LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

It’s not quite a celebration, but Black Book found a few reasons to be a bit upbeat when compiling its latest Market Insights report.

While vehicle values still continued on a downward path, Black Book vice president of automotive valuations Laura Wehunt mentioned one part of the auction world that seems to be recovering.

“After weeks of high no-sale rates, this past week we started to see some small signs of improvement with some auctions around the country reporting conversion rates reaching 40% or more,” Wehunt said in the latest report.

According to Black Book’s volume-weighted information, overall car segment values decreased by 1.31% this past week, marketing the fifth consecutive week of such a decline. It was a bit of an improvement from the previous week value drop-off of 1.40%, leaving the five-week average at 1.08%.

“Once again, this past week the premium sporty car segment was the only segment to have smaller declines as the specialty and collector units don’t appear to have their demand falling as sharply,” analysts said.

Again based on Black Book’s volume-weighted information, overall truck segment values — including pickups, SUVs, and vans — softened by 1.24% last week, jumping from a week earlier when the decline came in at 1.00%.

“Last week, fuel prices made headlines as oil futures prices dropped below zero and that is showing in the large depreciations of the more fuel-efficient segments — sub-compact and compact crossovers,” analysts said.

Turning next to what Black Book’s representatives watching sales nationwide, observers shared a mixed bag of anecdotes; some a bit more optimistic than other ones. Here is the rundown:

— From Indiana: “Right now, I’m relying on dealer-to-dealer wholesaling for my trade-ins. The auction is a last resort right now.”

— From Pennsylvania: “I think they could have sold more today if the auctioneers had been willing to start lower and work up to the money.”

— From Tennessee: “The customers I’m getting right now are only interested in low-ball offers. Business is slow for me right now.”

— From Michigan: “The older, higher mileage, rougher condition units got a lot of attention today and a large percentage sold.”

— From South Carolina: “Two weeks ago, we had a conversion rate of 40%, and we got over 40% this past week. This is a great new trend to see after experiencing such low conversion rates at the end of March.”

— From Connecticut: “This week we saw bidders stepping up to pay the floor value to get the vehicle.”