Classic car sales stall at Monterey auctions as new generation takes over – NBC New York

Of the 1,143 cars offered for sale during Monterey Car Week, just 821 were sold, a 72 percent sell-through rate, according to classic car insurance company Hagerty.
The average sales price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s average price of $477,866.
That’s partly because there’s a new generation of collectors — primarily Gen Xers and millennials — who prefer cars from the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s.

A version of this article originally appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up to receive subsequent issues directly to your inbox.

Auction sales at Monterey Car Week were down 3% from last year as a shift from older cars to newer ones resulted in a buildup of unsold classics from the 1950s and 1960s.

Total sales this year at Monterey’s five auto auctions — RM Sotheby’s, Broad Arrow, Gooding & Company, Mecum and Bonhams — fell to $391.6 million this year from $403 million in 2023, according to Hagerty, an insurance company that focuses on classic cars. That followed a 14% drop last year from a peak in 2022.

Of the 1,143 cars listed for sale, only 821 were sold — a 72% sell-through rate, according to Hagerty. The average selling price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s average of $477,866.

Experts say wealthy collectors still have plenty of money to spend and feel confident given the recent stock market rally, but the types of cars they want are changing. There have simply been too many similar cars at too many auctions to generate high prices and sales.

“It’s saturation,” said Simon Kidston, founder of Kidston and a key adviser to wealthy car collectors. “When I went to auctions and saw so much of the same ‘product,’ I wondered if any of them had thought about what they or their rivals had already put up for sale, and whether the cars were competing for the same buyers. Add to that the fact that many of the entries had already been in dealership windows for months or years, and it always seemed like a careless second choice.”

At the same time, a new generation of collectors driving the market — mostly Gen X and millennials — favor cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Classic cars from the 1950s and 1960s, which drove the market for decades and are popular with baby boomers, are flooding the market and finding no buyers.

According to Hagerty, the Monterey sell-through rate (the percentage of cars that actually sold at auction) was an anemic 52 percent for pre-1981 cars priced at $1 million or more. The sell-through rate for cars less than four years old was much higher, at 73 percent — evidence that young collectors are now behind the wheel.

Hagerty’s Supercar Index of sports cars from the 1980s to 2000s was up more than 60% from 2019, while the Blue Chip Index of Corvettes, Ferraris, Jaguars and other legendary classics from the 1950s and 1960s was down 3%.

Of course, a small number of rare, true masterpieces will continue to command high prices. The best car of the week was a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, which sold at RM Sotheby’s for $17 million, while the runner-up was a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider, one of only five examples in existence.

But a broader changing of the guard in the classic car market, especially as many older collectors begin to sell off or downsize their collections, is likely to impact the prices of older cars for years to come.

“From an auction perspective, the market is still taking a breather as we move from what was hot — think Enzo-era Ferraris, so-called full classics, and sports race cars from the ’50s and ’60s — to the burgeoning modern supercar class,” said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. “The divergence between older and newer cars has accelerated.”

Some argue that high interest rates are also putting pressure on the classic car market. At the lower end of the market, many buyers used financing to buy cars and build their collections. At the higher end, rising interest rates have raised the opportunity cost of buying a classic car.

“People think, ‘Instead of this million-dollar car, I could be making 5 percent, maybe 10 percent,’ if you have a great manager,” Kidston said. “That, more than anything, makes people think twice. A collector car is partly an investment. There’s no other reason why collector cars have gone up in value over the last 40 years other than the investment angle.”

Here are the 10 most expensive cars sold during Monterey Car Week

1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider – $17,055,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider – $14,030,000 (Gooding & Company)
1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider – $12,985,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1969 Ford GT40 Lightweight – $7,865,000 (Mecum)
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion Coupe – $7,045,000 (Broad Arrow Auctions)
1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider – $5,615,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1995 Ferrari F50 Coupe – $5,505,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1955 Ferrari 857 S Spider – $5,350,000 (Gooding & Company)
1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Alloy Coupe – $5,285,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1958 Ferrari 250 GT TdF Coupe – $5.2 million (Gooding & Company)