A Pilgrimage to Maranello – PART 1
As regular readers of this column know, we were at the RM Duemila Route auction at the Milano Trade Fair on 25–27 November to inspect; report back to our clients; bid on and hopefully purchase eighteen different cars for seven different clients. It was not to be. I first made the pilgrimage to Italy and […]
A Black Swan
A little background Our story begins with Luigi Compiano the heir to an Italian dynasty called “North East Services” that operated a fleet of armored trucks used to transport cash, gold and other valuables around Italy. Compiano had inherited his family’s private security companies in 2010, with hundreds of employees and dozens of trucks, giving […]
But Mine is Better
Every article is inspired by an e-mail exchange or a phone call that screams the need to reach for the keyboard and start typing. A while back a client called to ask the value of his 246 GT, a high serial number US model Dino Coupe, from new with Chairs and Flares, sold new in […]
It’s a Buyer’s Market
The Ferrari market rises and falls in cycles influenced by the global economy, generational shifts and currency swings. The collectable Ferrari market was last a buyer’s market just after the double whammy of the real estate crash of 2007 and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September of 2008. That market bottomed in 2010 and started […]
Brexit!
What just happened? On Thursday 23 June, the UK voted to leave the European Union. Watching the late-night voting returns on the various business channels was like watching a car crash in slow motion. The British £ Sterling fell by 10% and the FTSE 100 (British stock market) fell 8.7%, the biggest drop since the […]
Ever Moving Markets
In early 2014 we felt the market for the Enzo-era Italian exotics was peaking and so between April and Sept., of 2014 we sold my non-Factory Comp Daytona s/n 14049 (with a 4-hour of Le Mans history), my Platinum-level 365 BB s/n 18265 and my Ghibli Spyder s/n 1227. All were personal cars and not […]
The Market Correction
Collectable Ferraris, like all commodities, trade on a world-wide market. That market has doubled and doubled again in only five years, a classical bubble run-up. Although some will disagree, we believe that the market for the Enzo-era Ferraris peaked at Monterey in 2014 and is now off by 25%-30%. After a weak five-year recovery, the […]
The Generational Shift
The Baby-Boomers, now in their 60s, are moving on The Collectable Ferrari market, like any commodities market, shifts with global socio-economics, demographics and time. Our long term clients are baby-boomers, born in the late 1940s, 50s and early 60s. Once in high school and then college in the late 60s, 70s and early 80s, their […]
Ferrari Enters the Marchionne-Era
We begin with a history lesson: Over the last seventy years Ferraris have evolved through four distinctive eras, the rapid evolution of the Enzo Ferrari era, the mass-market production increases of the FIAT years, the user-friendly, high-volume, option-heavy exotics of the Luca di Montezemolo era and now the Corporate big-picture-driven Sergio Marchionne era. Two decades […]
Auction House One-Upmanship
The auction house arms race Every year the various auction houses at Monterey compete for the most spectacular headline car, the highest price, the most market credibility. Until a few weeks ago the biggest news at Monterey was the return of Rick Cole auctions. For those who are pre-baby-boomers, Cole’s long history with collector-car auctions […]