After Pandemic Boom Times, Collector Cars Are Finally Cooling

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Dan Smith

Just look at Bring a Trailer and you'd think the collector car market is still riding the years-long pandemic boom. Acquired by Hearst in June 2020, the online auction site expects sales to grow more than 50% year-over-year in 2022, compared to more than $859 million in 2021, as of mid-December. over $1.3 billion. company data. Unfortunately, one data point is not trend-making.

Classic.com, which analyzed classic and exotic car auctions in October this year, wrote: the entire specialty car market. ’ And now those signs are real.

According to Haggerty, an automotive lifestyle company that provides classic car insurance and accompanying data and analytics to the segment, the collector car market is seeing its first consistent signs of a slowdown since the start of the pandemic.

The company reported on Friday that "the Hagerty Market Rating, a comprehensive measure of market 'heat', fell for the third consecutive month, reaching its lowest point since January 2022." This is the first time since March that the rating has declined for three consecutive months."

One of the rarest Corvettes ever to go up for auction

Is this dreaded inflation taking its toll? A sign of recession? Did everyone who wanted a Porsche get one of their own? Bombing with pleasure?!

No red alerts here. As inflation continues to ease in the US, it is not cited as the sole cause of this slowdown (although it certainly affects areas such as rising and median selling prices). Instead, it seems that the specialty car arena, whose reality check has been delayed, has begun to return to reality.

The key word there is "start". As Hagerty points out, the so-called "overheating" of the market is decreasing month by month, but "current [heat] The value of 75.85 is still on the "rapid growth" section of the 0 to 100 scale. It may sound strange, but it actually helps put the current "lull" into perspective. The performance of the classic car market going forward will largely depend on whether sellers agree with that view, or whether they hold on to summer highs.

In short, don't expect top-tier lots like the rare 1969 Corvette ZL-1 convertible heading to the auction block in January to gather dust in 2023, even if most buyers aren't happy with their bids. please