Volume alone misleads. A car can top the sold list simply because a lot of it gets listed, even if half never clears. So:

  • Listed — how much shows up (supply, and how easy it is to source)
  • Sold — how much actually clears (demand)
  • Sold rate — the share that sells (liquidity)

Put supply against liquidity and every model falls into one of four buckets:

High sold rateLow sold rate
High listedCore buys — plenty of supply, sells fast⚠️ Overstocked — listing a lot, not clearing
Low listed🔥 Scarce & hot — grab on sight💤 Niche — thin both ways

One caution: sold rates differ structurally between houses (Glovis 43.7%, SK 58.8%), so a model should be judged against its own house's median, not across houses.

Market-wide snapshot

HouseListedSoldSold rateAvg sold price
Hyundai Glovis17,3037,57043.7%$7,548
AJ Autohub6,7853,18046.9%$7,466
Lotte Auto5,2552,54648.4%$11,267
K Car5,2392,91055.5%$5,235
SK Auction4,0202,36258.8%$11,477

Three distinct business models are visible in one table. Glovis is the supply engine — 17,303 lots, more than the other four combined, at the lowest clearance rate. SK is the opposite: the smallest catalogue, the highest clearance, and the highest average price. K Car is the budget end at $5,235 average, less than half of SK or Lotte.

The tension is real. Glovis gives you the most to choose from and the least certainty a given lot will trade; SK gives you the least choice and the most certainty.

Hyundai Glovis — the supply engine

RankModelListedSoldSold rateAvg priceTypical rangevs Mar
1Grandeur1,12450845.2%$7,135$2,097–$12,579+44%
2Avante95447349.6%$3,449$1,555–$6,729+58%
3Sonata82038346.7%$4,240$1,792–$7,777+61%
4Carnival1,09235732.7%$11,835$6,492–$15,961+90%
5Morning67235352.5%$2,063$1,258–$4,700+52%
6Sorento79531940.1%$9,434$3,388–$14,202+73%
7Santa Fe81329135.8%$5,958$3,145–$11,565+52%
8Ray55127850.5%$4,193$2,367–$6,188+87%

Read the "vs Mar" column against the house, not the model. Glovis sold volume is up 48% since March (5,107 → 7,570), so almost every model shows a gain. What matters is which models beat that baseline and which lag it.

Notable

  • Largest supply of any house by a wide margin — 17,303 lots listed against 6,785 at the next-largest. If a model exists in Korea, it is here.
  • Glovis has absorbed most of the market's growth this quarter — +48% sold volume while AJ fell 20%. Models below +48% (Grandeur +44%) are losing share within a growing house.
  • ⚠️ Carnival is the standout overstock signal. 1,092 listed but only 32.7% clearing — the lowest rate in the table, on the second-highest supply. Plenty of sellers, not enough buyers at asking levels.
  • ⚠️ Santa Fe (35.8%) and Sorento (40.1%) show the same pattern more mildly. Mid-size SUVs are the soft spot at Glovis right now.
  • ⭐ Avante and Morning are the core buys — high supply, above-house-median clearance, and the cheapest entry points in the table.

AJ Autohub — the commercial-vehicle house

RankModelListedSoldSold rateAvg priceTypical rangevs Mar
1Grandeur45519643.1%$7,372$3,043–$12,343-14%
2Sorento34717249.6%$6,087$3,483–$10,686+20%
3Santa Fe33916047.2%$6,695$3,415–$12,038-8%
4Porter II23514662.1%$4,869$2,908–$8,927+92%
5Carnival32914644.4%$10,753$5,208–$13,256-6%
6Sportage30113745.5%$3,584$2,570–$6,323-25%
7Avante32613742.0%$4,058$1,725–$6,898-14%
8Sonata22911248.9%$5,715$2,570–$8,826-41%

Notable

  • 🔥 Porter II at 62.1% is the highest clearance in AJ's top eight, and it is a commercial 1-ton truck. Volume nearly doubled since March.
  • AJ remains the place for working vehicles — Porter II at #4 has no equivalent in any other house's top eight.
  • Grandeur leads on volume here as it does everywhere, but at 43.1% it is one of AJ's weaker clearers.

SK Auction — newest inventory, highest liquidity

RankModelListedSoldSold rateAvg priceTypical rangevs Mar
1Avante63440864.4%$8,386$7,135–$9,671+73%
2Grandeur34118955.4%$12,748$10,956–$14,946+7%
3Sonata28117060.5%$8,454$7,034–$11,903+6%
4Casper16412777.4%$6,594$5,816–$7,270+72%
5Ioniq 516012578.1%$17,280$15,521–$18,193+150%
6K317612068.2%$7,575$6,087–$8,927-3%
7Morning13610375.7%$7,507$6,121–$8,116+51%
8G801218570.2%$18,531$16,400–$20,661-20%

Notable

  • Highest clearance of any house at 58.8%, and it shows across the table: five of eight models clear above 64%.
  • 🔥 Ioniq 5 at 78.1% is the single most liquid model in this entire report, and volume has more than doubled since March. Casper is right behind at 77.4%.
  • SK has taken the electrified crown from Lotte — see below.
  • Highest average price at $11,477, reflecting newer lease-return stock.

