I am not, in any way, shape, or form, a certified financial advisor, nor a wealth management planner. (Not in this country, anyway.) That being said, INVESTING PRO TIP: The classic car market is in the midst of an enormous bubble. Get out while you still can. Case (probably not) in point, the market just took its biggest dip in 14 months.
That market dip, it should be said, was rated by Hagerty, the classic car insurance company which does have a vested interest in the overall strength of the classic car market. But when the market is this overheated – not in Hagerty’s opinion of overheated, but my own, I should note – any small dip makes you wonder if this is the beginning of the big one, like the small shaking before the earthquake that completely cleanses Silicon Valley of its sins destroys San Francisco.
Hagerty uses its own proprietary market rating system which takes into account the difference between the value cars are insured for and how much they actually sell for, and according to the insurance company, the dip is fueled mostly by a drop in single-collection big sales. But it’s also fueled by big drops in sale prices of specific, popular cars as well:
Following a strong year, private sales recorded the smallest gain this past month of the past 12 months.
Examples Include:
- 1967-1973 Mercury Cougar - average sale price dropped 21% year-over-year and percent selling above insured value fell from 36% to 23%
- Jaguar XJ-S - average sale price dropped 15% year-over-year and percent selling above insured value fell from 40% to 4%
Ouch. But we should probably note that the old Cougar and XJ-S probably appeal to certain markets, those being the Old Muscle Car Bros and Old Weirdos With Too Much Time On Their Hands to Repair Things, respectively, and maybe they’ve all been croaking all at once, or something.
But it’s unlikely.
So maybe we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?
Or maybe not, because the biggest value gains this year were made by the Ferrari 308, the Porsche 930 Turbo, and the Sunbeam Tiger. Which means that the markets of People Who Buy Bad Ferraris, People Who Have A Death Wish, and People Who Have Remarkably Good Taste, Really are still going strong.
Photo credit: Porsche
Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
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