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One ticket sold in New Jersey matched all six numbers in the Nov. 4, 2026 Powerball drawing, and the game advertised the jackpot at $847 million. For the Powerball winner behind that ticket, the cash value is $363.1 million, according to Powerball’s own announcement, and both figures are before taxes. Priced against the collector car market, that cash value covers the eight highest-priced results from Broad Arrow’s Las Vegas sale, Steve McQueen’s Ferrari and Ayrton Senna’s Williams at the top of their auction estimates, and still leaves $269.52 million.
The $847 Million Is the Annuity Figure; the Cash Value Is $363.1 Million
Powerball describes the $847 million as an annuity paid in 30 increasing annual payments over 29 years. A winner may instead take a lump sum, which for this drawing is $363.1 million, about 43 percent of the advertised number by Backfire News’s arithmetic. Powerball says both are before taxes, and it ranks the jackpot ninth-largest in the game’s history, behind a $1.04 billion jackpot won in Illinois on Aug. 12, 2026. The announcement identifies the winning ticket only as sold in New Jersey. The comparison below uses the cash value because it is the sum that exists today, and it assumes nothing about what the winner will choose or owe.
Eight Las Vegas Results Add Up to $67.58 Million
Broad Arrow held The Las Vegas Auction 2026 on Saturday, Oct. 31, in the Latour Ballroom at Wynn Las Vegas. Its results page lists a 1997 Ferrari F50 at $18,705,000 and a 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 at $18,540,000, followed by a 2014 LaFerrari at $8,805,000, a 2003 Enzo at $6,550,000, a 2023 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport at $4,570,000, a 2011 Ferrari 599 SA Aperta at $4,350,000, a 2015 McLaren P1 GTR by Lanzante at $3,415,000 and a 2019 Koenigsegg Regera at $2,645,000.
Those eight prices total $67.58 million by my addition of the figures Broad Arrow lists. The next-highest Las Vegas result on that page is a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing coupe at $1,930,000. In August, Backfire News reported on a Giallo Modena F50 that had become the most expensive one ever sold at auction.
McQueen’s Ferrari and Senna’s Williams Are Still Estimates
Gooding Christie’s sells McQueen’s 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider, chassis 10453, on Nov. 20 and 21 at the Javits Center in New York, in its first New York sale. The house puts the estimate at $15 million to $20 million. Gooding says it is the sixth of 10 NART Spiders built and one of two finished in Blu Sera, that it was invoiced to Luigi Chinetti Motors before reaching McQueen through Hollywood Sport Cars, and that it is preserved rather than restored, with its matching-numbers engine and transaxle. The current owner bought it in 1986. How much a famous first owner adds to a price is a question Backfire News has taken up in what Steve McQueen provenance adds to a car’s auction price.
RM Sotheby’s offers the 1994 Williams FW16, chassis 01, at its Now & Contemporary Evening Auction in New York on Nov. 16, with an estimate of $4 million to $6 million. RM’s lot page says Williams gave the car to the Senna family under his contract after the team won the 1994 Constructors’ Championship, that the family kept it from 1994 to 2024, and that it is unrestored and being offered publicly for the first time. The same page says Damon Hill tested the car at Silverstone, David Coulthard finished fifth in it at the Canadian and British Grands Prix, and Nigel Mansell retired from the French Grand Prix in it.
Both figures are estimates set by the auction houses, and neither car had a result when this was written. A lot can sell inside its range, above it or below it, and some do not sell.
The Shopping List Uses About a Quarter of the Cash Value
Add the Las Vegas total to the two estimates and the list runs from $86.58 million at the low ends ($15 million and $4 million) to $93.58 million at the high ends ($20 million and $6 million). Against $363.1 million, that is roughly 24 percent to 26 percent of the cash value, and it leaves between $269.52 million and $276.52 million. The arithmetic is Backfire News’s, built from Powerball’s cash value, Broad Arrow’s listed prices and the two houses’ estimates.
The sum leaves out everything between a ticket and a bidder’s paddle. Both Powerball figures are before taxes, and I have not tried to net them. I have also not confirmed whether Broad Arrow’s listed prices include the buyer’s fee, so a bill for any of the eight could differ from the number on the results page.
Senna’s Williams crosses the block first, on Nov. 16, and McQueen’s Ferrari follows on Nov. 20 and 21. Their results will show whether the list still fits inside a quarter of the cash value or whether either car lands above the top of its estimate.
Which is the better use of that kind of money: McQueen’s single NART Spider at an estimated $15 million to $20 million, or the F50 that sold in Las Vegas for $18.705 million?
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