Lotte Auto — the Genesis house

RankModelListedSoldSold rateAvg priceTypical rangevs Mar
1Grandeur47623749.8%$10,922$9,265–$13,560+26%
2Avante35519354.4%$7,372$6,154–$8,454-3%
3Carnival35117750.4%$12,140$10,212–$14,879+44%
4G8029013546.6%$18,598$15,386–$21,202+38%
5Morning25412549.2%$2,840$2,469–$4,531+45%
6Ray16610362.0%$4,328$3,720–$5,985+3%
7K519110052.4%$9,536$7,744–$10,990+8%
8Santa Fe2249341.5%$10,516$9,130–$12,816+8%

Notable

  • Genesis concentration is the highest of any house at 9.2% of sold volume, with G80 at #4 and a $18,600 average — the most expensive high-volume model in the report.
  • ⚠️ Santa Fe at 41.5% is Lotte's weakest clearer.
  • Lotte was "the electrified house" in March. It no longer is — no EV or hybrid appears in its top eight.

K Car — new this issue

RankModelListedSoldSold rateAvg priceTypical rangevs Mar
1Avante35122062.7%$1,555$1,353–$2,976-6%
2Grandeur38520252.5%$2,063$1,522–$7,169+9%
3Sonata26316562.7%$2,029$1,420–$4,903-20%
4Morning20014572.5%$1,488$1,116–$2,029-5%
5Sorento26112246.7%$4,362$2,536–$11,565-1%
6Santa Fe23412252.1%$5,038$2,942–$11,937-1%
7K517311465.9%$2,874$1,826–$9,164-12%
8K316911165.7%$2,401$1,826–$5,918+95%

Notable

  • First appearance in our report. Second-highest clearance at 55.5%, and by far the cheapest — $5,235 average against $11,477 at SK.
  • 🔥 Morning at 72.5% is the standout: cheap, fast-moving, high supply for its price band.
  • Budget-focused throughout. Six of eight models average under $4,500, which is a different market from the other four houses.
  • K3 volume nearly doubled since March.

Cross-house takeaways

The universal car is the Grandeur, not the Carnival. It is ranked #1 or #2 at all five houses — the only model to manage that. The Avante is close behind, top three everywhere. If you need a car you can source anywhere, at any budget, from any house, it is one of these two.

This is a change from March, when we called the Carnival Korea's most tradeable auction unit. It is not, once K Car and SK are in view: the Carnival does not appear in either house's top eight, and at Glovis it is the worst-clearing model in the table at 32.7%.

The electrified crown moved from Lotte to SK.

HouseEVHybridCombined
SK12.9%12.3%25.2%
Lotte6.5%11.0%17.5%
Glovis2.1%5.9%8.0%
AJ1.4%5.6%7.0%
K Car1.6%4.9%6.5%

Lotte was ~24% electrified in March and is now 17.5%, with nothing electrified in its top eight. SK is at 25.2% with the Ioniq 5 as its most liquid model. For hybrid or EV export stock, SK is now the first stop. (Correction 2026-07-24: this table originally overstated K Car's EV share — hybrids labeled "가솔린+전기" were counted as both EV and hybrid — and slightly overstated SK and Lotte. Figures above are corrected.)

Volume is consolidating into Glovis. Sold volume since March: Glovis +48%, SK +12%, Lotte +11%, K Car −2%, AJ −20%. Glovis has absorbed essentially all of the quarter's growth, which is worth watching if you rely on AJ for commercial stock — its catalogue is shrinking even as Porter II clearance stays strong.

Best sourcing edge right now: ⭐ Ioniq 5 and Casper at SK (78% clearance), Morning at K Car (72.5%), Porter II at AJ (62.1%). Approach with caution: ⚠️ Carnival at Glovis — 1,092 listed and barely a third clearing is a buyer's market, but also a sign that asking prices have not adjusted.


Data period: 2026-06-22 to 2026-07-21, from our auction sourcing operations — real transaction data, not estimates. Prices are hammer prices (낙찰가). "Typical range" is the interquartile range, which describes the middle half of sales better than a min–max spread across trims and model years.

USD figures use ₩1,478.63 = $1 (2026-07-21). Exchange rates move — check current rates before purchasing.

Sold rate is calculated against lots that actually went to the block. Lots withdrawn before bidding are excluded from both numerator and denominator.

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