What are the wealthy collecting?

As a collector, you always want to collect out of passion and not think too hard about the profits right? Most likely it’s just for fun, and you’ll leave your collection to future generations, like the top 1% do.

However

With the increase in prices in the collectible market in recent years, it’s pretty easy for people to see them as investments to build wealth, as well as hobbies.  And given how some of those collectibles have been performing over the last decade, you may want to be running towards collectibles!

A few of the collectibles investments in the market have significantly outperformed the others with some pretty impressive numbers. 

According to Knight Frank’s 2020 Wealth Report 

Rare whisky was a high performing investment, with a 5% increase over the last 12 months which ended in the 4th quarter of 2019, but an incredible 564% increase over the last 10 years!  (That’s not even including the demand for whisky due to being quarantined with your family)

Coins are a somewhat surprising (maybe not to coin collectors) contender in the collectibles market.  Coin prices are going strong with a 5% increase in value in 2019, tying with rare whisky and far outpacing classic cars. More impressively they’ve had a 175% increase over the last 10 years!  (If you’re in the market for some new coins, or you’re looking to sell some of your old, rare and valuable coins online, we recommend Coinsforsale.com, we have an article detailing exactly why we think so highly of them!)

Classic cars seem to have taken a bit of a downturn.  Prices dropped by 7% in 2019 but have had a steady increase of gains over the last 10 years, hitting 194%.

In comparison to the heavy hitting 100+% increases of the collectibles market, the median home price has increased by only about 25% in the last decade.

Collectibles seem to be beating the stocks in the long game as well, with S&P 500’s annual returns going from 15% in 2010 to 31% at the end of 2019.  And an increase of 28% in 2019.

An average of 30% of the world’s millionaires planned to increase spending in the collectibles market.

There were some other notable collectibles in the report, while not doing as well as whisky, coins, and cars, they still remain quite popular.

Knight Frank reports that rare art, one of the most widely collected collectibles, is up by 5% in 2019 but behind coins with a 154% increase in the last decade.

Handbags have shown an unprecedented surge with a 13% increase, particularly Hermes handbags, and a 108% increase over the last 10 years.

As always with collectibles, and investing your money, be aware and stay well informed on your decisions.  Collectibles can seem to be more transparent and less complicated.  But they tend to come with different risks, may be less regulated, and tricky to understand without knowledge.  Make sure you deal only with those who have a proven track record of success, and haven’t been in trouble with the law.